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June 13 Inactivity solved!I suppose that in the back of my mind I knew there would be only one outcome to the story of our little family of bluetits.
Much fuss and fighting early on while they sorted out which box to nest in followed by a period of wonderment as they swooped in and out of the chosen box.
I had a few reservations as to the siting of the box, but that was after they had moved in ... not a good time to start moving things about! (So I didn't!)
Those of you who have been following the saga will have both noticed that reports have been slow appearing lately, probably due to members of the family, (our family that is!) distracting us with house moves of one sort or another and encouraging me to widen my horizons even more by giving me the opportunity to see places in London where I haven't been before!
Nevertheless, we saw that the activity on the bird saga had slowed down and lack of visits by the male, or female, to the box caused much concern. After three days of non-appearances we took the drastic step of gently looking into the box. There was just one egg, cold, and no obvious presence of either bird for a long-ish period of time. We must assume that they had abandoned the nest due to a variety of possible reasons, such as:-
So there it ends, sadly, with no photographs of fluffy balls of feathers demanding food etc.
Thanks to all of you, seriously, who read my efforts and made comments which were encouraging for me to carry on. I shall try another blog later on if I can squeeze time into my daily schedule. It's been an enjoyable experience and nice to know that someone was reading it!
Keep watching ... I shall return!
Love and Light Brian June 03 Defecation of Character!I just had to report an incident on or in our new bird bath. A starling was having a good drink, at least three large billsful of gently warming-up water ... yes the sun is out already! ... and then he/she turned away from the water in preparation for take-off and lightened his or her load by doing a whoopsy in the water. Who'd be a bird? May 31 Moving on!We have got to the end of May. I have had a significant birthday. The garden is looking not too bad. The weather today was a mixture of seasons and temperatures, very cold this morning to very warm this afternoon. I went for my blood-pressure check at 08.30, and, surprise surprise, he doesn't want to see me again for another three months. Something must be working on the tablet front!
We have booked up for our next jaunt with Grand UK. Once again it will cover mid Wales but based in Hereford. We will go to the cathedral to have a look at the 'Mappe Mundae' they have housed there. It will be interesting to see the Chained Library as well.
We went to see an amateur production of 'Anything Goes' by Cole Porter on Saturday followed by a nice lunch on Sunday with a couple of friends of ours. On Monday we had a very nice surprise visit from our younger.daughter, as mentioned earlier.
There have been no serious crop circles reported yet in the UK although there have been two in Italy. Perhaps we will have just one BIG one this year instead of the usual steady flow as normal.
May 29 Happy Birthday to me!Today has been quite evenful as it is my birthday (70 years young!). This seems to have spurred on a great deal of activity in the garden and we have seen a sparrow feeding two babies and one of them seemed to be trying to copy a young starling by attempting to drown itself in the birdbath! I have also seen a squirrel for the first time on our patch.
The bluetits are still feeding and I hope that sometime soon we shall see the fledglings emerge from the box.
More on all of this later. May 26 Another young new arrivalThings are really hotting up (bird-wise, not weather-wise). Our latest new youngster to be seen is a blackbird. It has got used to sitting on the bracket hold ing the fat-ball holder and seems to enjoy watching the starlings and other birds flitting about. I am still amazed how they spot their parents coming in and then they get all agitated until a morsel of food is rammed down its throat.
Photographs are being added to the "features" album
A chaffinch has just paid a fleeting call into the garden! Are we lucky ... or what? May 25 Our Ball of FluffThe swiftly taken photographs of our young sparrow have been added to the "Features" album and can be found by clicking on "photos" and selecting the "features" album. Feel free to have a look at the other albums as well.
Also, there may be stuff in the archives you may find interesting. May 23 A Welcome VisitorWell, well ... after all this time we have had a visit from an old friend, the dunnock. We had a pair nesting in the garden last year but something disturbed them and the nest was abandoned. We have been looking and hoping that they would return but it was not to be, until now.
The bird was hopping about on the lawn with its stripey brown back and thin beak almost as if it was saying, "Look, folks, I'm here again ... but not for long."
Within ten minutes we saw a sparrow on the fence feeding a fluffy ball of feathers with vibrating wings! Our first fledgling of the year.
Next door have the ubiquitous starling family (with young in the nest) making a lot of noise so I think we can say that the fledging season has begun.
Another piece of news is that we saw a sparrow trying out our new bird bath. He was a bit tentative but that is not surprising.
I'm now going to see what is happening on the Springwatch website. May 21 We need a DRIER GardenI don't know! We seem to be in the middle of a wet spell. Not raining all the time but when it does the showers are very heavy.
My neighbour from across the road, Paul, has done a great job on the hard landscaping (paving slabs!) in the front, which will encourage me to get on with making it all look nice and eco-friendly ... cheers Paul!
Not much to report on the bluetit front except that all is going to plan and we get occasional glimpses of the bird going in and out of the box. Activity like this must mean something is going on. Sorry folks but I can't manufacture exceptional news if it ain't happening ... but when the fledglings appear things will liven up a bit.
Keep coming back for other news and views on our little patch of nature. I am now waiting for some nice light in order to take some meaningful pictures to put up on the blog. May 17 New additionWent a bit mad yesterday and bought a new water feature in the shape of a lion's head which mounts on a wall and squirts water into a bowl which is then recycled back into the head. (Argus again, £5.00 off!)
It is made of resin and looks quite good when working. It also gives a lovely trickling sound to the garden. I shall run it from the supply in the shed via a segment timer to give it the appearance of 'spontaneity'. I have a feeling that the birds will love it as I am soon to move the existing bird bath from the back to the front garden onto a newly paved area. I shall replace this bath in the back with a new one later on.
The long awaited rain gave us a couple of hours of steady precipitation and there is a promise of more to come today ... hope it arrives.
The plants are all responding to the dampness and some anemones I put in about three weeks ago are all well up and looking quite healthy
A major job I must do soon is a 'shed-tidying session'. I need a dry day for that so it may be delayed for a little while ... if the forecast is correct!
Once again, my timing is brilliant.
Friday 19th May
Front paving finished, waiting for it to harden off and then wood chip all round. The bird bath from the back is now established in the front and a new one is installed in the back.
At last the garden is beginning to look good. May 14 We need a SMALLER gardenAfter all the hype about needing a larger garden I have now come to the conclusion that what I really want is a SMALLER one.
A couple of days ago I decided to mow the back lawn, a pocket handkerchief of a patch of grass. The weather was good, hot and bright. By the time I had finished, so was I ... not hot and bright but finished.
The shrubs are getting almost to full leaf now and the consequence is that we don't see so much of the bluetits. Only one of the two boxes is occupied but occasionally we see the birds entering or exiting the hole.
There is a small blue butterfly that visits now and then. It's good to see blues in the area as they seem to be on the wane. Adonis blues and Chalk hill blues used to be quite common but now appear to be on the decline.
Last night we had a bit of a storm, plenty of thunder and lightning and torrential rain for a time. This morning the temperature has dropped from yesterday and there is very little feeling of humidity. It is much more comfortable.
I must try to add some pictures to my Blog, otherwise it will become 'blogged' down with text.
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