THE NESTBOX CAMERA IS BACK - WITH EXCITING NEWS

The cold weather looks like abating after this weekend, with milder conditions set to take hold.

It’s good news for the wildlife that has survived the cold snap, but I’m sure there’ll be a few more before winter it out.

Before I get on to the big news from my garden, the signs of spring are certainly showing with numerous bulbs showing.

I’ll use images to showcase the change in one area of the garden’s flowerbed, to see which bulbs come up first and how quickly they do so.

OK, the nestbox camera that was cut off just as the first nest was being built last year, IS BACK.

I fitted a new cable this week and already there has been some action. When I inspected the nestbox last week it had bird droppings in it, so I knew some roosting had been occurring.

When the camera went live a female house sparrow roosted in for the night and today, just two days after it went live again, it started nest building with a male house sparrow.

 

 

 

I also noticed that a pair of tree sparrows is now paying close attention to one of the three boxes in the sparrow nestbox, but nothing has gone into the one with the camera in it.

 

There appears to have been something occurring inside the nestbox during the winter, but I’m not confident that a nest will appear.

Perhaps we’ll have a nearly completed nest by next week, which will be much earlier than last year.

Finally, today I took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. Nothing too unusual although the female great spotted woodpecker did put in an appearance.

 

WINTER IS IN FULL SWING, BUT SIGNS OF SPRING ARE ALL AROUND

Before I go on to the changes in the garden from August to October, there’s been some turbulent weather recently, with storms bringing mild and very cold weather within days of each other.

I’ve certainly noticed changes in the garden with larger flocks of the smaller birds spending more time in the garden, while I have now chartered three robin territories on either side of the house, including the favourite singing posts.

The colder weather has certainly brought about a change in the natural food supplies for small birds and it’s even meant the female great spotted woodpecker is now a daily, if skittish, visitor.

I’m trying to get the broken camera working again as I’ve spotted that birds are now using it to roost in, not sure which ones, but the camera should be up and running again next week so watch this space.

Finally, before the pictures, I’ve noticed a number of bulbs popping up around the garden. Can’t say which ones yet, but tulips, crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops have all been planted, and by the size of the protrusions from the ground, I’d say a mixture of all four are coming through.

Anyway here are the pictures of how the garden transformed in October and November, but to give context for the first October image, I’ve included the last one I was able to take before I was taken ‘elsewhere’ for nearly two months. The last one is from the end of August. You can see just how well the triple sparrow nextbox is camouflaged.

October

 

November

PLANNING AHEAD FOR SPRING

The stormy weather appears to have abated for now, which is good news for everywhere, particularly those areas with the dreadful floods we’ve been seeing.

It’s also seen a change in some of the flora in the garden, with the first snowdrop appearing and blossom on the fruit tree.

Along with the snowdrop a host of other spring bulbs are showing, with tulips, daffodils and crocuses all sure to be flowering by the start of March.

 

I do have a little worry about them due to the severe snow and cold weather we experienced last March, but I guess that’s the gamble nature plays every year and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

I’ve already planned my spring planting session and I’m hoping the hard work over the winter in preparing the ground will pay off.

This week I’ll be buying the required seeds ready for the germinator and, for some, simply putting them straight in the ground.

With a new baby due in June it’s vital all the planning is done now so the plants are well on their way to bearing fruit by June.

Finally the garden is now equipped with two nestbox cameras, as I’ve hooked up one of the compartments in the sparrow nestbox (see above).

Below is the view from each camera, first tit cam then sparrow cam.

 

 

There’s not been any action yet, but I’m hoping to see some visitors in the next few weeks.

FLOODING, STORMS, NESTBOXES AND SPRING

The main topic of conversation this winter has been about the stormy weather and the affect it's had on the land and the people dealing with the after effects.

Flooding has been a huge problem for many people through overflowing rivers and streams, along with high tides and huge waves battering the coastline.

