Activity in the Garden

I finally got to spend a day in the garden this year! WE have been so busy working inside the house, that the garden has been sorely neglected this year. Finally with the front room renovation finished, and a long Easter weekend at home, the garden saw some work.

The weather was great on Monday, and the birds were very active around the nestboxes. We saw a blue tit hammering away inside one box, and a Great Tit taking twigs into another. Of course neither of these are the box I have fitted a camera into! I have now got the computer set up to record images from the birdbox camera, so we can only wait now. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of Spring in our garden.


Garden View

The blackthorn blossom is out

The frogspawn is coming along nicely this year

Picture of Pond and Frogspawn

The pond with emergency shallow area for frogspawn! I basically used the old plastic waterfall thing which we inherited with the pond, and put it on top of a rock that I sunk in the pond to support it close to the water surface.

Some of this year's frogspawn, and (inset) one of the frogs.

Frog Spawn Arrives

Ah, the joys of Spring. Monday morning saw me frantically trying to create a shallow area in our far from ideal garden pond to stop all the frg spawn which appeared over the weekend from sinking into the depths. I learned recently that this kills frog spawn, and our pond has a constant depth over the entire area of about 0.4 metres.

An idea wildlife pond should have variable depth, with shallows and a deepest point of around 0.75 metres. This provides a range of habitats required to support all the life in the pond. The deeper water is important, as is the total volume because the temperature varies too much in a small shallow pond. Hot Summer days will heat up the water too much, starving the water of oxygen. This makes the pond water go green and kills the animal life. There should also be easy ways in and out of the water for wildlife, and good cover around the pond.

Unfortunately our pond fails on all these points! I have plans to make a much better pond, but that project has yet to start.

Deluxe Bird Box with CCTV Installed

I managed to put up the new bird box with a miniature colour video camera fitted, just in time for the cold snap that brought some rare snow to the garden. The cold weather has certainly brought the birds flocking to the feeding station. I've not been able to check the camera since I put it up about 2 weeks ago because I do not have enough cable to reach the TV in the house yet! The distance is around 40 metres, and with a low quality cable the sound was completely obscured by noise interference. I've ordered some higher quality cable that I hope to fit at the weekend.