DOES ANYONE REMEMBER WHEN IT WASN’T STORMY?

It’s fair to say that I’m struggling to remember when the last time we had some calm weather, given we’re experiencing storm after storm hitting the UK.

And, if there hasn’t been a named storm, then we’ve been hit be continual low pressures or the windy edge of a high pressure.

The fields are soaking, and large ponds of water are now forming and not draining at all.

Even the stream alongside the lane regularly breaches the banks when we’ve had a few hours of rain.

These videos are taken one day last week, then below are two mages taken the same time, on the following day.

To see all that in one go, here’s a collated image. What’s not shown is the water on the lane is gradually damaging the surface and there’s not a day goes by when the lane doesn’t have large puddles dotted along it.

 

The wildlife is not appearing to be affected by the weather, well from what I can see and hear.

The dawn chorus has been getting stronger each day recently, although the storm and wet mornings have limited activity.

During the day we’re now hearing more territorial songs from the robins, blue tits, great tits and also the odd chaffinch.

The breeding season is largely dictated by the day length, but I do wonder how the storm will affect it long-term.

If the butterflies and moths, which lay eggs that then turn onto the caterpillar food for the small garden birds, get impacted by the storms, then how will the birds cope?

That will also impact some the birds of prey in the area, but we can only wait and see how that all plays out.

If the stormy weather continues for a while, then our summer migrants might also be impacted; so swallows, house martins, swifts and cuckoos.

Again only time with tell, until then we’ll continue to batten down the hatches and hope the water levels gradually drop.

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

A couple of weeks ago it was all about winter storms, now spring is very much in the air.

Birds are singing, blossom is blowing wistfully in the light breeze and the sun is being supporting by warm winds to bring a little bit of heat to the land.

The daffodils are one of many plants providing colour to the garden. 

Unfortunately it hasn’t led to any activity in either of the nest boxes with cameras in, which probably means that neither will be used this year.

Of course it might mean that the birds know of a forthcoming blast of winter is around the corner and don’t want to jump the gun on the breeding season – it’s not something many people will be betting on though!

The cats are seemingly waging war on one of the garden’s borders, despite an influx of plants and shrubs.

Just today, a week after the last ‘collection’, another six ‘deposits’ had to be removed, before young fingers got hold of them.

There will only be one winner, and it won’t be the cats, but it looks like there will be many battles ahead before they are defeated.

I do wonder if the cats are making the birds nervous about nesting near the house and it’s something that is very disappointing if true.

Cat owners need to do everything they can to stop their pets killing and negatively affecting local wildlife. It is NOT the way of nature for domestic cats to ravage local populations of small wildlife.

Humans putting too many cats in a small area can be negative for the cats as well as the wildlife, so if any cat owners read this, please take note.

Now it’s time to cross those fingers that the cats stop leaving poo in the garden and the birds start the process of nest building.

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.

RARE WINTER VISITOR IN MY GARDEN

The snow may not have hit us, well apart from the highest mountains, but the wind and rain have certainly made their presence felt.

Watching the weather forecast for the next week and Christmas, it looks like we’ll all get hit by storm after storm, which isn’t good for us or the wildlife we share our space with.

While many people would rather we did without the cold, snow and ice, I rather enjoy these conditions in winter – it shouldn’t happen in spring or autumn for me though.

It gives the chance for wildlife to rest, for bugs to be killed off and for us to enjoy watching trails of wildlife that may have passed in our gardens or on our streets during the night.

Today I watched a first in my garden as a pair of redwing scouted around for food. I can’t recall a time when I’ve seen them anywhere near my house, so today was a real treat.

They only stayed for about ten minutes, but I hope they return during the rest of winter.

The blue tits and great tits are now regulars on my feeders, while the house sparrows and tree sparrows continue to visit daily.

A robin is starting to call from the trees and bushes, presumably staking my garden as part of his territory.

The blackbirds are also returning, although other birds are still reluctant to venture from the natural food supplies.

I’m really looking forward to when the long tailed tits make a visit, as they show that winter is really with us and the natural food supply is low.

Until then I’ll be on the lookout for more redwing and even the odd fieldfare. I think a waxwing is probably out of the question.

STORMY WEATHER BRINGS CHAOS TO WILDLIFE

It’s been a week of shocking weather that has badly affected our wildlife.

Firstly the extremely strong winds that battered the country, swiftly followed by the storm surge that has hit both humans and wildlife.

Hundreds of grey seal pups washed away along the North Sea coasts and I’m sure many birds have been blown off course or away from their intended targets.

My garden hasn’t seen too much negativity, apart from the temporary greenhouse that blew over and the dead leaves that I’d covered the borders with being blown all over the place – more work to fix that required.

What has happened has been more birds frequenting the feeders in the garden since the weather abated.

Throughout the weekend the visits from blue tits, great tits, robins, blackbirds, dunnocks, tree sparrows and house sparrows has increased rapidly.

The weather hasn’t got colder so I can only assume that the strong winds meant they didn’t want to travel far and a good food supply, that is found in my garden, with good areas of cover is the best place to be for now.

Perhaps next week they’ll disperse into the countryside again and utilise the natural food supply – only time will tell.

Christmas is just over two weeks away, but it doesn’t have the feel of winter and therefore Christmas just yet – then again maybe that’s just me.

It means that the final vegetable in my garden will be excavated and hopefully enjoyed by the family during the Christmas Day meal. Once the parnsips are dug up I’ll put some pics up to show whether it’s been a success.

As for the weather, it looks like a mild(ish) week and fairly quiet for the wildlife, which is not too bad after last week’s one in 200 year event!

NOT MUCH ACTION

The wildlife has not been out in force recently, well not in my garden anyway.

A male blackbird is often heard from a few nearby high spots, notably tops of telegraph poles, joining a subdued dawn chorus and being prominent during the dusk chorus.

The swallows are often seen now with youngsters from the first brood and given the weather and potential increase in insect numbers in the next few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a second brood.

A chiffchaff has recently been heard to sing again, so perhaps a second brood is on there, while a male robin has often been in the garden when it sees me with the mealworm box ready to put some on a feeding station.

The tree sparrows and house sparrows must still be feeding youngsters, because they grab a number of mealworms each visit, but I expect them to fledge soon.

One of the interesting visitors is a magpie, which seems to have discovered I'm fairly generous when it comes to feeding the smaller birders. It if often joined by others, who then scare the smaller birds away and gobble up mealworms, before trying their beaks on the peanuts - which they sometimes succeed with despite the feeder being only suited for smaller birds.

I've counted four different types of bees visiting the garden, I can't name them, but can tell the differences from colour and size variations.

When the summer returns after this current storm, I'll take a closer look and come back with types of bees so it can provide me with information on who is living around here and why.

For now I can only hope the ducks enjoy the weather as I think it'll be warming up from next week onwards!