CHRISTMAS LOCKDOWN MEANT LESS VIEWING TIME FOR WILDLIFE

So, Christmas 2020 and the start of 2021 went well didn’t it…

With all plans out of the window and the focus on making sure the family and kids had fun, it meant time writing the blog took a back seat for a few weeks.

Introducing a video element will take place, but only when we’re in a new pattern for the current lockdown.

Before Christmas, I finally put up a bat box on the side of the house, in probably the only space not occupied by a bird box – more on the latter shortly.

While we do have bats down the lane and sometimes seen around the house, I’m not sure it’ll be an instant hit or even be found by the bats.

Perhaps nearer the summer this year will give a proper indication as to whether it’s useful or not.

I took a thirty minute window between Christmas and New Year to remove any old nests from the nest boxes, to see how many nests were built in the garden and how successful they were.

I knew the robins were successful at the third attempt, the great tits had one nest fledge and the goldfinches too, but was there any surprises?

Well yes and no. The robin nests were discovered, well the two nests that weren’t attacked and robbed by the magpies.

They did use the next box in the ivy, but I don’t know if this was the one that was unsuccessful around the start of the first Lockdown at the start of April, or whether it was the third and successful nest in the ivy.

As there were no eggs or ‘unfledged’ dead chicks in the nest found in the nest box, I can only say with 50% certainty that the nest box was successfully used.

The higher up single nest box in the ivy also had a nest in, but I can’t say again for certain if this was used fully or successfully.

The nest wasn’t really fully formed and if it was used then it can only have been by the robins.

The usual nest box was used by great tits and successfully, albeit one chick didn’t make it; you can see the skeletal remains if you look closely at the nest.

As the cameras are now definitely not working, I’m looking at investing in a new camera for one nest box although the uncertainty of the current lockdown might put that investment back a couple of weeks.

One final note is the return of the blackbirds to the garden, primarily because of the apple cores and other fruit left out for them.

They have demolished an apple a day over the last week, so their doctor must be happy!

A TYPICALLY QUIET AUGUST MADE EXCITED BY A NEW NEST DISCOVERY

With much of the wildlife still seemingly hiding away, it’s been left to a few of the stars of the garden this year to make the headlines, and also one big surprise.

First, the big surprise and it was the discovery of new nest in the garden just last week; a nest from a bird I’ve seen around the garden and lane, but never thought it would nest near the house.

The bird in question is a goldfinch, which has nested near the top of a small bush/tree, about eight feet from the ground and in a fairly precarious place.

I’d been hearing a lot of calling from the goldfinches around the garden in recent weeks, particularly in the last week or so, and looking at the state of the nest I suspect the young had recently fledged.

It’s brilliant that a small garden can provide the right environment for birds to nest, so now the goldfinch can be added to the list of nesting birds in the garden, alongside blue tits, great tits, robins, house sparrows, tree sparrows and blackbirds.

The robin family now appears to be in dispute with one another, as one of the youngsters is seemingly trying to win our garden as part of its territory over one of its parents – I suspect the male.

They have both been seen often in the garden in recent weeks and it would seem it’s quite a good place to have.

Who will triumph in the end? I don’t know but both are quite feisty and friendly in similar doses – friendly to the humans who live here.

Another now regular visitor is the hedgehog, who can be seen, and often heard, most nights.

The hedgehog is leaving regular deposits of poo around the garden too, but is also getting around the neighbours’ houses and is also being provided some food by them.

It looks like the hedgehog has found somewhere it likes, and if collectively we continue to provide the right environment for it, then it’ll hopefully stay.

One of the most important things is allowing free and easy access to all the gardens and making sure the cats and dogs stay away from it.

I think most of the neighbours are excited to see a hedgehog, so hopefully it’ll stick around.

