Around the garden

It's been a while so I thought i'd do a little garden update.

Our Swifts arrived on the 10th a couple of days later than usual and I heard them first before spotting a couple over the house - there are 6 around at the moment. Lovely birds to sit and watch - I spent a lot of time in the evening doing that last year and no doubt will this year too.

The birds in the garden had been a little quiet until the past week or so. We had our first youngsters - House Sparrows at the beginning of the week and they are making short work of the bird seed on the feeder. Most seem to be feeding themselves or at least having a go but certainly aren't turning down anything offered by a parent!

We have a pair of Blue Tits who are almost eating the fat balls single handedly (beakedly!?), so I guess we have a brood of chicks close by as this happened last year resulting in some lovely scenes when the chicks fledged so fingers crossed we get them same this time.

Other than that we have been lacking in activity - no sign of any young Blackbirds, the Coal and Long Tailed Tits have disappeared and the Goldfinch are down to maybe 4 or 5. We do have a Great Tit now and again, several Starlings - no youngsters there yet and plenty of House Sparrows. Dunnocks, Woodpigeons, Collared Doves and a Robin round off the garden visitors at the moment.

There are the usual Black Headed Gulls overhead and we do get Crows and Magpies in the trees around.

One thing I did notice in my garden - most of my flowers appear to be blue/purple, I didn't realise until a lot of them seemed to flower at once! Most of them were there when we moved in so maybe a conscious thought on the previous owner?

Of course my favourites don't adhere to this and are a glorious red and now just about frame my door and windows after a bit of thorny work at the weekend!

Now i'm off to check out some of the blogs i'm following - i've missed a lot!

Wordless Wednesday

Bolton Abbey

We spent Good Friday at Bolton Abbey - getting a early start to have a wonder before the crowds arrived. It was a beautiful day and as we walked up through the Strid Woods we only came across a handful of people - it was very peaceful with only the birdsong and the sound of the river around us.

I heard a noise off the path and spotted a Roe Deer just up in the woods - we stopped to watch as it stood for a while, another joined it before they both ran off - a beautiful moment!

We soon spotted Dippers on the river and Kingfishers too, the Dippers were not hanging around for photos at first though and the Kingfishers landed too far away, I managed a distant blurry shot of one!

The woods were filled with Chaffinch, Robins, Blue, Great, Coal and Long Tailed Tits, Wrens, Jackdaws and Nuthatches we also saw Song and Mistle Thrushes.

On the river there were quite a few pairs of Mallards - I saw my first youngsters of the year, a lone Goosander and the odd Pied Wagtail on rocks.

On the banks the Sand Martins are already quite at home and we saw quite a few flying in and out the holes there - one even briefly landed on a fence post nearby.

There were plenty of butterflies amongst the flowers we saw Small Whites, Orange Tips, Peacocks and Red Admirals.
I also saw my first Swallows of the year too flying about a nearby farm, I haven't seen them in the local haunts yet. I'll post about the Dippers in my next post.

Around the park

Took a walk at our local park early this morning, depsite a fair few dog walkers and my noisy 5 yr old there was a lot of birds about.

This Chaffinch was a little shy!

We watched this Magpie gathering up mud and twigs for quite a while - looked to be nest building in a nearby tree.

There were also Blue Tits, Goldfinch, Blackbirds, Magpies, Collared Doves and a couple of Squirrels too.

Most of the trees are still bare, there are quite a few of trees in full blossom around at the moment but not in the park!

Little signs of life on the branches though

Finally a couple of pictures of the flowers we saw

Adel Dam

As always Adel Dam was fairly quiet despite the crowds in Golden Acre - from a selfish point of view it's lovely but on the other hand it's a shame people seem to overlook it - they don't know what they are missing!

At the first hide we watched Coal, Great, Blue and Long Tailed Tits, a few Mallards, a Chaffinch and a squirrel.

When we went back outside my husband spotted something moving in the undergrowth - a Bank Vole, it ran about on and off some logs for quite a while - too quick for a photo unfortunately. As far I as can remember it's the first time i've seen one.

The little stream was flowing quite fast for a change though not quite the waterfall my daughter described it as!

Walking around we saw plenty of fungus - it's quite a haven for it here - we never fail to spot some every time we visit.

From the main hide the only thing of interest we saw was a pair of Teal in the distance and a couple of Moorhens.

Not the most bird filled afternoon but we all enjoyed it and that's the main thing!

Golden Acre Park

We visited Golden Acre and Adel Dam yesterday afternoon - it was a gorgeous day and we made the most of it. There were plenty of birds on the water - Mallards, Canada Geese, Moorhens, Coots, a few Tufted Ducks and a flock of Black Headed Gulls.

The Gulls were spooed by a dog and spent a while flying above our heads before settling back on the water.

We saw signs of new life as we walked...

The old life didn't look too bad either in the sun.

Feeding areas have now been set up in parts of the park and they were awash with Squirrels, Blue, Great and Coal Tits. They all seem quite used to the people and dogs that were around and we spent quite a while watching them.

I spotted this Robin singing away and managed a few shots.

I'll post on Adel Dam later in the week.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

I had time to squeeze in an hour of garden watching on Saturday just after lunch. My garden has been busy throughout the day over the past few weeks so I was hoping this would be as good a time as any as it was the only chance I would have!

It didn't go too badly - here is what I sent in to the RSPB

6 Blackbirds
2 Blue Tits
1 Chaffinch
1 Coal Tit
2 Dunnocks
7 Goldfinch
1 Great Tit
9 House Sparrows
2 Long Tailed Tits
1 Robin
4 Starlings

Of course as my hour was up the garden filled with Starlings, Blackbirds and Sparrows! It probably wasn't the best time but it was all I could do and I was quite pleased with what I saw, especially the Long Tailed Tits as they don't visit often.