ENJOYING THE LOCKDOWN WILDLIFE DURING A HOT APRIL

Four weeks into lockdown and I’m seeing and learning new things about the garden and wildlife.

The original or usual next box looks like it’s got a great tit couple nesting in it, which is great news that it’s being used for I think the 12^th consecutive year since it was put up.

The robins have appeared to stop and nest building trips to the ivy, so perhaps they’re sitting on eggs. Time will tell but I hope so.

A pair of blue tits are nesting in a crevice in the house next door, which is a place they’ve used before. It’s where an old outlet pipe for a boiler was sited, so it’s obviously quite a nice venue for them.

I think there’s activity in the one of the other nest boxes on the wall, the single one, but I’m not sure which birds are nesting there, if any. House sparrows, great tits and blue tits have all been seen taking an interest.

However, the big news is a new pair of breeding birds has been discovered, which is a first for me.

At the back of house, a pair of pied wagtails are busy building a nest under the roof tiles of the old shippons.

It’s really exciting because it’s directly in front of one of our bedroom windows, so viewing the activity is quite easy.

The pond has had a delivery of flowering plants, snails and oxygenating plants, and is still home to the frog.

I’m not sure if the frog has successfully found a mate, I would suggest not, but it’s great that it’s there making itself at home.

Also making themselves at home in the garden has been a range of butterflies, including the peacock, orange tip, speckled wood and holly blue.

News on the planting next time, but there’s lots of growing in the greenhouse, so hopefully lots of successful growth and new life in the garden in the coming weeks and months.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG, DURING LOCKDOWN

The swallows are back, and almost exactly the same day as the previous three years.

The lack of traffic noise has led to bird song being much more audible and just a couple of days ago I heard the distinct call of swallows.

Then today I saw my first one swooping over the fields next to the garden. It means the first sounds was heard in the 8th April and seen on 11th April.

The current sates I've first seen swallows each year, since 214, are:

2014 - 19th April
2015 - 21st April
2016 - 10th April
2017 - 8th April
2018 - 7th April
2019 - 7th April
2020 - 11th April (heard first on 8th April)

It’s typical that during this lockdown we’re seeing really warm spring weather, particularly after the wet and windy last couple of months.

Of course, we’re going to see cooler weather in the coming weeks, but it’s been nice to enjoy the garden and also for a lot longer than usual with working from home.

Sadly not everything is perfect in nature, and this was demonstrated early one morning when I found three dead chicks, perhaps a week old, in the garden not far from the potential location of a robins’ nest.

It has been very cold overnight and a gently frost was on partly visible, so I suspect this had killed them and the parents had removed the bodies.

While it could have been a predator or local cat, the nest location would suggest a cat unlikely and a magpie would have difficulty getting into the thick ivy - the nest is circled along with one of the dead chicks.

What I have noticed since is the robins both being very active in the same location, both with food and the odd bit of nesting material.

I haven’t heard any chick noises, but this is definitely a watching brief, with the male robin (seemingly) singing loudly and often from a series of perches around the garden.

Above the robin nest a pair of blue tits has recently been seen mating, but where the nest is, is another thing.

I suspect they are using the previously unused single nest box that was under the now removed triple sparrow nest box, but await final evidence.

We’ve also found a frog residing in the pond, I say residing because it’s been in there for quite a few days.

I don’t think it’ll be mating and laying frog spawn, but perhaps next year we’ll get that.

Still it’s a good sign that the pond is supporting a wide range of wildlife and plants.

And the pond is looking colourful and is proving to be a great source of food for bees and butterflies – there’s been both orange tip and peacock on most days in the last week.

A BUMPER BREEDING SEASON?

Plenty of butterflies and moths have been in and around the garden recently, which makes me think it’s been a good year for them.

The most ‘popular’ attendees to the garden are the orange tip butterfly and the cinnabar moth, both of whom have been seen daily in the garden.

I’m beginning to think this has been a significant boom year for our small garden birds. I’ve now seen two lots of blue tit fledglings, the latest this week and the robins are looking distinctly scruffy, which makes me think they’re on to their third brood.

The blackbirds have had at least two, the swallows second brood also fledged this week and there appears to be large numbers of magpies and goldfinches.

But the big news on the nesting front is that both the house sparrows and tree sparrows are busy raising a third brood in the garden nest boxes.

The parents seem to be having a competition with each other as to who can raise the most chicks, as invariably when I can hear chicks in one nest the other follows with a day or so.

I’m not sure how many have fledged from each nest since April, but it must be double figures.

I very much doubt there’ll be a fourth fledging, but with the hedgerows around the garden swaying under the weight of sparrows, I wouldn’t be surprised.

What it must mean is it’ll also be a bumper year for the birds of prey. I know there’s a few sparrowhawk around here and certainly kestrels. The crows, magpies and jays may also pick of a few weaker young too, plus the resident little and tawny owls might pinch a couple from night roosts.

In the next couple of weeks I’ll be showcasing the transformation of the garden, showing images taken at weekly intervals from March this year.

The transformation is stunning, well I think so.