ARE THERE EGGS IN NESTS?

Following the unusually warm Easter Bank Holiday, we’re now experiencing some proper April weather.

Heavy rain and even hail, along with lightning and thunder, has helped to fill the pond back up, and provide some much-needed water to the flora.

There isn’t much life in the pond at the moment, and what life there is, is very small.

However, it will probably be next year, when a full year in the life cycle of the water feature will have concluded, that we’ll see bigger users and habitants.

Life around the birds has quietened down a little bit recently, although the numbers of house sparrows has increased, while both a male and female blackbird have spent time feeding around the lawn and borders.

The great tits have been around, but have been much quieter, while the wet weather has brought in the robins to feed in the garden.

I’m still putting out fat snacks and peanuts, but this will only last until the warmer weather starts properly in May.

That’s when I’ll get in the mealworms, and I’m sure it’ll coincide with the emergence of many chicks in the garden and surrounding area.

I’m going to check the nest built in the fruit tree this weekend, as I suspect a pair of woodpigeons have been paying close attention to it – perhaps it was one they abandoned last year but will come back when the tree has more foliage.

I’ve not seen much of the swallows, although I did hear them quite a bit before the wet weather really took hold.

They’ll probably welcome the rain so they can make the mud to construct their nest(s), and they sometimes use the puddles near the house, so I’ll be keeping an eye on them.

SUMMER THUNDERSTORMS BRING RELIEF TO THE HEATWAVE

This week must be all about the summer weather, in particular the thunderstorms that swept the country and delivered much needed rain to many places, along with flashes of excitement.

In the garden the thunderstorms arrived in the early hours and while the thunder and lightning had left by 9am, the rain continued all morning and led to flooding down the lane that leads to the house.

But it was all over fairly quickly and the sun soon returned to dry up most of the water and provide the flora and fauna with some energy with which to continue growing.

I managed to take some images of the lightning, although not exactly very successfully. It only lasted for a couple of hours and trying to predict where the next flash would be turned out harder than I imagined.

The three flashes I did manage to capture show the garden and beyond lit up like it was daylight, but I can assure you it was pitch black at the time.

 

 

 

In other news the third tree and house sparrow broods are close to fledging and a number of blue tit chicks have been frequenting the garden, although I’m not sure if they fledged nearby or are simply visitors from the area who have happened on the garden.

The sunflowers are growing rapidly and at least four are as tall as me, with one over 10ft tall. More about them and the buddleia flowering which is attracting numerous butterflies next week, which means the diary of images about the garden growing will start in August.