October 2011 - The Wren returns and a Treesparrow in the garden!

Sunday 16th: The Wren that has been visiting our garden each Autumn\Winter since 2008 has returned today. It surely must be the same bird as it comes to the bush at the back door and calls for mealworms. If it is not the same bird, then has it indicated to others about where to get an easy meal? This is an intriguing question. But if it is then it has clearly survived the harsh snows of December 2010\ January 2011! The bird seems to follow the same pattern in that it departs the garden in March and returns around October. This being the case for 2009, 2010 and now 2011.

It was at 2:20pm that I first saw the Wren picking through the undergrowth in the garden. Throwing some mealworms out,immediately caught its attention and it came to the backdoor to feast, closely followed by a dozen House Sparrows.

Scanning the House Sparrows, one caught my attention. It looked oddly out of place. Looking closer I could see that it was a Tree Sparrow. Now as can be seen (image below) Tree Sparrows have a white cheek with black spot and an all brown head. Whereas House Sparrows (image above) don't have white cheeks or an all brown head. Above, the male House Sparrow is on the left and the female is on the right. It's very unusual for Tree Sparrows to visit a garden, that is unless your garden is the countryside! This one may just have been passing through, on its way somewhere. Both Tree Sparrows and House Sparrows will freely associate as flocks and can live side-by-side. Only the one Tree Sparrow was seen in our garden but I now scan the large flock of resident House Sparrows...just in case!

October 2011 - A couple of Goldfinches visit the garden!

Friday 14th: After all the rain and cloud of recent days, today is sunny with clear blue skies. It's very rare indeed that we get Goldfinches in our garden. But today, Mel snapped some photos of these two Goldfinches on one of the sunflower-heart feeders. There is clearly a difference in the markings on these birds and we believe that one is a juvenile while the other is an adult.

The Goldfinches spent a fair amount of time on the feeders and seemed content, even with the hustle and bustle of the House Sparrows. We don't get visits from these birds on a regular basis like some, (Sandra), who live only a couple of hundred yards away! Could it be that the Goldfinches don't like conifers, as that is all we have in our garden?

September 2011 - Butterflies, Dragonflies, Ladybirds and Treecreeper!

Saturday 24th: Had a walk around my local wood in the morning sunshine. Came across a flock of Blue and Long-tailed Tits. Amongst the flock were two Treecreepers. These birds are always a special treat to see and even more to photograph. For such a small bird, they are quick on their feet as they scramble up the bark of a tree - never down. I did see one of them flutter down the ground and then start climbing.

Aside from that flock, not much else. Most birds are either molting or coming to the end of their Summer-moult so tend to keep themselves hidden. But what I did notice was a large number of Ladybirds. These were the resident variety of 7-spots. No Harlequins seen.

 With Autumn now upon us, this is the best time of year to seek-out those elusive fungi. Below is a photo of the Cauliflower fungus (Sparassis crispa).

Later in the back garden I came across an unusual Moth; Angle Shades  (Phlogophora meticulosa). After taking photos, we placed it on a bush where it has stayed all afternoon and was still there at 6pm!

Oh...and Mel got stung again (the second this season) by a Wasp!

The garden provides cover and residence to a large population of House Sparrows. At the last count a few weeks ago, there was 109. Clearly not all of these live in the conifers, but may do, with others from surrounding gardens taking advantage of the variety on food on offer here. Nationally, they may be on the RSPB's Red List, with very low numbers in London, but here they are most definitely on OUR Green List!

Wednesday 21st: My first outing since recovering from sciatica problems with my back. So it was just a local trip up the road to Hatfield Moor and hopefully not too much time on my feet. Fairly uneventful overall. The highlights being 2 Hobbies that flew overhead, with one returning about 20 minutes later - unfortunately no photos. A good view of a GreenWoodpecker through binoculars while Sandra used the scope to get an even better view and later a Great-spotted Woodpecker. Still, quite a number of Emperor and Red Darter Dragonflies about with various other kinds. The ground is damp as would be expected after the rain that we've had recently and various Mushrooms\Toadstools were evident.

 Above: Just one of many Speckled-Wood Butterflies seen at Hatfield Moor (south).

 Above: This Small Copper Butterfly was the only one seen.

Above: Red Darter, as usual, this was the most numerous of the Dragonfly family.

Above: Gadwall in flight.

Above: Shaggy Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus)

Above: Silky Nolanea (Nolanea sericea).

 Above: Woolly Milk Cap (Lactarius torminosus).

Above: Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria).

June 2011 - Blackbird has brood 3 and 4!

