The Garden Diary 2013

18 March - The forecast for the last few days - mainly wet - was spot on, and for a while today we had the heaviest rain so far. Interestingly, Farnborough airfield doesn't show that on its daily report although my son who was working in Camberley (north of Farnborough) experienced similar heavy rain to us. The temperature peaked at 7C only briefly around 1pm before dropping back to 3C by the middle of the afternoon.

At least both ponds are now full. There is a bit of frog activity again now, and I can hear some croaking tonight. However, there has been no new spawn deposited over the weekend and when I checked the pond tonight I spotted just ten frogs.

The period of heavy rain this afternoon didn't seem to put off the Robins, and I spotted the pair mating on the fence behind (and sheltered by) our Hawthorn.

The female Blackbird is still to start nest building, but continues to appear frequently in the feeding area. Several times today I turned over some soil to expose earthworms, and she spent time poking about in those areas. I have yet to see her make another visit to the nest site.

However, as I started to look through the recordings made over the weekend I was surprised to see the male make what is his first recorded visit, at 7.12am on Saturday (16th). There was no doubt as to his identity as 'White Spot'.

His arrival was announced with a series of quiet single calls with a 'bump' as he landed, and accompanied by the wind in the trees, although after just half a minute he fell quiet.

The visit lasted just over five minutes during which he moved bits of straw all over the nest.

After he left there was a gap of about a minute before his partner showed up for a very brief inspection last on more than a quarter of a minute.

I'm encouraged by this behaviour which suggested that they did not visit in a search for food, and I must be sure to through the recordings every day from now on.

While the forecast suggests that there may be a few less wet periods over the rest of the week, it will continue cold and there will be more rain.

21 March - Well, we have now passed the Spring Equinox, but you would not have thought so judging by the weather this week. As I write this the TV weather forecaster is promising snow tomorrow in the more northerly parts of the UK. It looks as though we are going to get heavy rain during the night and perhaps some sleet tomorrow.

Today has been overcast but largely dry until the afternoon when it began to drizzle. The temperature didn't get above 6C all day.

Bird activity has been very limited in the garden over the last few days. The Siskins haven't appeared over the last three days, and I have only seen a Wren once during that time. There is still no sign of the Blackbirds nesting, although the male has started to sing from the top of the conifers as dusk approaches. The nest site remains undisturbed since the 16th.

One piece of disturbing news from the garden comes in the form of these pictures of a Great Tit female(?), taken this afternoon.

Clearly an infection of the left side of its head, it has me wondering if I'm witnessing an early stage of the first example of Avian Pox virus in our garden.

In contrast to that bird, its partner appears to be healthy at the moment.

When I last photographed the pair of Great Tits that visit the garden, both birds were healthy. At the moment they do not visit every day.

Avian Pox virus is a disease of birds which affects many species. However, members of the Tit family are more susceptible, especially the Great Tits. If it is indeed Avian Pox, then as the infection develops I can expect to see warty growths on the head and/or other parts of the body. It is not necessarily fatal but is a serious threat to the bird's survival. While most instances of the disease occur in late Summer and early Autumn it can occur at any time. This is not what I would want to be the case with the nesting season approaching, so I'll be watching to see how things progress over the weeks to come. I'm still waiting for any sign of a first visit to the Great Tit nest box this year.

The virus seems to be transmitted in three ways, by mosquitoes, by direct contact between birds, and by contact with contaminated surfaces. It's not feasible for me to wash all the feeders every day, but as it is only the bird table that I see the female visiting I'll try to disinfect that at least once every couple of days from now on.

23 March - Over the last two days the news has been full of the chaos brought by snow and rain in many parts of the country, and today we had a very messy taste of it.

It snowed all morning, but with the temperature hovering between 0 and 1C all day the ground was wet under foot as most of the snow turned to slush. However, on our car roof melting seemed to be very slow and by noon it was covered by just over 4cm of snow.

While it wasn't cold enough to cause the ponds and birdbath to freeze over, they were left with a slushy layer until the late afternoon.

The previous two evenings I saw no frog activity in the pond but there must have been some about as yesterday morning there was a new clump of spawn, deposited on top of the existing mass of eggs.

The weather conditions today left us with very little bird activity today, even with the feeders all cleaned and topped up with fresh supplies. However, there was some unexpected but very welcome activity down at the monitored nest site.

At 8.22am, and while the snow was falling steadily, the male Blackbird 'White Spot' appeared on camera. He was very wary and spent the next minute or so standing at the back of the site looking out.

At 1.20pm, as the snow came to an end, he returned, and this time he stayed for just under a minute, turning his attention to an Ivy leaf with a long stalk.

He returned at 1.22pm. This time the visit lasted for two minutes, during which the same Ivy leaf received more attention.

Within seconds of his departure the 'red' female arrived. She stayed for about a minute, pecking at the straw several times before leaving.

25 March - The cold spell continues. Yesterday the temperature remained just below freezing for much of the time so that icicles formed on the front of our veranda - a rare sight.

Today the sky continues to be a dull grey colour, with a few snowflakes falling in the morning, and the temperature remaining at zero or just above. The icicles are still there, although there is the occasional drip from them and they are becoming very thin.

