THE SUMMER QUIET HITS THE GARDEN

As usual at this time of year the garden is really quiet at the moment, with most birds hiding around the hedgerows, fields and trees while the adults moult.

In the last week there has been some visitors, with the odd blue tit (both adults and this year’s young), while the magpies are constantly around and making plenty of noise.

The other birds starting to come back in the garden are the robins, indeed the robin family that fledged a few weeks ago.

The youngsters are starting to show signs of the red breast, while the adults seem to be getting more and more comfortable with us in the garden, mainly while we’re working.

With the youngsters still learning about life, they are always making nervous warning sounds whenever they are around the garden and we’re in there.

They still come around the seats and tables, often underneath picking up crumbs from the floor, so cleaning up for us at the same time.

The weather hasn’t been summer-like, but it has been mild and moist at night.

This led to a surprise visitor in the kitchen one evening as a toad came to visit.

We were able to show it back out again, but it was a lively one and seemed to be smaller than the one I found last year.

Finally, the hedgehog seems to still be around as I’ve found droppings around the small pond and in a couple of other parts of the garden.

I think it lives under one of the sheds, although I do wonder if it has a bolt hole under the logs near the pond.

I’ll hopefully be able to spend a bit of time in the garden in the next couple of weekends and see what I can detect.

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!

HAVE THE BLUE TIT EGGS HATCHED?

Recent weather has been favourable for the bird trying to raise young this spring, albeit with quite cold nights.

The great tits have been busily feeding many hungry mouths in one section of the triple nest box, while the blue tits have been incubating their clutch of eight eggs.

And just two days ago they hatched, although the exact number of hatchlings is yet to be determined because of issues with the camera.

There are a number of house sparrow nests nearby, but it doesn’t appear that they are using any of the nest boxes in the garden.

They have all been receiving regular supplies of mealworms, which have attracted other great tits, house sparrows, robins, magpies, and the recently returning blackbirds.

A pair of blackbirds has been seen recently in the garden, taking a number of grubs, worms and mealworms off to feed their youngsters.

The garden is literally coming alive with spring life, including the first crane flies of the year and hundreds of flies and bugs.

It’s a great place to be in the spring and summer, watching the wildlife make the most out of the weather and being totally focussed on the breeding season.

Long may it continue and also long may the camera keep working so we can see the young blue tit chicks growing.

COLD WINTER WEATHER ON THE WAY?

After a relatively non-stormy autumn and warm winter, so far, the forecast is set for a spell of colder weather, which will invariably have an impact on our wildlife.

In recent weeks the garden has been a regular feeding place for long tailed tits, a sure sign that nature’s bounty of food is bordering on empty.

This is a signal for help with extra food, particularly fat-based snacks, for birds and wildlife in general, and with easterly winds making for some very cold wind-chill temperatures, now is the time to make sure those feeders are regularly topped up.

While the garden fills with small bird flocks, overhead many groups of birds fly to daytime feeding grounds from overnight roosts.

The marshes near the garden provide many birds with food and safe roosting sites, particularly waders. This in turn means predators including the peregrine falcon, short-eared owl and marsh harrier are about, albeit it much smaller numbers.

It’s great to see flocks of redwing and fieldfare, along with passings from curlew, lapwing and various ducks and gulls. They all make use of the fields around the garden for feeding, while feeding and roosting around the marshes.

The cold weather will affect them all, but with saltwater in abundance around the marshes, it will need a prolonged spell of cold weather to mean the waders and shore birds will suffer from a food shortage.

Meanwhile it’s up to people to help the smaller garden birds with helpings of peanuts and fat snacks, to help them until spring brings warmth and insects.

GARDEN GROWTH SURGE

The weather in June has led to a a particularly high rate of growth of the flora in the garden.

Poppies, cauliflowers, broad beans, sunflowers and the tomato plants have all benefited from the humid and often damp conditions.

The planting out session of plants from the greenhouse has been completed and what's left inside there will hopefully have enough space to grow and produce some good crops.

Tomatoes, cauliflowers and one chilli pepper plant remain.

