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.

IS WINTER CONFUSED IT’S AUTUMN

Autumn didn’t really bring the any stormy conditions, or any real autumnal chills, and so far this winter it seems that we’re only experiencing autumnal weather.

Is the wildlife around the garden thinking it’s ‘still’ autumn, or do they simply carry on with life according to the daylight hours?

It must be said that real winter conditions are mostly confined to January and February, although March and even April have generally seen more snow than December.

Snow is a great indicator of what’s been in the garden at night, when we’re mainly sleeping, so we’re currently relying on daylight for visitor spotting.

A walk down one of the lanes near the house with my eldest daughter did reveal a couple of interesting local visitors to the area.

A flock of goldfinch seemed to keep one step ahead of the walk, while a small flock of curlew flew a few feet over our heads after being disturbed in the field within a hundred yards of the garden.

It’s great to now these specialist birds are finding winter sanctuary just yards from the general area round house and garden where the tits, sparrows, robins and blackbirds all spend much of their time year round.

More winter walks beckon and it’s hoped that waxwings are spotted after a friend saw a small flock nearby.

In other news the nest boxes have been cleared out and only one of the five had a nest in – old faithful being occupied for the ninth consecutive year.

One egg was left in the nest, and although I’m sure a pair of house sparrows nested in there at first, the egg looks very much like a blue tit. Have a look for yourself though and let me know if you think any differently to me.

It leads to the conclusion that a pair of blue tits used the nest after the house sparrows and failed to lay more than one egg to left the nest, were disturbed during egg laying or brooding, or fledged chicks but left a dud egg.

Personally I think it was one of the first too.

The nest was made of moss and the top layer contained many horse hairs, presumably from the two horses kept in one of the fields near the house.

So, will 2017 see more nesting? I hope so and I’ll be changing the entrance hole of one of the new nest boxes (with a new camera in) to a slightly wider fitting, to hopefully give more birds a chance to use it.

Both cameras are seemingly working, at the moment, so now we’ll be looking for any roosting birds.