From our observations of this pair of Blackbirds, we beleive that the fledging of the chicks has been much too early for broods 3 and 4. In fact, comparing these with last years' broods by a more seasoned pair of adults and the first brood this year by this young pair, of two, the fledglings should be almost twice the size before they leave the nest. But against the odds, by 30th June, two of the fledlings had reached the appropiate size and stayed in the garden for a few weeks, being constantly fed by the adult male Blackbird.

Friday 17th: The female Blackbird that has been nesting by the back door is on her fourth nest...that we know of! She is currently on 3 eggs and looking very ragged! She has laid a total to date of seven eggs, of which she has had 6 successful hatching's and 6 successful fledglings. The first in mid-March was a nest of 3 eggs but only two hatched with the two chicks fledgling and after a couple of days we lost sight of them. Now a Sparrowhawk had been in the area on a regular basis and they may have succumbed to the raptor. Her second nest was up in the conifers where we couldn't see the eggs but we believe that it was raided by either a Squirrel, Magpie or Jackdaw. In late April, she returned to the nest by the back door and laid four eggs, all of which hatched on the 3rd of May and the four chicks fledged to a big size. At least two are still about and are fed by the male Blackbird. He even feeds them by the back door!

Last Tuesday, the female started laying eggs in the nest again and by today there are three in the nest. Where does she get all the energy from? Well it's quite obvious that access to live mealworms has supplied her with plenty of protein to produce these eggs. She is a young blackbird (two years) and is partnered with a very healthy and fit and strong male. The pair have had to repel invaders in the form of other Blackbirds and the female did have a near-death fight with another female Blackbird for feeding rights, but her facial scars have healed well. Below, you can see the massive lump above her left eye that was the result of this fight. The only other competitors that will not disappear are the House Sparrows! They continually harass her for mealworms and on occasion will try and rob both her and the male of mealworms. The Sparrows, of which there are approximately a regular 30 or so out of a garden population of 80ish will also fly into the kitchen to grab mealworms and there has been a few House Sparrow chicks in the garden too. Regular visitors too are the Jackdaws who are particularly partial to monkey-nuts and the Blackbirds do not take kindly to their visits, especially when there are Blackbird chicks about....of which there has been plenty this season.

NEWS FLASH!

By late afternoon of Thursday 30th June, all 4 eggs hatched and 4 Blackbird chicks are alive and kicking! This brings the total for this year (that we know), to 10 that the female with the nest by the back door has produced. Two, that fledged the nest on May 25th are still fit and healthy. The adult male is still feeding them though they do feed themselves and have developed in size greatly. Indeed, one of the fledglings has even taken to coming into the kitchen for live mealworms, having watched the adult male and female, though it still has to compete with the House Sparrows!

UPDATE 11th July:

Though all 4 Blackbird eggs hatched and for a few days, all 4 were being fed, only two are alive. In fact, sometime in the past week, either the male or the female Blackbird must've removed two of the chicks for some reason: more than likely they died. It is not unusual for the dead chicks to be removed as decaying matter would spread disease to the others and even attract predators. Now the nest is empty! Both remaining chicks seem to have fledged...rather too early as they are both underdeveloped. We wouldn't be surprised if both were either predated or died of cold in the night.

UPDATE 14th JULY:

The fledgling chick that was very under developed has died. This now leaves one. We haven't seen this fledgling but we have seen a fledgling that looks as though it has been out of the nest for a few weeks.

Below are a couple of photos that Mel grabbed of the male Blackbird and female House Sparrow, hiding in the house from the Sparrowhawk that was outside in the garden. The Blackbird has flown out of the kitchen where it was eating mealworms...and into the Utility room when the lawn mower is kept. Here you can see it hiding in the grass box!

Meanwhile... the House Sparrow that was also eating mealworms, flew into the living room and onto the sound-system speaker. After a while it relaxed and sat on the canary's perch. Later, both birds made their way out and back into the garden.

May 2011 - 25th: Brood 3,  Blackbird chicks.

Below is a series of photos that Melanie took during the third brood that the Blackbirds hatched in the nest by the back door.

First chick hatched on 25th May.

By 28th, all four had hatched.

Close-up.

Always hungry - the adult Blackbirds were constantly visiting the kitchen for live mealworms.

The rival female - the nest is to the left just out of shot. The female is on the nest giving the rival the "evil eye". These two birds have had some ferocious fights these past weeks!

The female visits the kitchen for mealworms and catches the afternoon Sun.

4th June, getting ready to fledge.

8th June, the chicks have fledged the nest and are easy targets for predators.

8th June, the female gathering yet more mealworms from the kitchen.