A Very Local Update

We are of course still in lockdown here, local exercise only, which means i'm yet to spot a Mallard or a Coot this year, both of which would be early list birds and common as muck on my normal travels! At the end of the month rules will relax a little so we should be able to travel places......but of course so will everyone else!

In the meantime the garden has been filled with activity as has my walk to work. We've had a week of snow and ice back in February, which was great for bringing Redwings to the garden and even a couple of Song Thrush - rare visitors. 

Redwing

Song Thrush

House Sparrows flocking to the bird bath after I defrosted it for the third time that day!

Starlings

A Blackcap pair have been around the gardens for the past three or four weeks, mostly the male with the odd appearance from a female. This happened around the same time last year too. The male has devoured the berries on the honeysuckle and they have both gone through a lot cotoneaster berries. The male has even treated us to his song a few times. 

Male

Female

This past week a pair of Bullfinch have been at the feeders, more rare garden visitors, beautiful ones too! We've had the odd Chaffinch and Greenfinch, both also infrequent visitors.

Chaffinch

Bullfinch

I spotted Hedgehog poop in the garden at the end of February and a few days later spotted the actual Hedgehog itself drinking from the water dish we have in the garden, i've seen it regularly since, followed recently by a second. Here's hoping they do as well as last year. 

The gutter Starling has been singing from it's gutter perch and has been clearing it's spot out, i'm assuming it's the same one again? A large conifer at the end of our house row has been chopped down in recent weeks, lots of Starlings and Sparrows roosted and nested in there, I wonder if it will have any effect on their numbers over the coming months as both did very well with lots of young last year. Woodpigeons have been carrying nest materials into the same tree as previous years, nothing much seems to come of it though.

Long-tailed Tits

Collared Dove

Woodpigeons & Feral Pigeons

Starling catching the early morning sun

Elsewhere around town several pairs of Magpies are nest building, one pair in the supermarket car park right above a busy spot! As of last week a few Redwings are still around in the park, I think the lastest i've seen them there is early April. I heard my first Skylark near work recently too, despite the increase in traffic!

I'll leave you with our inquisitive Squirrel!

Signs of Spring

More news on the Blackcap in the garden, the male has become a daily regular usually early in the morning filling up on berries and fat balls. I spotted a female occasionally but never at the same time. The male this past week has started to sing from the Sparrow roost and from the top of our Laburnum. Yesterday I finally saw the pair of them together and they fed on the Cotoneaster berries together and did again early this morning!

Exciting news as we've never had a long staying Blackcap let alone a pair like this. I've been reading up on them and I think it may be a bit early for breeding but as we back onto a park there are some suitable areas which would be good habitat for nest building! Of course they could disappear tomorrow but in the meantime i'm enjoying every moment of having them in the garden.

Male taking a breath in between singing

Male and female together at last!

Elsewhere there are plenty of signs of spring, a Song Thrush has been singing from the same tree each time we've visited the woods, and just yesterday we spotted a pair mating, another male was singing further along in the woods. 

After single sightings over the past couple of years a pair of Treecreepers flew right in front of us last week and landed in the nearby trees. Another good sign. Though it's odd that the Nuthatches seem to disappear over winter, where do they go?

In the ponds and streams frogspawn is appearing in large piles, Frogs were still busy all around the main pond yesterday morning. 

Elsewhere the trees are full of bird song, Magpies are trying to build nests, when not fighting off Crows and male Blackbirds are chasing each other around the trees.

Blue Tit

Carrion Crow

Robin

First Greenfinch spotted in the woods this year

Robin

Blackbird looking fierce after chasing off another male!

The first Marsh Marigold of the year

Lots of buds and blossom are bursting through

The reeds are growing again

Catkins

Hopefully i'll still be able to update on the Blackcaps in the next post, fingers crossed!

In the Garden

The weather has been terrible recently with two storms close together - Ciara and Dennis plus lots of smaller but no less horrible storms afterwards all managing to fall on my days off so I haven't been much of anywhere in the past couple of weeks apart from the usual commute to work (i've lost count of how many hail storms i've been caught in!). The past couple of mornings have brought snow and heavy rain right on rush hour which pretty much meant walking was done through deep slush and mini streams, not fun!

It's been good for garden watching, even when the rain has been at it's heaviest and the wind at it's strongest some of the braver birds have been hogging the feeders. We're starting to see Foxes in the garden more often now too and the Mouse is a regular in the window feeder.

A Sparrowhawk has been hanging around the garden a fair bit, i've not seen it catch anything though

Long-tailed Tits are now daily visitors and are often the last ones on the feeders late afternoon 

Goldfinch

Magpie

Feral Pigeon

Robin. 

We paved the area under the feeders late last year, it makes cleaning up the mess underneath a lot easier

There has been both a male and female Blackcap in the garden, at different times, both ate berries off the Cotoneaster, the only birds i've seen do this! But the male also took some big chunks off the fat balls too.

Less regular visitors are Greenfinch, Coal Tits, Wrens and Woodpigeons but all the usual birds are out in decent numbers - Collard Doves, Sparrows, Starlings, Great, Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Blackbirds. 

The garden is now full of Snowdrops, they've spread down the flowerbeds in the back garden and under the hedge at the front. The Hellebore is in full flower and lots of shoots are coming through. 

Hopefully the weather will improve a little over the next few weeks and I can be out and about as usual!