Down at the nest site I saw two visits by the male Blackbird during the morning. Each time he stood towards the back of the area and looked out, but did not pick up anything. Was he watching for his partner? During his second visit she was bathing in the big pond.

A check through the day's recordings revealed that the male actually visited the site seven times, at 6.40am he stayed for two minutes. The next five visits lasted around a minute each (at 7.47am, 7.58am, 8.50am, 9.40am, 9.43am). His final visit, at 9.45am lasted less than half a minute. At no time did he peck at the materials at the site. The female didn't visit today, although I did see her feeding here several times.

When I see activity levels increase further I'll consider setting up the webcam.

I have now connected the Blue/Great Tit camera to a recorder to monitor it throughout the day.

The arrangement of straw on the floor is different to that photographed on 24 February. However, the change hasn't been due to bird activity, but was caused when I cleaned the glass and removed cobwebs (on 25 Feb). There has been no activity in there since that time.

This is a low quality image and will remain this way unless nesting occurs in the box.

I have not yet begun monitoring of the Swift boxes to watch for Sparrow activity. I may make a start with reconnecting those cameras over the next week or so. I had intended replacing Swift boxes SW-up and SW-lo with a pair of side-by-side boxes. All being well I still hope to do this before the Swifts arrive, but I first need to be certain that the Sparrows are not nesting in them.

26 March -  The cold, grey conditions continue, and although the temperature remained largely on the positive side of zero for much of the day, the North-easterly breeze made it feel more like at least few degrees below freezing. While the icicles disappeared the bird bath remained frozen all day.

The male Blackbird has continued with his daily visits, appearing on camera at 7.02am, 10.21am and 5.01pm. Each visit lasted  rather more than a minute and yet again he spent the time looking out with not a single peck at any of the old nest materials.

A 'intruder' female Blackbird came to feed during the afternoon and was immediately chased out of the garden by the 'red' female.

27 March - As I write this at 12.30pm it is dry, the skies are grey, and the official temperature from Farnborough airfield is 3C, although the north-easterly wind once again makes it feel  quite a bit colder. However, we have been spoilt this morning, with bright, if hazy sunshine which has made it feel a few degrees warmer in the garden!

The sunshine encouraged a few Sparrows to get back to their nest building, including this male who was gathering moss.

The cctv camera picked up just one visit this morning, with 'White Spot' making a brief inspection at 9.51am,

and it seems that he and his partner are not quite coordinated in their nesting plans. Just before the male's visit I saw the female collect a few soggy bits from the small pond and fly off into the conifers beyond the end of the garden.

She returned to get some more just once, much later in the morning.

Usually, once she starts she makes a series of frequent visits, taking away a lot more material than this, so I wonder if this really is a serious effort, or is it still too cold?

Wherever the female is nesting (I saw her take away another single beakful of material this afternoon), the male visited the monitored site again at 4.40pm.

29 March - There has been a definite improvement in the weather these last two days with brighter spells helping to raise the temperature to around 5C, although the continuing north-easterlies ensure that it feels colder - and we even had a dusting of snow yesterday afternoon.

The Siskins have returned, with four here yesterday and two this morning.

Down at the monitored site, Yesterday saw five visits by the male Blackbird by 9am and then nothing during the rest of the day.

On one of those visits he pulled out from under the straw this piece of polythene(?) which he then removed from the nest.

Today he has been to the nest just three times (up until 2.30pm), the first at 8.42am and then two in quick succession at around 11.15am.

This afternoon the site was also visited by a Wren, these two images showing the difference in size between the two species.

30 March - The weather continues dry and cold, thanks to the continuing north-easterlies, with a high of 5C today.

Yesterday I forgot to mention a visit to the garden by a Long-tailed Tit, the first seen here since 9 February. It was a reminder to me that I should have stocked up the fat ball feeder at the beginning of the week - that has now been done.

The female Blackbird continues to take small amounts of nesting materials into the conifers, and her partner continues his daily visits to the monitored site. Today he was seen there this morning at 7,15am and 7.23am, followed by a late afternoon visit at 4.13pm.

And another bird passed through the nest at around 3pm - a Blue Tit. This appearance wasn't followed up by a visit to the nest box below.

In the garden I see that the first Lesser Celandines have started flowering over the last two days, and the first Dandelion opened today.

31 March - We have come to the end of what has likely been the fourth coldest March on record for England, and the coldest Easter on record. Here it hasn't reached the extremes seen in other parts of the UK, but nevertheless it has been pretty cold here. Today the high was just 4C, with north-easterly winds between 10-14mph ensuring that it was chilly, despite occasional sunshine during the day. And of course the clocks have now switched to British Summer Time!

Little to report from today other than the Blackbird activity at the monitored site. Today again it was only the male that appeared, making his first appearance at 6.32am BST (the 'earlier time' explained by the clocks moving forward by an hour). After that there were more visits around mid-day, at 11.54am and then 12.07pm, and then again at 3.42pm before his final appearance at 5.50pm. Significantly, during that visit he actually 'shuffled' the straw momentarily in the area that previously formed the nest cup.

It really does suggest that he may be preparing the site as a reserve in case the female has to abandon her present nest.

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