A TYPICALLY QUIET AUGUST MADE EXCITED BY A NEW NEST DISCOVERY

With much of the wildlife still seemingly hiding away, it’s been left to a few of the stars of the garden this year to make the headlines, and also one big surprise.

First, the big surprise and it was the discovery of new nest in the garden just last week; a nest from a bird I’ve seen around the garden and lane, but never thought it would nest near the house.

The bird in question is a goldfinch, which has nested near the top of a small bush/tree, about eight feet from the ground and in a fairly precarious place.

I’d been hearing a lot of calling from the goldfinches around the garden in recent weeks, particularly in the last week or so, and looking at the state of the nest I suspect the young had recently fledged.

It’s brilliant that a small garden can provide the right environment for birds to nest, so now the goldfinch can be added to the list of nesting birds in the garden, alongside blue tits, great tits, robins, house sparrows, tree sparrows and blackbirds.

The robin family now appears to be in dispute with one another, as one of the youngsters is seemingly trying to win our garden as part of its territory over one of its parents – I suspect the male.

They have both been seen often in the garden in recent weeks and it would seem it’s quite a good place to have.

Who will triumph in the end? I don’t know but both are quite feisty and friendly in similar doses – friendly to the humans who live here.

Another now regular visitor is the hedgehog, who can be seen, and often heard, most nights.

The hedgehog is leaving regular deposits of poo around the garden too, but is also getting around the neighbours’ houses and is also being provided some food by them.

It looks like the hedgehog has found somewhere it likes, and if collectively we continue to provide the right environment for it, then it’ll hopefully stay.

One of the most important things is allowing free and easy access to all the gardens and making sure the cats and dogs stay away from it.

I think most of the neighbours are excited to see a hedgehog, so hopefully it’ll stick around.

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.

STAYING PUT, FOR THE TIME BEING

So COVID-19 has hit and confined us to our homes for the foreseeable future, which is not bad for those of us who like to admire the wildlife and potter in the garden – just once a day at the moment!

However, it does mean that we’re going to struggle to provide those extra morsels for hungry birds and other animals, as we come into a time when breeding success can be determined by those extra handouts.

At the moment there doesn’t seem to be much interest in nesting, apart from the recent robin interest in the ivy by the kitchen window, the odd fly by on the oldest nest box and the magpies in the conifer tree opposite the house.

It also means I can’t sort the pond out or get lovely border plants to help deter the cats from defecating in the garden.

It has given us time as a family to plant some seeds, with the usual tomato, broad bean and sunflowers being joined by, among others, the Californian Poppy.

A few of the seeds are already starting to emerge after a couple of days, but it might be this weekend when the more dramatic emerging happens.

Until then we continue to work from home, admire the wildlife when we look up from the computer, and hope spring can replace this cool weather with some proper warmth.

FROSTS BITE HARD AS WINTER DARKNESS CLOSES IN

The first hard frosts since February hit the garden recently, although one bird has been very vocal during the cold spell.

Walking around the garden and down the lanes around the house, I’ve listened and seen a number of robins defending their territories.

The robin, whose territory includes my garden, has been very vocal recently, and it only needs me to be in the garden for a matter of minutes before he’s close by, hoping to catch a quick and easy meal via my presence.

Life in the garden is definitely tough at the moment; the leaves have fallen from the trees (apart from the evergreens), the ivy has stopped growing and the food in the bird feeders is reducing quicker than any time in the last eight months.

I’ve spent some time walking up and down the lane recently, and there’s often a flock of redwings and fieldfares knocking around, sometimes with blackbirds on the outskirts of the group.

It’s great to see birds that are not around in the summer, the winter equivalent of our summer swallows – albeit I slightly favour the swallows!

One thing that has surprised me is the strawberry plant producing fruit (only two though) in the last week.

Each strawberry was not quite fully red, and didn’t look particularly appetising or edible, but it shows the capacity of the plant to produce in the colder months.

As we head towards Christmas, the darkest days of the year approach, so the wildlife will be paying particular focus on the weather conditions, as will us humans.

FLORA GROWTH, AS SUMMER HEAT BUILD

The weather has started to become more like summer, albeit the forecasters are saying it won’t last – how unusual!

The bird life in the garden is slowly moving away, although another nest might see some action during July.

The secret robin nest has either fledged or not survived, because there’s been a distinct lack of activity in the area in the last few days.

It’s hard to tell which is true, but in the coming weeks I’ll have a sneak peak in the nest vicinity to see what’s happened.

I hope it’s been fledging.

There have been occasional visits from families of blue tits, great tits and house sparrows, however they are happening less frequently.

Only today a fledgling blackbird was moving around the garden looking for earthworms, and succeeding too.

The new nest, I say new because it looks like a refurb of the one I spotted during winter in the garden’s main tree, has had visitors – yes I think it’s the owners.

It’s a pair of woodpigeons, which makes it another first for the garden.

I don’t know if they’re going to lay eggs yet, or even if they have already done so, but two of them have been heard and seen quite often recently.

The birds of summer appear to be doing ok, with numerous swifts often overhead, particularly in the evening when they make a right noise, while the swallows are certainly enjoying the increase in insect food – thanks to the improving weather.

Finally the tomato plants are now fully outside and ready for warm, sunny conditions to thrive and produce some lovely fruit - hopefully!

CHICKS EVERYWHERE

The garden has been filled with chicks recently, both in and out of the nest boxes.

For several days the garden was home to foraging robin chicks, all closely followed by at least one parent.

They didn’t appear frightened by the increasing amount of foot traffic around the garden, disappearing into the bushes while humans were about, before returning to the garden once the all clear was given.

The nest box that’s been used every year since it was put up, has proven successful again, and the great tits that I witnessed ‘reserving’ the prime nesting position in the garden, are the proud parents.

I suspect they may well fledge from Sunday onwards, but with cooler conditions currently setting in, they may wait until early next week when it’s due to be a bit warmer.

I bought the first batch of mealworms, which the robins, great tits and house sparrows made use of. Unfortunately, the magpies raided the storage container early one morning and hoovered the rest up.

Another batch has arrived, and this time the magpies had better stay clear!

The house sparrows have also got a brood of newly fledged chicks, although I don’t know where their nest is.

Finally, the swallows have been seen mating on telephone wires above the garden, so they are obviously content to be back and ready for another family.

There’s not much action in the pond, although the flora is definitely blooming.