FLOODING, STORMS, NESTBOXES AND SPRING

The main topic of conversation this winter has been about the stormy weather and the affect it's had on the land and the people dealing with the after effects.

Flooding has been a huge problem for many people through overflowing rivers and streams, along with high tides and huge waves battering the coastline.

But a number of people have been affected by the rising water table and simply only realised the flooding was happening at their property when it started to come through the floors, not the doors.

In my garden and house we’ve been lucky so far, as we just have a very soggy lawn and borders, but this week it could have been so different following the most vicious storm of the winter so far.

We were subject to 100mph winds and heavy rain, which didn’t lead to massive flooding, but did lead to many trees, power cables and roof tiles down.

Having briefly assessed the damage it’s hard to tell if the house has suffered significantly or not, but luckily the trees and bushes emerged relatively unscathed.

The bird feeders have taken some damage, but I’ve now fixed them. The nestboxes must be more securely tied down than I imagined as they all were in situ after the winds died down.

It enabled me to do stage two of the sparrow nestbox camera construction.

The camera has now been fitted (see below) with a battery and now I’m hoping it’ll work and link up with the wireless receiver and show the inside of the nestbox on my TV, just like the single great/blue tit nestbox.

Next weekend I’ll be testing it and hoping that the wired version isn’t required as that’ll need an order putting in and an extra delay.

The tit nestbox camera isn’t revealing much yet, which I think shows that the roosting sites around the garden are still good enough due to the mild conditions.

It could also mean that the nesting instinct hasn’t yet kicked in, possibly due to the mild winter and the birds unsure of when spring is actually going to start. Hopefully the increase in daylight will start that breeding urge soon and the battle for nestboxes will start.

The spring bulbs are continuing to emerge and the later it goes in February, the closer it gets to spring actually starting to push winter away; whether the weather is any different is anyone’s guess!

IS THE MILD WINTER JUST EARLY SPRING?

Another week of storms has left many parts of the country looking like large inland lagoons rather than farmland or countryside.

While my garden and the part of the country in which it resides has not been that badly affected, there are plenty of very soggy fields and gardens.

Just one small rain shower leaves puddles on roads, paths and fields that last for hours, if not longer, so longer spells of rain leave small floods and large areas of the countryside and my garden with several inches of surface water.

The continuous stormy weather has meant winter has been very mild and now plenty of plants, bulbs and trees think it’s spring.

In my garden there are plenty of bulbs sprouting, while one of the small fruit trees is already showing buds.

The mild winter also means the snowdrops are not the first to emerge out of my bulbs.

How the wildlife is coping with this stormy winter is difficult to evaluate as the breeding season for most wildlife is yet to start. Seals have already been badly affected by the early winter storms during their breeding season and losing many pups.

I’m yet to see any birds making use of the nestbox roost, although given that spring appears to be starting, according to the signs nature is flora is giving, it may not be long before the battle to occupy the nestboxes in my garden starts.

By next weekend I’ll hopefully have two nestbox cameras working so here’s hoping the birds use those nestboxes!

WINTER WARMTH PROVES BLOOMING ENTICING

The winter storms are continuing and causing chaos for people and wildlife across the country. The ground in the garden is soggy, while the stream that runs passed the house is often full to bursting – luckily it would take an apocalyptic level of rainfall for it to come anywhere near the garden.

Fields around the house are always flooded sometime covering up to 80/90 per cent of the area. It does make me wonder what’s happening to the crops that have already been sown or the grass that is waiting to make an appearance for spring.

Despite the threat of a proper winter cold spell last week, it continues to be very mild and this is being shown in the emergence of spring bulbs, including the crocus, tulip, daffodil and snowdrop.

Remarkable the first one to flower was the crocus, which shows just how mild it must be for it to flower before the snowdrop.

I’ve not noticed any birds taking shelter in the camera nestbox, although the new camera will be in place by next weekend so hopefully that will show if the triple sparrow nestbox is being used as a roost.

The size of the flocks of birds coming to the garden feeders is fairly steady, with daily sightings of all the usual suspects for my area – blackbird, robin, great tit, blue tit, long tailed tit, house sparrow, tree sparrow and dunnock.

I rarely see chaffinches, goldfinches, magpies, jays and wrens, but I know they’re around. Plus flocks of starlings and redwings are often seen flying at low level over the garden.

My main task this week has been to remove and uproot to trees to make more light for the canopy floor, encouraging wild flowers and creating areas for vegetables to be grown.

It was hard work and my hands, shoulders and arms are feeling it now. So until next week enjoy the pictures of what’s been happening in the last week.

 

BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH

This weekend has been the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch and once again my garden birds have put in an appearance all in one go.

It was an early start and as I’d filled the peanut, fat snack and seed bird feeders the previous night the birds flocked in.

Blackbirds, robins and dunnocks were early visitors, while the great spotted woodpecker did cause a few birds to depart quickly when he arrived at the peanut feeder.

As they are a rather skittish bird he wasn’t around for long and soon the blue tits, great tits and others started to feed again.

