WINTER SHOWING ITS TEETH

This week has been cold, mainly overcast, with the odd small snow flurry. Typical February really, allowing winter to demonstrate it’s his season and warmth is something that only March can start to have.

The good thing for wildlife watchers is it gives you chance to attract wildlife by providing food, then sitting back and enjoying the show.

My fat snacks, peanuts and seed mix have all been enjoyed by a wide variety of small birds during the day, while I’m sure the local vole and mice population has taken the free hand-outs dropped by the birds during the hours of darkness.

Once again the main birds on show have been the three tits – great, blue and long tailed – while the flock of house sparrows has been joined by a small one of chaffinches.

The blackbirds and robins have also been making the most of the food, while a few dunnocks are also about regularly.

I’ve not seen many magpies or jays, so can only assume I’ve either missed them or they come when I’m not at home.

What I did see today was the greater spotted woodpecker, which is good news as I thought the resident one had long gone. It scared the other little birds from one of the fat snack feeders and gorged for a few minutes before one of the many resident cats spooked it and other birds to flee.

As the nights become lighter I’m looking forward to seeing more action around the garden, although it looks increasingly like I won’t be seeing anything inside one of my nest boxes.

I’ve been trying to fix the problem – and find it – for a few weeks now and I think it’s a problem with the antenna from the camera to my remote receiver by the TV.

The final chance is if an engineer at the place it was bought will be able to help when I call later this week.

Keep your fingers crossed there is a solution and we can all see some nest box action this spring.

JAY WALKING IN MY GARDEN

Recently I’ve been posting about how I’d been seeing jays almost daily in and around the lane I live on and also near the garden.

Well this week they have been actually feeding in my garden, a pretty exciting step for them to take, especially given their sensitive and shy nature.

The first time a jay was in the garden is was one the fence, looking at the peanuts on the floor that had dropped out of my bag last weekend, the second time it was feeding on those nuts early one morning.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get my camera in time to get an image of this colourful bird, but next time I’ll be better prepared.

The weather is certainly colder as winter starts to take hold of the country, although it’s not severe enough to see many birds on the feeders.

That said I’m not around too much in daylight hours to see them, but there must be an increased number because the feeders are being drained quicker than last month.

This week I have some time to myself and watching which birds are now visiting my garden is one of my tasks.

I was looking at images from almost three years ago when there was about a foot of snow in our garden and was wondering if this is something we’ll see this winter.

While the really cold weather, harsh frost and heavy snow plays havoc for wildlife looking for food to survive on a daily basis, it also helps wipe out bacteria and other unwanted things and effectively ‘clears the slate’ ready for spring and the breeding season.

It’s simply a case of nature taking its course and while we might want to fight certain things, it’s never going to stop long-term, a bit like trying to stop the tide. It happens, it’s not perfect, but it’s worked for millions of years; so let’s embrace it.

RETURN OF THE TIT CAM

So winter has finally arrived, although only some of the country has seen snow. Yes I'm jealous that my garden has not seen a single snowflake.

Since the start of the proper cold spell, I've noticed that my nestbox camera has been filming something other than the inside of the box.

It coincided with the camera actually working after it stopped emitting images for most of January.

For the last week a great tit has been roosting in the nextbox and I'm hoping it continues to use the nestbox in a similar pattern to 2011.

That's when a great tit roosted from February until it and its mate started nest building int April and the produced eight eggs, before raising and fledging eight chicks.

I doubt if all have survived as the local sparrowhawk can often be seen down the lanes, but I do hope a few have made it to this breeding season.

One thing I do wonder is if this great tit is the same one as last year, though I guess I'll never find out.

I'll be updating this blog more regularly now and hopefully it'll continued to focus on the nestbox camera.

In other news the garden has seen hardly any of the usual visitors, with great tits, blue tits, blackbirds, robins, dunnocks, tree sparrows and house sparrows continuing to visit the garden and my winter handouts of fat balls and peanuts.

Only in the recent cold weather have a witnessed a family of long tailed tits along with a few chaffinches and goldfinches.

Last winter the long tailed tits, greater spotted woodpeckers and jays were commonly seen in my garden, but this year the mild weather has meant natural food supplies are still in stock meaning many birds are not requiring the hand outs from gardens.

Currently the great tit is getting more sleep in one night (14 hours) than I do in two! Luckily I know this will diminish to about five hours per night if chicks are produced.

I love winter, but do enjoy the live and wildlife activity of spring, which is handy because it'll soon be the season of breeding.

SPRING SUNSHINE LIGHTS UP MARCH

The glow of spring sunshine is becoming a frequent image when I look out of the car, house or office.

The warmth isn't quite there yet, although in sheltered spots with little wind you can get an idea of what it'll be like in a few weeks. The daffodils are loving it though

But the blossom on some of the trees is a beautiful light pink colour, reflected brilliantly be the low sun.

Birds are obviously getting excited about the arrival of spring, with the dawn chorus a cacophony of sounds claiming territories and demonstrations of masculinity by many of our male feathered friends.