But a number of people have been affected by the rising water table and simply only realised the flooding was happening at their property when it started to come through the floors, not the doors.

In my garden and house we’ve been lucky so far, as we just have a very soggy lawn and borders, but this week it could have been so different following the most vicious storm of the winter so far.

We were subject to 100mph winds and heavy rain, which didn’t lead to massive flooding, but did lead to many trees, power cables and roof tiles down.

Having briefly assessed the damage it’s hard to tell if the house has suffered significantly or not, but luckily the trees and bushes emerged relatively unscathed.

The bird feeders have taken some damage, but I’ve now fixed them. The nestboxes must be more securely tied down than I imagined as they all were in situ after the winds died down.

It enabled me to do stage two of the sparrow nestbox camera construction.

The camera has now been fitted (see below) with a battery and now I’m hoping it’ll work and link up with the wireless receiver and show the inside of the nestbox on my TV, just like the single great/blue tit nestbox.

Next weekend I’ll be testing it and hoping that the wired version isn’t required as that’ll need an order putting in and an extra delay.

The tit nestbox camera isn’t revealing much yet, which I think shows that the roosting sites around the garden are still good enough due to the mild conditions.

It could also mean that the nesting instinct hasn’t yet kicked in, possibly due to the mild winter and the birds unsure of when spring is actually going to start. Hopefully the increase in daylight will start that breeding urge soon and the battle for nestboxes will start.

The spring bulbs are continuing to emerge and the later it goes in February, the closer it gets to spring actually starting to push winter away; whether the weather is any different is anyone’s guess!

SWALLOWS, SUMMER STORMS AND NESTBOX CAMERA WORKING!

I’m not sure how it happened, but the nestbox camera is now working again and it’s revealed the house sparrow chicks, although mainly in voice rather than in pictures.

The nest has been built on top of the blue tit nest and is so high up in the nestbox, that it obscures most of the view afforded by the camera.

Luckily, through the nest material you can sometimes make out movement from the chicks, a visit from the parents and the odd wide chick gape – look to the left hand side of the image below.

 

But most of all you can hear them chirping away, particularly when the parent birds arrive.

Now I know the chicks are fairly big, I’m attempted to move the material covering the camera and see if a better image can be provided. Here's the result.

 

The weather this weekend has been awful, with Sunday bringing autumn-like conditions. The good thing is this should be a one-off day of weather and warmer conditions should return next week.

It’s good news for the house sparrow chicks too, as they should be ready to fledge in about 3-5 days and will be strong enough to withstand the odd day of heavy rain, high winds and cool temperatures.

House sparrows around my garden and the close vicinity appear to be in high numbers, with a number of freshly fledged youngsters filling the air with unsteady flight and incessant calling to their parents for food.

I’ve also had a visit from a blue tit family, although whether it’s the same one that used the camera nestbox, I’m not sure.

The swallows and swifts appear to have had a good year as I’ve not seen them in such huge numbers for a few years.

In the evening, and sometimes the morning, the airwaves are filled with swallow songs, with the swifts often appearing alongside their fast flying cousins.

Swallows are one of my top three birds, along with peregrine falcons and ospreys, so to see them is probably my favourite vision and sound of our springs and summers.

The robins, blackbirds, great tits, dunnocks and magpies are heard rather than seen at the moment, although I do get fleeting glances of them from time to time.

Let’s hope as summer progresses that the small birds continue to raise more youngsters and those that fledge come to visit my garden in due course.

But most of all let’s hope that summer delivers some sun and conditions that favour a successful breeding season to make up for last year.

SUMMER IS HERE, WELL FOR NOW ANYWAY

A week of lovely early summer weather has been enjoyed by all forms of life, wild and human.

The railway bridge robin family is still gathering mealworms from my garden, although I suspect the chicks have fledged, as the parent birds dart of in different directions each time they pick up a mealworm delivery.

