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13 giugno 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 03 giugno 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? 31 maggio 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.
29 maggio 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. 26 maggio 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? 25 maggio 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. 23 maggio 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. 21 maggio 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. 17 maggio 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. 14 maggio 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. 07 maggio We need a bigger gardenWe need more room to accommodate the birds ... latest arrival on the scene is a goldfinch seen feeding on some lavender heads from last year. What with that and the two wood-pigeons which visit plus the bluetits and sparrows and starlings and blackbirds ... I haven't room out there to mow the lawn Da Vinci CodeI read the 'Da Vinci Code' (Dan Brown) a while ago and thought it was an excellent story, well thought out and executed. It also impinged on some work I was doing on crop circles, inasmuch as the geometries and mathematical series involved in Da Vinci Code (DVC) are echoed in some formations we have seen in our cereal fields over the years. The clever use of the Fibonacci series and its connection with the Golden Ratio was great. Now, it appears that, as the film is about to be released, the established Church seems to be getting rattled about some of the content. Are they afraid that some of the issues raised in this, and other Dan Brown books, may cause people to think that maybe, just maybe there could be a little more truth than is comfortable. What are they trying to hide?
Another aspect is the recent court case in which Michael Baigent allegedly said that some of the story of DVC was based on Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
Baigent lost the case ... but it is interesting to note that HBHG has shot up to number four in the paperback Non-Fiction list. DVC is number one in the paper-back Fiction list.
I shall probably delve into the wonders of Fibonacci at a later date ... and Vitruvian Man.
06 maggio ConfusionI'm not sure who is most confused now ... me or the bluetits!!!
I have been trying to identify the various birds in this drama and find it very difficult when one of the birds comes out of one box and flies straight into the other. I am hoping that with some slow-motion video I can pick up on the facial mask to see if these are, indeed, two, three, four or even five separate individuals all intent on getting into the Guinness Book of Records. The activity is really breath-taking. It now takes me twenty minutes, at least, to wash-up the tea things instead of the usual six or seven. 05 maggio More problems!Now then ... the two boxes are both definitely being used but the problem is this ... the same bird is visiting both boxes. I saw it taking nesting material into one box with regular visits. Then it took, or tried to take, a long piece of last years bindweed (about 18 inches long) into the box. Two sparrows were intrigued by the antics of this little bird that they hung around for a few seconds watching the procedure. I looked away (kettle was boiling, time for coffee) and when I looked back the long strand had gone! It was now hanging out of the other box!! Out came the bird and carried up into the forsythia bush to adjust its grip, I suppose, and then it returned to the first box and flew in as if it owned it.
It now seems that this one bluetit has two homes in my garden and, if it has two mates as well, he is in for a very busy few weeks!!!
More later.... 04 maggio Even more exciting news!We have two nest boxes in the small garden we have, the newer one is the one that has been occupied recently, the other one has been ignored for about five years. Well it would seem that the old box now contains another pair of bluetits. There is quite a lot of activity and the comings and goings are very frequent. I shall give them a couple of days to establish and then try to get a shot or two (photographically speaking) so that I can illustrate my blog. 02 maggio Bluetits are still in controlThese little dynamos are constantly on the go now. But I really must impose myself on the garden as there are certain jobs to be done before it's too late. I'm sure that if I don't have the radio on too loud ... except for the cricket ... they may tolerate the odd mowing of the lawn and weeding of the borders. We shall see. 23 aprile 5-Day Break in WalesWe shall soon be going for a short break in mid-Wales. We will be going to Llandrindod Wells and having some trips out, half day to the Brecon Beacons, half day to Aberystwyth and a full day going roung the Cambrian Mountains. I shall be taking my camera(s) as there is a good chance of seeing Red Kites flying in the area. The Red Kite is a large bird of prey (mainly a scavenger!) and has come back from the verge of extinction by careful conservation coupled with extensive education on the nature of the birds. It was long felt that the Kite was responsible for the death of small animals, such as lambs, and were therefore fair game for those 'keepers who worked for the local land-owners.
When I return I shall publish my photographs and reports to this blog.
