WINTER STORMS BLAST THROUGH THE GARDEN

In the last post it mentioned ‘non-stormy winter’, well that certainly isn’t true now! A pretty ferocious storm has passed and another one, with less ferociousness, is currently running across most of the UK.

The first one had a big impact on the garden and surrounding area, with trees down, bushes bent over and one of the birds feeders being blown into oblivion – never to be seen again.

Three others survived in situ and have been a welcome supply of food for the birds after they had to spend many hours hunkered down away from the wind and rain.

The two nest box cameras are working, albeit only one is able to translate night images, but both have revealed no activity at all, which is very unusual for this late in February.

One nest box designed for tits, which has never been used, has been redesigned to suit robins, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one of the locally resident birds use it.

It’s been semi covered with rose and ivy, so time will tell if that’s enough cover for them.

The blossom on the trees that emerged last week following the mild weather has been scattered over a wide area, so it may mean a depleted crop of fruit this year.

Cats are still a big problem and I wonder if them being in our garden is making the birds nervous and causing them to look for nest sites elsewhere.

The cat patrol has been stepped up and all cats near the garden are being firmly chased away.

Will it work? The birds will benefit if it does.

MOULTING BIRDS GET ALL SHY

It’s been quiet in the garden recently, with only the swallows and great tit chicks being heard.

In fact not many garden birds are being seen either, with the odd blackbird and occasional feeding foray from the house sparrow clans.

The weather hasn’t been ideal for fledglings, with heavy rain and seemingly unfriendly conditions for young birds to feed and explore their surroundings.

What has been helped by the weather has been the flora, with the many flowers and vegetables growing quickly.

None are ready for harvesting, but at least it’s a good start to the summer growing season.

What the growing flora is doing is attracting plenty of bees, both bumble and honey, to the strong nectar presence.

The nest box cameras aren’t producing the images I had hoped, with one completely not working and the other, which has had no nesting activity, beaming a clear video feed.

Considering the same thing happened last year and I’m beginning to think the birds are wanting a bit of privacy after me looking into their nesting activities for the last five years.

I’ll be looking at whether the cameras are in the right nest boxes over the autumn, and hope next year will be more successful!

Until then I’ll be hoping the birds come back soon, after their moulting, and start introducing their youngsters to the garden and its benefits.