I’m hoping the parents bring the chicks to the garden, as they have done in previous years, although I’ll just have to wait and see.

As I’m writing this outside in the morning sun, the parents are buzzing all around me, calling at me and looking forlornly in my direction. It’s weird but they have done it so many times recently that I know they’re basically asking for my next supply of mealworms!

The blackbird parents are busy gathering food too and making use of the mealworms hand-outs for their chicks. The nest is behind our house and near the horse stable where the swallows are nesting.

Just now a swallow has burst into song and it’s probably my favourite sound of summer.

The blue tits have not been seen all week and I suspect the parents have taken the chicks to explore the wider area, while they begin their moult.

I’ve only seen fleeting glances of the great tits, so suspect the chicks have fledged and will soon be heading off just like the blue tits.

The one surprise has been the house sparrows. At least two families have fledged chicks, with some even being fed in the garden.

But the strangest news is around a pair of house sparrows that has built a nest in the camera nestbox, on top of the old blue tit nest.

Most years a pair of house sparrows has inspected the camera nestbox, but usually after it’s been occupied. In 2011 I found a dead house sparrow in the nest of the great tit family when clearing the nestbox out in the autumn.

This behaviour is something I’ve never seen or heard of before and I’ll be keeping a close eye on this as the month progresses.

My only disappointment is that the camera is still not working!

The flora in the garden has burst into life and the foxgloves are about to open the flowers and provide bees and butterflies with an ample supply of nectar.

 

CAN SPRING, SPRING INTO LIFE?

Good news and bad news this week. The good news is the nestbox camera started to work again and revealed some very egg-citing news. The bad news is towards the end of the week it stopped working again!

I’m just relying on hope that it’ll somehow come back online because I can’t risk disturbing the pair of blue tits at this stage.

As you can see from the images below, the news this week has been around the laying of eggs. The first one was laid on Wednesday night, with another one joining it on Thursday night.

 

 

 

Unfortunately I was ‘on duty’ for my own offspring on Thursday night so the only pic I got was of the female roosting, by Friday morning, when I expected to get the image of more eggs, the camera had stopped transmitting.

Over the weekend I’ve noticed increased activity around the nestbox and the blue tits are still going in and out of it, so I can only assume there are more eggs and in a couple of weeks there will be chicks.

My concern at this point is the availability of caterpillars for the youngsters to feed on. The weather reports for the next week suggest no real warmth and with very few butterflies and moths being seen I’m not sure if there will be much, if any, food for the chicks.

I’ve got my supply of mealworms, so will be ready to supplement the natural food supply when I think the chicks have arrived (hopefully know because of the camera miraculously working), so support is at hand for the blue tits and the other birds visiting my garden.

In other news I have seen a few more bees about, although nowhere near as many as in recent Aprils, so I can only hope that the flowers I’ve got blooming in my garden are able to help the insects that are currently active.

I’m now seeing the robins in singles rather than the previous duos, so I’m presuming the female is sitting on eggs somewhere. I’d like to know where the nest is, even though I have an idea, but for now I’m happy with seeing one of the prospective parents following me around whenever I’m working outside.

Looking back on my blog from last year I noticed that the swallows arrived back later than this year, with the first one sighted in 2013 just over a week earlier than in 2012. Is this a sign for a good summer?

The six that did arrive in mid-April have now become just a pair, I suspect it’s simply a case of the group splitting up to find suitable nesting sites, but I presume the pair that has stayed is either parents from last year, or one of their youngsters.

Finally my sparrow nestbox has had some visitors and is becoming a regular perching spot for some of the groups of house sparrows that visit my garden. I watched out of the window yesterday as a male and female perched there and started looking at the holes to gain access.

Perhaps the late winter and delayed spring did help in my quest to provide house sparrow accommodation this year!

SPRING BRINGS GOOD AND BAD NEWS

I returned from a week away with the family to find the nestbox camera isn’t working again! I can’t express how disappointed I am considering spring is finally with us and the blue tits seem to be very busy around the nestbox.