29th April 2006
Well that didn't take long. We have been to Wales for our 5-day break and now ... it's all over! But we had a great time and stayed in mid Wales at the Glen Usk Hotel in Llandrindod Wells. We arrived on Monday afternoon at about 4.00 pm only to find that the lift had broken down! But then we found that our room was on the ground floor so it didn't really matter, after all. After a good night's sleep we woke to lots of Welsh 'sunshine' (you know ... misty rain!) and we were to visit the Brecon Beacons Mountain Centre about 30 miles away. Well, the weather slowly improved and we arrived in time to see the edges of Pen-y-fan gently disappear into the murk only to re-appear after about ten minutes. We got back onto the coach and went to Brecon, home of the 23rd Regiment of Foot, defenders of Rorke's Drift in the zulu war of 1879. Then it was back to Llandod (as the locals know it) by which time the sun had come out and I did a walk round the town. It's a remarkable little place, very Victorian in it's layout and architecture. There were lots of historical bits and pieces to see and lovely old shops to explore.
On Wednesday we had an all-day trip through the Cambrian mountains with plenty of photo opportunities to take advantage of and we had our first glimpse of some Red Kites circling lazily above Rhaeder, where one of the feeding stations is situated. We were lucky enough to see more later in the day, but still a long way up in the sky. The journey through the mountains was spectacular and we past old lead-mines, silver mines and reservoirs, There were valleys so deep that you could just see sheep in the bottoms, but only as tiny specks. We went down the Dyvy valley to Aberdovey and then turned northwards to Tywyn and followed the Tal-y-llyn railway up a valley until we got to a woollen mill which served tea and coffee and the most beautiful cake you could hope to taste. We had lunched at Machynlleth earlier but still had room for a slice of cake!!! Then it was back through the mountains and saw the source of the river Wye on Plynlymon where it trickled down the side of the mountain at the start of it's journey through Wales. More sheep, wall to wall sheep, white ones, black ones, coffee coloured ones and, in one field we saw a small herd (pack? group?) of alpaca.
Exhausted and necks aching from craning our heads to see a tiny blob from the coach window which might have been a Red Kite ... or possibly not, we got back to Llandod in time for dinner. A fabulous day all round.
Thursday dawned sunny and bright for our half day going across to Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge. Sheep and more sheep again and some great views of Red Kites this time. Aberystwyth was it's usual lazy uninspiring self but at least the sun shone, the breeze was cool and the coffee was great!
Our journey home was uneventful and we were back indoors in Kent by about four o'clock.
We had a wonderful time and found that the bluetits were still in the box. Fantastic! 20 aprile A Mugging witnessedThis incident was witnessed not by me ... but by my wife!
The bluetit box is sited on a fence in the garden and, as described earlier today, is in the fly-zone near the feeders. Well, one sparrow had completed his ablutions this morning in nextdoor's pond margin and decided to sit on the fence and have a leisurely preen. He'd just got to the part where the wing is up, head under when ... wham! The bluetit appeared from over the fence from behind the sparrow and landed on its back resulting in victory for the bluetit and a very bewildered sparrow falling down on our side of the fence. The bluetit extracted itself and flew straight into the box where, no doubt, he spent the next few minutes relating the tale to his mate!
I suppose an explanation could be that the 'spuggie' had picked a preening area two or three inches too near the nest box ... but who knows? More activity!This morning I noticed that the birds ... bluetits, starlings and sparrows ... were showing a lot more activity. Yesterday, i went out and attached another couple of pieces of garden twine (green stuff) to the bracket holding the peanut dispenser and, yes, this morning there was the sparrow still trying to shred it. I swear that his face was grinning from ear to ear.
The starlings were getting very agitated as the fat balls were nearly exhausted and they were trying to get the upper hand on the peanuts. The sparrows were equally determined that they were not going to be a pushover.
In amongst the frantic flying back and forth, the bluetits were zooming in and out of the nest box, seemingly unconcerned. 17 aprile The Birds are in!!!After four days have gone by with lots of activity, they have seriously taken possession of the box. There have been defensive manoeuvres, quite vicious at times, with the bluetits gaining the upper hand over the sparrows and even starlings which have been a little too inquisitive. For a small bird the bluetit is a brave little soul who appears to be fearless in his manner (...and his manor!)
This morning I saw a re-enactment of one of the funny cartoons in which a man is pruning a tree and sawing through the branch he is sitting on. We have a peanut feeder on the fence which is attached to a bracket by a length of garden twine. A sparrow has decided that the ends of the string, when shredded, would be a great component of his nest. He sits on the bracket and shreds the fibres like mad. It will be only a matter of time before the knot collapses and he becomes the most "popular" bird in the area.
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