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!

North Cave Wetlands

One of my favourite places to visit is the Wetlands, we managed to go when it was dull and damp but it was worth it! My husband decided to get a bacon sandwich and cuppa from the Wild Bird Cafe on site before we walked around . The lady there told us a Bittern was on the island so I went onto the platform but it had ducked down out of sight.

There's a Bittern there somewhere!

Lapwings

There were lots of Robins, House Sparrows and Tits around the viewing platform. Before we left the Bittern put it's head up again and we had distant views. We walked on to the East Hide and had a better view of the Bittern, it was still distant and quite hidden but still the best views i've ever had of one! We watched until it flew off into the reeds near the Turret Hide.

Bittern! 

There were a lot of smaller birds in the trees - Tits, Finches Song Thrush, my husband spotted a Treecreeper and a little further along a Marsh Tit was in the tree with a second at the feeders. 

Robin

Treecreeper

Tree Sparrows & Goldfinch

Long-tailed Tit

From the Turret hide we saw lots of flighty Lapwings, a small flock of Redshank and lots of Teal, a couple of Wigeon amongst them, a few Shelduck too and a single Little Egret.

Redshank

Teal

Lapwings

Little Egret

Walking further round we heard a Cetti's Warbler calling in the reeds and there were lots more Teal on the water too.There was a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust event in the Crosslands Hide and it was very busy so we didn't stay there long instead spending a little time watching Cormorants and Oystercatchers from the South Hide. 

It had been drizzling for most of the walk and we were feeling pretty damp and chilly by now so were glad to get back to the car and warm up! 

A very good visit especially seeing the Bittern and the Marsh Tits!