I suspect there are eggs in there, or will be very shortly, and therefore I’m not going to investigate or tamper with the nestbox as this will only disturb the family and I’d rather wait until the eggs become chicks and the chicks become bigger.

One way of testing there are chicks is putting out live mealworms and seeing how often the parent birds take the food to the nestbox.

I’ve ordered some today through www.livefoodsdirect.co.uk so later this week should be able to get an indication as to whether chicks are imminent or when they arrive.

This in turn will allow me to judge when, or if, I can try to get the camera working again. I’ll be reading my blog from the last couple of springs to check on how long it takes for the chicks to become too big for the parents to incubate them at night.

One positive was the return to my garden of the beautiful spring/summer sounds that bounce on the airwaves around the UK, made of course by my favourite UK visitor, the swallow.

I counted six individuals dancing in the skies around my garden, frequently swooping in the evening sun last night to catch insects that were gathering to enjoy some spring warmth.

I think they’re still catching up on the changes around the place, although whether they can nest in the sheds behind our house is open to debate given the idiots (and I use the word very carefully and with justification) that rented the house with these sheds.

They have since left, but whether the interiors are still enticing for the swallows and indeed whether the local population of five cats can access the buildings through the crumbling roof, is something I’ll be watching with interest.

Perhaps I’ll pay the buildings a visit in the next few days to check everything is ok.

One final note was the sighting of a bee this morning, which I will only be able to see as a positive if it is seen again and with plenty of others.

So one good bit of news and one not so good, but overall spring is here and hopefully the wildlife can start to get on with producing the next generation.

SPRING WEATHER BRINGS NESTBOX ACTION

The focus this week has been on the nestbox camera and what is turning out to be an interesting battle for breeding.

As spring finally begins to show itself the blue tits have built a nest and are showing signs that eggs could soon be on their way.

There is a twist to this story as the great tit pair are spending an increased amount of time in my garden and seem to be eyeing up the nestbox for themselves.

Interest from the great tits is not going unnoticed as the blue tits are now beginning to chase their adversaries away from the nextbox. What will happen in the coming week? Will the blue tits lay eggs and raise their brood without interference from the great tits? Time will tell and this little battle is what helps make watching wildlife so fascinating.

In the last few nights the female blue tit has been roosting in the nestbox and it’s been very interesting watching her say ‘goodnight’ to her partner in the fruit tree at the bottom of the garden, before they both got to their own roosting sites.

In other news the great spotted woodpecker has been heard nearly every day hammering away at one of the dead trees on the fields behind the house. Perhaps we’ll see him/her in the garden again soon, although not if it means the blue tit chicks are being predated!

There is a new bird nesting in the trees around the garden area, although not one that is welcomed by the small garden birds.

That’s right a pair of magpies are building a nest and while their presence sometimes causes the smaller birds to flee into the rose bush or hawthorn hedge, they don’t seem too bothered and it’s not affecting the numbers coming to my garden to feed. 

Below is a series of images taken over a ten day period up until today.

 

 

NESTBOX CAMERA NEST OWNER REVEALED!

The owner of the camera nestbox with its new nest has been revealed – and I was right the blue tits are back!

After a two year absence, because of a great tit pair claiming the nestbox, the blue tits are back for a third year.

They previously nested in the first two years after the nestbox was up, but were usurped by the great tits, leaving the blue tits to find a new site – which happened to be a small hole in the brickwork of next door.

It’s great to know that the nestbox will continue to be utilised to ensure it’s been used for every year since I put it up.

There’s only one thing I’m hoping for this year and that is the weather doesn’t affect the breeding season following last year and the heavy rain – this unfortunately meant the great tit chicks didn’t survive more than a couple of days.

One thing I listened to today that I’ve not heard for five years was the sound of a woodpecker doing his/her thing. I couldn’t see the bird, but I suspect it might be the great spotted woodpecker that’s been visiting my garden over the years, particularly in winter.

