Moved House!

Today was the last day that this was our garden. We moved house today, and so have a new garden to work on. The new one is a lot more lawn and no real scope for overgrown areas to attract the wildlife. So apart from the birds, there is not going to be a lot to attract wildlife to the new garden. Just lots of space for the kids to run around in. That means no pond either. So my wildlife photos will have to be taken out and about from now on. I'll be posting them on my photography blog as and when the kids allow me time to get on the computer!

Nestbox Video Camera

I have now got the video camera reconnected in the nest box which the great tits have nested in. Here is a bit of video recorded from the box today.

Nesting Birds

We were in the garden today when we saw a great tit leaving one of the nest boxes. The box was the one I have fitted a video camera in on previous years. The first year with the camera the eggs laid in the nest never hatched. The second year the nest box was not used. This year the camera was not wired up! When I had a look this was the state of the nest.

Great Tits in the nestbox

At the same time I checked the other nest boxes in the garden, and discovered this blue tit with recently hatched young.

Blue Tit with her babies

Lots of Wildlife

The garden is positively alive with native wildlife today. The pond is doing especially well, with clouds of water fleas, all sorts of beetles buzzing about, and hundreds of big healthy tadpoles!

The native wild cowslips which have been growing on the path are doing really well this year.

The borders are full of forget-me-nots, which attracted this lovely butterfly.

The frogs are all hanging out in the pond during this hot weather.

We counted 17 adult frogs visible at the same time.

There are tadpoles everywhere.

Newts! We spotted newts in the pond for the first time today.

Lots of pond skaters are whizzing around on the surface of the pond too.

Spring is in the Air

It is almost a year since I reported any news from the garden, but now Spring is with us we finally got out into the garden after Easter to take some pictures. The frogs have spawned already, choosing the new pond again this year. They have also chosen the opposite end to last year to spawn in. There is a lot of frog spawn too. Lets hope this is the start of a successful year with the pond. The primulas are flowering too. One of the drumstick primulas has survived in the bog garden, and the cow slips are just coming into flower too.

Lots of frog spawn

Drumstick Primula in the bog garden

The Marsh Marigolds are loving their new home in the big pond

The Lily of the valley has started coming up

Robins Fledged

We returned from a weekend away to find the robin nest was empty! This surprised us as the chicks looked nowhere near ready to fly yet. However I discovered they were still in the garage this morning, flitting around all over the place barely able to fly at all with their stumpy little wings. It made getting the car out safely a bit of a challenge. So the car is going to be kept in the street in the meantime. I've since found out that robins typically fledge before they seem ready.

I managed to get pictures of a couple of them. One perched on a piece of board leaning against the wall.



Another one was hiding up in the rafters.

Alert Little Robins

The Robins are certainly more aware of their surroundings now. For a couple of days they have been alert and looking at the camera when it appears above them. Before that they did not seem aware it was anything different to their parents.