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.

Fulltime Robin Feeding

The Robin parents are constantly flying in and out of the garage bringing food to their brood now. Here is one of the adults bringing a load of tasty insects to the nest.



You can see the babies wing feathers developing nicely now.

Robin Feathers Growing

What a difference a few days makes! The Robins now have feathers growing over all those pink fleshy bits.

Blue Tits Fledged

As I suspected, the Blue Tits were ready to leave the nest. I saw the last two leaving just as I was setting off for work on Friday, but I didn't have a chance to take any pictures. However on Sunday morning we were lucky to see an entire nest box of blue tits fledge at my In-laws, so I can post a picture of one of theirs just seconds before it left the nest.

The Great Tits Have Gone

I checked on the Great Tits box today, and they were no longer there. They fledged sometime between last Friday and today, but we did not see them go.



The Blue Tits are still in their nest box, but it can't be long before they are ready to fledge too.



The Robins are having a snooze. Check out that funky hair style!

Robins Update

A quick update on the Robins, who are looking really cute. We have had to stop keeping the car in the garage now for fear that the cat will discover the nest and get to it via the car roof.



They certainly look hungry!

Baby Robins Hatch

The robins hatched today. It looks like we have four chicks and one egg which has not hatched properly. They have a lot of 'hair' compared to the tits which were born almost bald.



Meanwhile the blue tits continue to grow fast. I'm a bit concerned about one of them who does not seem to be growing his feathers as fast as the others. You can see him clearly in today's picture here.



The great tits look ready to fledge now.

Full House

What a difference two days makes! Compare this picture with the one taken a couple of days back and the great tit family appears to take up twice as much room! This nest box is going to get awfully crowded at this rate of growth. Their feathers are looking very near fully grown now. I wonder how much longer before they will fledge?

Nestbox Update

The great tits are looking a bit more developed another 4 days on, showing feathers over most of their bodies rather than just the wings.


The blue tits are growing their feathers now too, but not all at the same speed. One chap seems to be a fair bit pinker than his brothers.

Another Nest!

As I was getting into my car in the garage this morning, a bird flew off from right by my ear. I had seen a bird in the garage the other day too, so I looked around to see where it had come from. The only obvious place was this basket, which has been hanging on a nail in the garage since before we bought the house.



On closer inspection I spotted five eggs inside. The mother was a Robin who I saw perching on the fridge freeze near the door into the garden. So now we have to keep the car in the road for a few weeks, because otherwise the cat will easily be able to pounce on the nest from the car roof. With the garage empty the basket is safely hung out of reach, and hopefully the cat will not even notice it.

The Chicks Are Growing Fast

The Great Tit chicks are developing their feathers now. It is difficult to tell, but I think there are eight chicks visible in this picture.



The blue tits are developing fast too. Now six days old they are not quite showing the same level of feather growth as the Great Tits. We don't know exactly which day the Great Tits hatched, but they appear to be a few days ahead of the Blue Tits.

Even More Baby Birds

Two days on and now we have eight baby Blue Tits in the box. It looks like there are three more eggs too, which have not hatched yet.

Baby Great Tits Too!

While I was watching the birdbox to see whether we had blue tits or great tits nesting in our nestbox, a great tit turned up and was looking around to check it was safe to enter the box with some food. To my surprise this bird then flew into one of the other boxes near to the one I saw the chicks in yesterday. After both parents had flown off I took a quick picture to see what was in this box (it is too high for me to look into quickly, so I just held the camera up and took a snapshot).

The Great Tits appear to prefer the plastic fleece material for their nests. The Great Tit nest last year was made from the same material (which was over the top of the water butts in the garden to try and keep muck out of them).

Baby Bluetits

After the disappointment of realising that our nestbox fitted with a camera was not going to be used by the birds this year, I got a surprise this weekend. I was checking whether one of the older nextboxes had anything in it as it had been used by a Peacock butterfly over the Winter to hibernate. To my amazement I found three baby chicks looking up at me (I say looking, but they are still blind actually). There appear to be seven more eggs which have not hatched yet.