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9 April - There is only one way to describe how I feel
this morning at 7.45am - confused. Yesterday I watched as 'our' female
Blackbird seemed to abandon the nest box roof site and carry a number of
beakfuls of soggy bits off into the conifers.  Well, this morning, as the rain falls it seems that the roof site is back in favour and shortly after 7.30am I watched her shuffle several times after bringing in some dried grass. During the next half hour she was back four more times.  Unfortunately the video recorder didn't turn itself on this morning so I don't know when she made her first visit, but these two images allow us to see how much she has added since the visit by the Wren yesterday afternoon - no muddy materials before 8am. The question now is do I risk switching the webcam over to this nest this morning or wait until later in the day....  I decided not to wait and the webcam is watching once more. As I add this note at 10.30am there is a pause in Blackbird activity, and in their absence the nest is being robbed, with at least four visits by the Wren (appearing in the webcam a few times). The audio feed suggests that somewhere nearby a male Blackbird is having an encounter with a Magpie. The rest of the day was quiet on the roof, not surprisingly on what turned out to be a really wet day (a typical British Bank Holiday Monday!) 10 April - I have to admit defeat in my efforts to work out what the Blackbirds are doing. After yesterday's optimism in the rain, today's sunshine illuminated a scene of complete inaction, with not even the Wren visiting. I heard the male Blackbird just a couple of times all day, and only saw the female once, when the pair came to feed at around noon - she didn't even take anything away to another nest. I shall resist temptation to switch the webcam tonight, waiting instead to see what happens tomorrow. Tomorrow also marks the opening of the 'hatching window' for the Sparrows and unless the Blackbirds return, as soon as I see that hatching is taking place then I will switch the webcam over.  11 April -
Hatching time for the Sparrows. And what can I say about the
Blackbirds - At 8.28am on a sunny morning and the female Blackbird made her
first appearance since the 9th and shuffled several times in the nest!After that she disappeared again and up to 10.15am there have been no further visits. Is it just too cool for her to start nesting properly? Yesterday the temperature just made it to 11C and at 10am this morning it is still barely above 7C.  Up
in the Sparrows' nest it looks as though at least one egg has hatched -
the parents are coming and going with increased frequency and I've just
seen the male enter (9.46am) with something in his beak that wasn't
given to his partner.The Sparrows appear prepared for cooler conditions with a duvet. The 'soft' appearance of the central area of this image results from the feathers brought in to insulate the roof of the dome - I guess that the floor of the nest will also have a feather layer by now. The day ended with no further visits to the Blackbird nest, and the Sparrows definitely feeding chicks which remain hidden from view. Out in the garden it was possible to see a change in the behaviour of a few House Sparrows linked to the arrival of chicks - they are now hunting for insects etc. as a source of proteins rather than simply heading for the feeders. 12 April - With no sign of further activity on the nest box roof the webcam is now following the Sparrows' comings and goings, although I will be able to switch between the two sites should there be any further visits by the Blackbirds. I have seen neither of the pair in the garden this morning, although perhaps this is not surprising as during the morning there have been tree surgeons working on the line of conifers once again, this time to our right. Along one section they have lowered the tree tops by at least 6ft. 17 April - There is little to report from the last five days, with the Sparrows busy feeding their offspring and no visits by any birds to the nestbox roof site.  In the Sparrows' nest, through the straw I can see signs of movement by the chicks, and I can now hear chirping by them during much of the day. In these images the male is having what appears to be a small caterpillar taken from him by his partner before it is passed to one of the chicks. Also notice the two large feathers at the bottom-right of the image. These must have been brought in during the last few days.  The other three Swift boxes remain unused apart from 'our' male using SW(up) to roost, this image captured at 8.20pm this evening. The Blue/Great Tit box has had no bird visitors, although the straw was moved twice today, first by a wasp and a bit later by a bumblebee. The House Martin nests remain empty, none being used as roosts. Early Swift sightings were reported reported in Cardiff on the 15th so I wonder when we will see the first overhead here. My present conflict with my sense of balance (see garden diary) rules out more than a glance skywards at the moment, but hopefully I will be able to start looking come next weekend. The following week could be interesting, with the Sparrow chicks fledging and perhaps our first Swift sightings. 20 April - Despite the wet weather the Sparrows seem to be able to maintain a good level of feeding of their chicks who continue to remain almost completely out of sight, although I have caught a couple of glimpses of a chick's beak over the last two days.  I
have continued to record the Blackbird nest each day from before dawn
until 7pm but up to this evening there had been no sign of activity
since the 11th.