Then came in the long tailed tits, a group of over 12, who enjoyed feasting on the fat snacks and peanuts. At one point the fat snack feeder was covered with six, before a robin came along and bossed them off it.

I checked with last year and the amount of birds I spotted was about the same, which is good news for the local population. Whether it’s the same for the rest of the country is something the RSPB will hopefully be able to show thank to people taking part in this survey.

In other news the garage robin is now confident enough to venture all the way into the garage and to the back where I have all my bird food. He/she was feeding from the fat snack feeder that I’d just filled and placed within a foot of me.

I think one day soon I’ll be able to feed this bird from my hand.

I’ve still not fixed the bird camera to the sparrow nestbox, but hopefully I’ll get time next week.

The current nestbox camera hasn’t revealed overnight roosting for any birds just yet, but with cold weather forecast in the coming weeks, it might not be too long before it welcomes a guest or two.

IS WINTER FINALLY SHOWING ITS COLD SIDE?

A couple of overnight frosts have led to an increased number of bird sightings in the garden.

I carried out the BTO’s Early Bird Survey this week and witnessed a wide range of birds visiting the garden before, during and after dawn.

In no particular order I saw blackbird, robin, blue tit, dunnock, magpie, great tit, tree sparrow, house sparrow, long tailed tit and great spotted woodpecker.

The range of species so early in the morning utilising the fat snacks, peanuts and seeds I put out shows that wildlife can sometimes depend on human handouts to help them through the winter.

I think there are at least two male robins battling over the space around my garden, with one currently occupying the garden and another taking up space that includes the garage.

I mentioned it previously that the garage robin has been appearing in the doorway every time I go in there, often taking some food from a feeder that I leave while filling the others.

This week I managed to get a picture of the robin and you can see him nicking some food below.

I’ll be keeping an eye on both robins, along with any others, to see if I can map the territories and distinguish between them to see if they all visit the garden at some point.

Images of the long tailed tits are my next aim, although I’m not seeing them every day so it might be a little trickier.

Now that the storms have stopped for a while, I wonder if we’ll see any severe frosts and/or snow. I hope so, as it’ll give the flora and fauna a point at which to start planning for spring.

DO BUTTERFLIES HIBERNATE WHERE THEY WERE BORN?

Happy New Year! This is the seventh year that I’ve been writing this blog for, which started in 2008 with a simple gift or a nestbox from my partner’s parents.

Now as we enter 2014, the number of animals, particularly small garden birds, that it’s chartered the lives of is continuing to grow.

Blue tits, great tits, robins and house sparrows have all been born in my small garden and fledged.

This year I hope to have to nestbox cameras and at least three nestboxes occupied. The second nestbox camera will be fitted when the stormy weather has calmed down.

Three new things have happened since Christmas, two of which I’ve been pleasantly surprised by.

Today was the first sighting of the long tailed tits, which I take to mean that the natural food resources are now almost gone.

It’s been much later than previous years, but given that we’ve not seen any snow and only a handful of frosts I’m not surprised.

I’m hoping to get some pictures of them soon to share.

The start of 2014 disturbed the hibernation of a small tortoiseshell butterfly, so I’ve made use of a Christmas present box and provided it with a place to rest until spring. It’s behind my couch so won’t have much disturbance, which is what happened when it first appeared in the kitchen window (below).

 

I’d like to believe that it was one of the six that my young daughter raised and released in late summer. If they do have a homing device to hibernate near where they were born than that would mean it’s true. Here's one of the six that were releases back in September.

 

Finally a friendly robin is now following me into the garage and practically asking for food. It watched me fill up the bird feeders and then starts to take food from them if I turn my back for a second.

I’ve not managed to get a picture of this clever robin, but as I know natural food supplies are very low I’ll be filling them up regularly and will expect to see him/her quite often in the coming weeks.

 

 

STORMY BUT MILD WINTER

Further stormy weather has left people and wildlife with problems over the festive period – not that the wildlife knows much about the festivities.

I’m noticing an increase in the small birds taking shelter in the garden, particularly when the really wet and windy weather sets in.

While this weather provides certain problems for wildlife, the really cold weather of winter will give wildlife even bigger problems because of the lack of food and unfrozen clean water.

Of course the cold weather is yet to arrive and the winter has been fairly mild so far – even if some people think it has been very cold already.

I think I’ve only had five frosts on my car and none were particularly bad.

The one thing the wind does is move the leaves that I’d placed on the borders – as a protection blanket from the cold weather – and also some of the horse manure too.

It means a little bit of extra work to put everything back and provide cover for the small wildlife from the cold and ensure a plentiful supply of food when the breeding season starts in spring.

The next job for the garden is installing the second nest box camera in the sparrow nest box and hope they use it again in 2014. I suspect one of the three sections that make up the nest box will be used because of the number of tree and house sparrows that flock in to the garden every day.

Time will tell, although I’ll be waiting for the wind to stop before getting up my ladder to fix the camera!