I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for the dead trees nearby that I think the woodpecker was creating the noise from.

With spring starting to show signs of finally arriving I’m hopeful that the local wildlife that hasn’t yet made itself known, will respond to the temperature rises and contribute to the wonderful season that we call spring.

Finally I’m hoping to get some images of the blue tits building their nest in time for the next blog post.

NESTBOX CAMERA IS BACK WORKING

The start of spring may still be delayed, but I feel it has begun after the nestbox camera started working today and revealed something very exciting.

After a phone call to the guys at Spy Camera CCTV, I tried once last go at fixing it and somehow it worked. Whether it’ll work for long is another question!

The camera revealed inside the nestbox a nest in the first stages of being built. I’m not sure which bird is doing the nest building but I’m hoping to catch it in action soon.

 

I suspect it’s a pair of blue tits and can’t wait to see if they continue to build it – I suspect it may be delayed due to the weather and lack of a spring, but perhaps this is a sign that wildlife knows spring is on its way!

The other nestboxes aren’t being used yet and while I still have hope for the new sparrow ‘hotel’ the other two are very unlikely to be used this year.

One other exciting development was the sighting of an animal I’ve never seen before around my house – a stoat.

With a number of farms nearby, including a chicken one, I’m surprised I’ve never seen a stoat or weasel around, but given that I first thought this stoat was a leaf blowing in the wind, it’s not surprising.

It was too quick for me to get a picture, although now I know one is around I’ll be on the lookout for it and possibly others in the future.

IS SPRING AROUND THE CORNER?

I’ve been working for the last few days to fix the nestbox camera, but with no success. I’m going to give it one more go next weekend and then leave it for another year.

During the milder weather recently, the sunshine has given the bird a new lease of life; gone was the days of simply foraging for food to survive and in came looking for a mate and potential nest site.

I watched as both a pair of blue tits and great tits spent time looking at the camera nestbox from various angles and tried different flight patterns from vantage points towards the nestbox.

I haven’t seen any bird actually fly in to or around the nestbox, but I think there has been one bird, or more, roosting in there. If I was to guess I would say it would be a great tit; that’s based on what I noted when the camera was working.

The warm sunshine has brought the dawn chorus to life, with plenty of song in the last couple of days, plus plenty of birds hanging around my garden and surrounding area.

It now appears that the song thrush I’ve seen and heard a lot recently has found either a mate or foe. Judging by the way one was chasing after the other for about ten minutes in the bushes and trees suggest to me that it will be a mate and a breeding pair could set up a nest near the garden.

I’ll be keeping my eye out for them both in case of nesting activity and new chicks.

Talking of chicks I thought I saw a fledgling blackbird recently, but put it down to a slightly differently coloured female.

My thoughts changed when I saw said female in the garden, and it was joined by a definite female and they reacted to one another like they knew each other.

Has anyone ever known blackbirds to breed in winter?

Feeding the birds regularly can be quite exciting as three recent examples show.

Firstly I filled the seed feeder and two fat snack feeders and as I approached the trees that I regularly hang them in (different locations each time), there was a sudden burst of noise coming from the surrounding bushes and trees and I saw a small flock of house sparrows, joined by various species including chaffinch, great tit and blue tit, along with a couple of robins.

They all had appeared to be welcoming me and the food I was bringing and within seconds of me hanging them out, the small birds were taking their turn on the feeders.

Secondly a robin, which appears every time I’m working in the garden or hanging out feeder, has been hovering in flight trying to get at a fat snack in hanging feeder. The hover doesn’t last for long, but he/she is getting much more accomplished at getting food.

Finally the long tailed tits are still making regular visits to the garden, particularly the peanut feeder and as I spend more and more time in the garden, I can sometimes hear the flock coming.

It’s these interactions with nature that ensures I’ll always be a fan and friend of wildlife.