However, this evening at soon after 8pm I noticed that there is a slight
change in appearance of the nest cup area which I don't think can be due
to the weather conditions.I've adjusted the recording time to continue to 8pm from now on. 24 April - It's difficult to tell whether or not the bad weather is having an effect on the quantity and quality of the food being brought in to the Sparrow chicks as they continue to remain hidden.  However, over the last couple of days they have started to poke their heads out from under the straw canopy whenever there is food on offer. Here, one is being fed by its mother. Occasionally I have seen two heads, but I can't tell if there are more than two chicks in the nest. I hope that tomorrow I can add some sounds recorded from the nest. Swifts and House Martins are now being reported from as far north as Yorkshire so I wouldn't be surprised if our first sightings will occur before the end of the week, although the forecast is terrible for the nest two days. I'm still hoping to get extra Swift boxes put up soon, but it seems unlikely that I'll be able to get that job done before they start arriving. 27 April - While this afternoon has been largely sunny, the morning, like the previous few days have been wet and at times quite windy as well. I'm not sure how much effect this has had on how much food the chicks have received. They appear to be fed fairly regularly during the day although the frequency of visits definitely increases after I add food to the bird table. I have been using dried mealworms and BTO Feeder Seed. This is the most successful mixture that I've used in a long time, with the table being cleared several times during the day. With other mixes that I've tried inevitably there seems a lot of wastage.  The chicks have remained hidden apart from when a parent visits, and even then it is usually just one that appears. There was an exception around 5pm when both chicks greeted their mother. I say both because while they were being fed I could see no sign of movement through the gaps in the canopy behind them. I'm really not sure how ready the chicks are to fledge this weekend. The forecast for tomorrow is for grey skies all day but with the rain not settling in until the late afternoon. There is a weather warning in force for heavy rain all day on Sunday - not the best weather for a fledgling's first flight! And with the arrival of the Swifts imminent (no sign of them as yet), the sooner that bad weather passes us by the better. I don't know where the time has gone these last few days. The weather has meant that nest box making is on hold, although I have now gathered the materials ready to measure and mark out, and patterns for the entrances have been printed out. These will be stuck onto the timber prior to cutting out. With the Swifts appearing in the next week I'm working on the assumption that I will not attempt to paint the boxes until after the Swifts leave at the end of the summer. I have made some recordings of the Sparrow chicks but I have yet to process them for the diary - perhaps on the weekend, although tomorrow we have our grandson with us all day so the sounds and the woodwork will have to wait at least another day as we enjoy his company. 28 April - Just a short note at the end of a rather cold, grey and largely wet day. Tonight the Sparrow chicks are still in residence and during dry spells I saw no sign of Swifts below the cloud cover. 29 April - First Swifts seen - On a thoroughly miserable, wet and sometimes windy morning the Sparrow chicks have been taking their first look at the world outside the box.  Mind you, with the outside temperature just 8C (without taking into account the cooling effect of the north-easterly winds) they soon retreat again to the warmth surroundings of the covered nest! An interesting event took place in SW(up) this morning, soon after 8.45am. A male entered the box briefly but remained at the entrance. That isn't surprising as 'our' male regularly roosts in this box in just the same position. About a minute after he left that box 'our' female left SW(le). Moments later a male entered SW(up) followed closely by a female. He headed for the camera end of the box but she stopped as soon as she got onto the raised floor, crouched down and vibrated her wings rapidly.  She
remained in this position for the next minute and a half while they
mated repeatedly. The male mounted her briefly twelve times. On the
eleventh occasion he pecked her once on the head before dashing off to
the end of the box, and the next time ended with two pecks on the head.However, when the female continued in her submissive display he then returned to her a thirteenth time but did not mount her. Instead, he pecked her wing and then the base of her tail. This seemed to be a sign to the female that he was no longer interested and she left. Half a minute later and the chicks were being fed again - could it have been our pair preparing for a second brood? More circumstantial evidence that this could be so could be seen ten minutes later. The male had been in and out of SW(up) and just after our female had left the chicks there was another albeit briefer mating session in SW(up) during which the chicks were left alone. The time between the female leaving SW(up) and the chicks' next feed was long enough for her to have visited the bird table. The wind direction and speed (>20mph during the morning) isn't good for the Swifts that are trying to move north. At least the forecast suggests a swing in the wind direction to south-easterlies during the afternoon. We have to wait until Tuesday to see some slightly warmer south-westerlies for a while before they move right around the compass and back to cold north-easterlies by Thursday - not good news for the Swifts. Well, perhaps I'm too pessimistic. Early this evening, while southerly winds brought a few brighter spells our way I spent some time outside gazing upwards. At first there was nothing apart from a group of a dozen Rooks heading north over us, but then two Swifts made an appearance, lower than the Rooks and circling rather than just passing over. Perhaps they have now moved on. I am monitoring all four of my boxes and there are no Swifts in them tonight, just our Sparrow family. I have made a bit of progress in my preparation work towards getting the new Swift boxes sorted out. I have decided to make use of some old PVC cladding panels to make the main external structure of what will be a block of four nest boxes. This will make the whole thing lighter for me to deal with, and it means that I will not have to paint them. I will be lining the floors with thin plywood, and the entrances will have wooden surrounds. It is these that I've made this afternoon.  Talking of nest boxes, at least two of the boxes I put up for neighbours are being used by Starlings with chicks at the moment. In this case bread is being taken in, although the chicks in that box will also have sampled some of the dried mealworms from my bird table - at least two pairs of Starlings come to the table during the day. Once the nesting season is over I must give my neighbours the option of having a slightly smaller entrance mounted on their boxes. The entrances I made today have an opening of 30 x 65mm which should be Starling proof, if that is what is preferred. 30 April - A blue sky morning to end what has probably been one of the wettest Aprils on record.  One of the young Sparrows has been more adventurous than at any time since it hatched, climbing on top of the nest briefly before disappearing quickly back into its shelter. Food is still being brought into the box, but just before 8am the pair look very restless, with one looking out and chirping loudly as I write this.  Half an hour later and one was climbing again. With the weather uncharacteristically good I spent most of the day outside cutting out and then assembling the terrace of four Swift nest boxes that I've been wanting to make for so long. by tonight I had got as far as giving the external surfaces several coats of paint. A bit more painting still needs doing. I hope to do that first thing tomorrow, but a grand-daughter's birthday and a bit of baby sitting means that I won't be getting a ladder out tomorrow, whatever the weather! While outside I kept looking skywards but there was no sign of Swifts today, which is no bad thing as the Sparrow chicks are not ready to leave just yet. It would appear that the adverse weather has had an effect on their development and fledging is now overdue.  I have just gone through the day's recording, and for the first time it showed one of the chicks exercising its wings, and that wasn't until shortly before 6pm. How many more of these sessions will be needed before they fledge? The male returned to SW(up) several times during the day but there was no repeat of yesterday's visits by the female. - Click on the images to see larger versions -
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