AUTUMNAL SIGNS ABOUND

The dark nights are really rolling in now and the last of the summer visitors have flown south, leaving the garden birds to the skies around the garden,

The pond is almost full now, thanks to the recent spate of heavy rain showers, so this weekend my result in a trip to the garden centre for some flora to help create and environment fit for small creatures.

Yesterday I saw a few trees starting to turn the beautiful autumnal orange, gold and yellow colours, albeit the vast majority are still fully green.

Given the recent drop in temperature an Indian Summer is now unlikely, so we could be set for some glorious autumn colours in the coming weeks.

There’s still not much activity in the garden, except for a small flock of house sparrows and a few blue tits.

I can hear robins every so often, but nothing really of great tits, goldfinches, dunnocks, blackbirds or the local wrens.

The owls are still heard every so often nearby, but they must have found more favourable hunting grounds elsewhere recently.

As we all start to turn out the winter coats, the wildlife is slowly starting to get ready for the colder seasons of the year.

A bit like use humans!

AUTUMN ALREADY SHOWING ITS CARD

August is fast becoming the new September as the weather is seemingly preparing us for autumn.

In the last few days the small birds are starting to return to the garden, complete with the youngsters they’ve fledged this year.

The great tits, blue tits and house sparrows are now coming for fleeting visits, and the youngsters are only just about distinguishable from their parents.

Not many sightings still of the blackbirds or robins, while the goldfinches are now being seen in large groups down the lane.

The tomatoes aren’t growing really for the third year in a row, so next year they may get one more opportunity.

A second crop has come from the broad beans, while the sunflowers are doing their best – only a couple making it to around the 8ft mark.

The grass still isn’t growing properly following the hot and dry early summer, even with the rain of recent weeks.

It might be it needs a good few months to recover before the lawn is fully green again.

The tawny owls are being heard every night, presumably the youngsters foraging and calling to their parents.

Hopefully we’ll still hear them in the coming months, and perhaps the little owls come back – if the cats aren’t continuing to decimate the local rodent population.

FROM SUMMER TO AUTUMN IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

It seems the weather decided the August Bank Holiday would be the last hurrah of anything connected with summer.

The warm and sunny weather experience over the Bank Holiday was certainly welcomed by many, but in the following weeks it’s been clear to any remaining swallows, swifts, house martins or any other summer visitors that the UK is shutting down for the season.

The local swallows had been swooping around the garden in high numbers, but none have been sighted for at least a week.

The magpies are most definitely around, but that wasn’t the case during a recent visit to Cornwall.

Not once in a week was a single magpie seen, there were however plenty of herring gulls and jackdaws living alongside each other.

The gulls could be responsible for the lack of magpies, while other smaller garden birds seemed to be away from the areas that the gulls operated in.

The weather hasn’t quite pushed the garden birds back into the garden on a regular basis, but in the last few days the blue tits have been spending time every day, foraging and it’s probably not going to be long before the blackbirds, robins, great tits, dunnocks and goldfinches.

In 2016 and 2014, September brought many days of warm sunshine, with 2016 recording the highest temperature of the year!

Will the end of September bring an Indian summer, or will it signal the mass return of the garden birds to feed on the fat feeders?

COLD SNAP BROUGHT THREAT TO EGGS AND CHICKS

Just when spring was warming up and the local birds had got the green light for laying eggs…

The recent cold snap forced the wildlife to seek warmth and shelter from bitter northerly wind and frequent hail showers.

The swallows had been basking in mild spring sunshine last week, producing aerobatic manoeuvres in order to find a mate, but now are only daring to take to the skies when the sun has spent time warming the air around the house and garden.

Among the birds that are seemingly on eggs or have chicks are the robins, blackbirds and magpies.

The goldfinches are still flirting around in pairs, while the house sparrows are still flying around in groups. Hopefully this weekend will be able to provide evidence of whether the latter are utilising the triple next box.

However, the blue tits have laid eight eggs in the original nest box with the camera, although the eggs were not being incubated by either parent in the time spent looking at the nest for a while. 