My excitement levels have reached unprecedented levels this week, not because of the sunshine or dawn chorus tunes, but by the emergence of a new TV star in my house!

Two weeks ago I fitted the nestbox, that has been used every year since I put it up, with a tiny camera that feeds live images 24-7 into a channel on my TV.

With four nestboxes I've trusted that the one I've chosen will be used again this year and provide some great shots of a family of great or blue tits growing up.

It still needs adjustment to the focus and wiring route, but it works and, it's what I've waited patiently for since 2007.

I checked it every night for five days, then left it over a weekend. On Sunday night I sneaked a view while Sarah wasn't looking and mush to my amazement, a bird was snuggled up in there!

In the last week I've checked every night and the same looking bird has spent the night in the box, only once giving me a clue to its identity. I think it's a great tit, but will confirm soon.

I want to leave it and get it settled so it knows the nestbox is a safe place to bring up a family, then one day soon it might start building a nest.

In other news the dunnocks are busy flirting with their fluttery wings, while the robins seem to have established which parts of the area they'll be 'owning' this year, after seemingly sharing some parts during the cold, ice and snowy conditions.

The blue tits, blackbirds, chaffinches, goldfinches, tree sparrows, long tailed tits and wrens are all in our garden daily, with frequent visits from a great spotted woodpecker, jays, woodpigeons and the resident cock pheasant.

This weekend I'm making final checks on my nestboxes before keeping my fingers crossed at least three of the four are used.

The pond will also be given a makeover, to help any returning frogs to spawn.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

It's been a while since I last updated this blog, but with the extreme cold weather I, like the wildlife, have spent most of the time trying to stay warm.

Over the winter I've provided the local wildlife with numerous typical winter food, from peanuts to fat snacks and all kinds of seeds.

The regular feeds have resulted in an increasing number of visitors to the feeders and below them, including jays, pheasants and the now regular great-spotted woodpecker.

Over the last two weeks the four nestboxes I have in the garden have attracted numerous enquiries for spring residents, including the returning blue tits - the reason why I started this blog.

But to my surprise and delight, two more of the nestboxes look like being occupied. Below the blue tit box, a robin is building a nest in the honeysuckle, while a great tit is making frequent visits to another nestbox on the other side of the garden.

With the clocks going forward I'll be able to check up on the new residents next week and update with images and video.

One exciting development was a new bird for my garden this morning, a chiffchaff. Think he/she may have arrived back in this country a little too late to take up residence in my garden, though you never know!

The pond has developed nicely since last year and is now crystal clear, thanks to extreme winter cold no doubt. I spotted a couple of frogs on the road the other night and I'm hoping they use my pond to deposit their frog spawn.

Finally I spotted a male chaffinch doing something very weird last weekend. It appeared to be trying to fight with a reflection of itself in my car wing mirror. It did this on two days and after that was spotted doing it to a neighbours car.

Anyway below is the video of it, with your thoughts welcome.

A NEW SEASON

After the excitement of last year, I'm really looking forward to a new season of Blue Tit Watch.

I've been feeding the birds with seed, fatty snacks, peanuts and most importantly water during the extremely cold winter and have found some wonderful surprises.

A flock of goldfinches and tree sparrows are using one of the trees to roost and one evening I watched them mob a sparrowhawk that was resting on a branch.

The following list of birds has taken advantage of my food supply with a few surprises:

Blue tit, great tit, long-tailed tit, tree sparrow, chaffinch, blackbird, dunnock, robin, great-spotted woodpecker, pheasant, goldfinch, song thrush, starling, woodpigeon, jay and magpie.

I've noticed recently the blue tits taking an interest in the next box used for the last two years, although they now have a choice of four next boxes spread around the garden in different locations.

This blog will gradually deliver daily updates as the cold winter is replaced by the warming glow and scents only spring can offer.

COMING BACK?

Parents return to feed

It's been a few days since my last blog and thanks to Chelsea and the hot warm weather, I've not felt like doing much. Yes I'm an Everton fan!

I really feel for the chicks I've been watching on Springwatch and don't blame them for fledging early just to get out of their stuffy nests.

A little surprise visitor came to one of the mealworm feeders overs the weekend - one of the parent blue tits. I recognised it from it's scruffy appearance and the way it fed from the feeder and where it flew to devour the mealworm(s).

I think it was still feeding the chicks as it went off to the trees on occasions with mealworms in its mouth.

Other activity in my garden has been the first (seen) visit of a jay, a wonderfuly coloured bird with a bit a magpie-esque streak to it.

The swallows have been mating on the telephone wires and I expect eggs have now been laid and youngsters will be soon begging constantly for food.

The tree sparrows appear to have settled their differences and paired up for the breeding season.

I've seen glimpses of the dunnocks with their chicks hoovering up bugs and flies on the garden edges while the female blackbirds must be on eggs, due their conspicuous absence.

The garden and its inhabitants have sprung in to life and I'm looking forward to watching the different species bring up their young over the next few months.

I'm still working on the video footage but here's some memories of the blue tits for now.