Bird news is mainly around the return of the great tit chicks to feed in and around the garden, mainly due to the hard work of the parents.

There is constant chirping in the tress and bushes from the little ones, and when they are joined by the house sparrows and their chicks, the noise is pretty loud.

I suspect a couple of the great tit chicks have already been lost to the local sparrowhawk, but that's nature.

The season now needs some dry weather to help the flora and fauna in producing the  next generation.

It'll also allow us humans to be outside and enjoy the constantly changing colour and noise in our gardens.

NEW ARRIVALS AMID SUMMER SUN

Little did I realise when I wrote my blog post last week that my imminent new arrival was exactly that.

A day after posting the latest update the garden saw another arrival, this time of the human variety and our second daughter.

Bizarrely a rose that emerged at the time our first daughter was born suddenly emerged again this week.

 

The rose plant hasn’t really grown in six years, but occasionally produces a lovely flower. Nature has a funny way of showing us things and while it’s likely to be coincidence, I’d like to think the garden was in some way saying congratulations.

With warm weather continuing to bathe the garden, the plants are reacting with growth spurts, albeit once I’ve provided enough water.

The blackbirds, house sparrows, tree sparrows, blue tits, great tits and robins are now fairly regular visitors to the garden, with most still appearing to have young, either in the nest or having recently fledged.

I’ve not seen many youngsters recently, but I’ve heard lots of chattering in the trees and bushes with parent birds appearing to be flying rapidly between the food sources in my garden and the fledglings in the canopy.

The swallow numbers have continually grown and this is most evident during the period just after dawn and early evening.

With shorter tails it’s easy to identify the youngsters from this year, but with plenty of them and the speed in which they all fly together, counting how may there are is almost impossible.

I've also seen a few house martins around and occasionally swifts – both of which I've seen in previous years and I know nest nearby – so I'm hoping this is a good sign that breeding has been good for them this year.

The slug and snail invasion is showing no sign of slowing down. The casualties mount up daily, although I do try and put live ones in our recyclable green waste bin so they can be ‘relocated’.

I’m hoping to have my first crop harvested this week, which will be the broad beans. It’s hard to tell when they’re exactly right to pick, but I’m looking forward to creating some dishes with them as a key ingredient.

THE SOUND OF THE NEXT GENERATION

The gardens, fields and woodland around my garden are now very green, with a number of plants already flowering – clematis and strawberry are just two.

Recently there has been some very mild weather, particularly at night, which has meant there has been a huge growth in the flora.

Many of the plants I’ve grown from seed are now either in bigger pots on window sills, in the greenhouse or outside.

The only danger to the ones outside is the forecast frost this weekend and cooler weather – slightly strange for the start of May!

In other news the swallows have been performing their usual aerobatics and almost constant singing – which I thoroughly enjoy as it’s my favourite sounds of summer.

While the bird cameras have failed to deliver live footage of nesting birds, the bird boxes have proved very popular – all but the one with the camera in!

The tit nest box with the camera that has a failed power lead has got house sparrows nesting in there; although I’m not sure if there are eggs, chicks or just a nest in there at the moment.

In the triple sparrow nest box the camera box (which had a house sparrow nest last year with no camera) has nothing, the middle box is being investigated by a pair of blue tits, while the other box has house sparrows, WITH CHICKS.

I first heard them yesterday and after patiently waiting for nearly an hour for a parent to come back with food, was able to confirm the nest box used and the sound of chicks.

For me it confirms the camera has put off the birds, although I’m still hopeful that by keeping it in there the birds will get used to it and not be afraid of nesting there next year.

It does show that if you provide nest boxes in the right locations (height, size and direction the hole faces) then birds will readily take advantage.

The next question as we start to properly enter the breeding season is; how many broods will we have this year?

I’m predicting at least two, and I’m fairly confident the robins and blackbirds are either on eggs or have chicks; I just don’t know where the nests are – a task for this weekend.

Until then I’ll be making contact with a hedgehog rescue centre to rehome any, primarily to help rid the garden of slugs and snails – both are causing a bit of havoc among my growing sunflowers!