But, now the eggs are rarely seen because of the incubating adults.

This weekend saw a return to more favourable spring weather and has hopefully given the wildlife the opportunity to carry on with their breeding seasons.

BREEDING SEASON IS WELL UNDERWAY

The local population of birds are seemingly all paired up now, with many having started selecting a nest site and commenced building work.

There is a pair of goldfinches spending quite a lot of time around the garden, which is unusual because they tend to spend spring and summer down the lanes.

It may mean that this pair has found a suitable nest site in one of the nearby tress, although it may take a while to find out which one.

The triple nest box has had some interest from the local house sparrow population, although whether any nest building has started is not certain.

What is certain is the blue tits in the original nest box with a camera are quite fair one with preparation for the breeding season.

And it appears that egg laying may be soon to begin. One of the birds is now spending the night on the nest, which is a new development in the last couple of days.

The signal isn’t the best on the camera due to interference from the wifi, but sometimes it gives pretty clear images – if you’re patient!

The blackbirds and robins are not visiting the garden as much, which makes me think one of the birds is on eggs somewhere nearby.

Finally, the first order of mealworms has been made, so we’ll soon see which birds have young!

THE BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH

Once again the garden was under surveillance for an hour over the weekend as three pairs of eyes scanned for bird life.

With two feeders placed on a recently trimmed tree, an upstairs window gave the perfect vantage point to spot incoming birds.

As two children under the age of seven were involved, it proved slightly more ‘interesting’ than just one adult, but it was great to see the young eyes getting excited about seeing a bird and then being able to tell what it was.

One person was in charge of the scoring chart, and the other two had binoculars to confirm the visitors and number.

In line with what is known about bird visitors to the garden from the last nine years of watching, the results weren’t too unsurprising.

House sparrows came out top of the pile, closely followed by great tits and blackbirds.

Blue tits were next on the list, followed by magpies, long tailed tits, dunnocks, woodpigeons, goldfinches and tree sparrows.

One thing that wasn’t included in the birdwatch survey was a tawny owl, and no sooner had I mentioned about not hearing or seeing any for a while, than one was heard calling late one evening last week.

It was hunting over one particular nearby field, but hasn’t been heard of since during the evening and was gone after a short time.

The nest box cameras haven’t seen much action, but one of them (the older one) is seemingly unable to record at night now. The next thing on the list will be a new camera, but I think the birds are not using the nest boxes for roosting because of the relatively warm winter, so far.

Time will tell, but I hope that both cameras will be able to see some action this year, particularly as I’ve changed the opening slot to the newest camera box.

FIRST STORM OF THE WINTER, BUT NO SNOW

The first winter storm didn’t hit as hard as was predicted in the garden, though I know it was particularly vicious across Scotland.

Although it has been followed by colder weather, the predicted snow didn’t materialise for the wildlife around the house, though it is quite rare to see here.

Birds of prey have been seen with increased regularity in recent weeks, in the form of buzzards and a kestrel. The latter even landed on a neighbour’s window ledge while it scoured the gardens for a meal. It didn’t appear to be successful, but it shows how more birds are using gardens for a source of food.

Even the buzzards, I know there is more than one as I’ve seen two within sight of the garden at once, are flying low over the gardens almost daily. A few years ago one even landed in the garden!

The great spotted woodpecker has also been back a few times in the last week, while a couple of jays have also been spotted regularly and the long tailed tits are now using the garden as a ‘winter stop off’ for food. I know it’s cold and there’s a lack of food when they come into the garden

Obviously those three aren’t as regular as the daily visitors – blue tits, great tits, blackbirds, wrens, robins, dunnocks, house sparrows and tree sparrows.

I’ve seen goldfinches up and down the lane recently, but not yet in the garden.

With colder temperatures set to continue, despite a potential brief ‘warmer’ spell in midweek, I expect I’ll have to fill the bird feeders with increased frequency.

Snow anyone?