The Garden Diary 2014

3 April - April has begun with a somewhat unwelcome period of weather which will come to en end in the next day or so. It began on the last day of March. On the 30th Sheila had her car washed while she visited the local supermarket. Early the next morning there was a very brief shower of rain and when we went outside we found her car covered with sandy coloured spots, courtesy of the Sahara.

This is a occasional event that occurs when the wind blows from the south south-east, bringing dust to the UK from the Sahara desert so we thought no more of it. However, this time the winds continued for much of the last three days, bringing not just more of that dust but also man-made pollution over much of the country. Air quality has suffered badly and I've been finding it quite uncomfortable to stay outside for long periods as it seems to be aggravating my usual Spring hay fever!

Back to the garden -

The 'fox camera' has yet to record a fox. However, it did 'see' an interesting event on Monday 31 March. A pair of Dunnocks turned up and over a ten minute period repeatedly performed a ritual which involved the female drooping (and vibrating) her wings while she raised her tail feathers to expose her cloaca. The male's response on each occasion was to peck at the cloaca several times. The male was attempting to remove any sperm that may have been deposited by a rival prior to mating with the female. Unfortunately the video image was of poor quality and it wasn't possible to capture any useable pictures.

The Blackbird camera had also been watching a scene of complete inactivity since being switched on, not surprising as I think that at the moment the female is nesting in the conifers just a couple of metres away.

However, there was something to look at this afternoon, and I nearly missed it (the recorder had stopped!). The male Blackbird turned up and proceeded to inspect the site. First, it inspected the ring of straw that I had placed there, attempting to rearrange bits of it. Then it settled in the ring and performed several shuffles.

It spent the next four minutes or so standing inside the ring looking out. It appears to be checking out possible site for a future nesting attempt - my fingers are crossed.

On our Himalayan Birch the first leaf buds have started opening, and the male catkins look as though they too are about to open. The image on the left shows how much ahead my neighbour's Silver Birch is today.

While on the non-flowering Hazel the majority of buds are now well open (right image), on the flowering tree that process is just getting underway today (left image).

On the hawthorn  the lower half of the tree is starting to turn green as rosettes of leaves open up around clusters of flower buds. In theory at least there should be a good display of flowers this year.

Down at ground level there was another new flowering today in the form of a Forget-me-not (right image).

On Tuesday (the 1st April) another primrose opened up. Perhaps a sort of April fool as the only Primroses I have ever planted here have been of the pale yellow, native type!

A plant that thrives here but which I have some concern about is the Bluebell. This group started flowering on the 1st.

The problem is that most of the plants are hybrids or Spanish Bluebells. I would like to replace them with native English Bluebells, but a previous attempt to get some to grow here failed miserably and these days the native plants are very expensive to buy.

Once this year's flowering is over I may try to remove the vast majority of the plants and introduce some other species for 2015.

I have already commented on how a small number of Red Campion plants have continued to flower right through the Winter. That is continuing at the moment, but I have yet to see buds on the new plants that have grown this Spring.

Three other plants to note are the Teasel (top-left), hedge Parsley (bottom-left) and the Comfrey (right). All three plants are little more than ground cover at the moment, but will grow quite tall over the next couple of months.

4 April - The male Blackbird visited the Blue Tit box site many times today,

and several of those appearances included him shuffling as he attempted to rearrange the straw.

An encouraging event occurred during the late morning when his partner visited for the first time.

However, after a brief inspection she left and did not return, leaving me wondering if she had been put off by the straw ring!

5 April - A day with some bright periods during which I saw some sparrows gather nesting materials.

The male Blackbird visited the Blue Tit box site nineteen times during the day - during this visit a beam of sunshine highlighted his eye for just a moment or two.

 There were no visits by his partner.

The reason for her non-appearance became apparent  in the early afternoon when I saw her collecting twigs and dried grass from just beyond the big pond.

What really surprised me was that after collecting this beak-full she flew into the log store at the end of the garden.

I watch her for a while and was able to establish that she was heading into the back corner of the shelter nearest the Blue Tit box.

This presented me with a bit of a challenge which I tackled after dark, once I knew that she was safely tucked away elsewhere. The nest is perched on top of a log in the corner of the shelter, about 5ft above the ground, and hidden from view from the outside by a 'half-slice' of timber. It was going to be possible to fix a camera above the nest, and with the spot being in deep shade I decided to use a monochrome cctv camera as I would not want to add any visible lighting.

I needed to make a small sacrifice in order to get the picture back to the house as I have just two cable available at the moment, so I have disconnected the fox camera (apart from the 'Dunnock incident' that camera had recorded no other activity).

6 April - A grey, damp day with almost continuous light drizzle, and a high of 14C.

 First, a couple of pictures to show the position of the new Blackbird nest.

You can see the log slice that hides the nest and the camera in place above it.

The weather conditions meant that today was an incredibly quiet day in the garden with very few  birds coming to the feeders. Also, I didn't see the male Blackbird visit either nest site, and the female made just one brief appearance at the new site, at around 11am.

When I set up the camera last night I didn't get its alignment quite right. Hopefully, this has been corrected tonight, although I need to wait until daylight tomorrow to be sure.

I also used my grass rake to clear some plant debris from the corner of the shelter roof to let in a bit of natural light during the day.

If the female looks as though she will continue with that nesting (I think it's her third nest so far this Spring) I will be tempted to get the webcam running.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to pre-school with grandson Evan for a Zoo Session when I understand there will be at least snakes and spiders - should be a fun morning!

7 April - Another dull, drizzly day!

At least there was a bit of sunshine to be found this morning in the faces of small children enjoying their animal encounters. They were able to touch a giant African snail, a giant black millipede, a cockroach and a snake. While Evan touched and stroked all four species it was the snake that really caught his attention. I didn't catch what species it was, but for Evan it was the sight of that flickering tongue that left him almost hypnotised!

It may have been just four animals, but it was well worth the time spent after breakfast. And once home we had to go down the garden to find our own beasties, returning indoors with a (much smaller) millipede, Oxidus gracilis, and a very slender centipede, Stigmatogaster subterranea.

As for the Blackbirds, the female has not appeared at either site today (at least, up to 5pm). The male visited the Blue Tit site four times just before 8am but then disappeared for the rest of the day.

This shows the cctv image of the log store nest site after the adjustment that I made last night. With the camera pointing vertically down, North is to the left.

The rather crumpled object at the back of the nest cup is a piece of the paper-thin bark that peals off the Himalayan Birch. This also used by the Starlings in their nest building.

An update after 8pm. During the day the drizzle became heavier and bird activity around the feeders came close to a halt. However, I saw something that has given my optimism a bit of a reality check. With no Blackbird activity today, apart from the early visits by the male, I assumed that the weather was to blame for the lack of progress. However, at the end of the afternoon, and while the rain was quite heavy, I spotted the female take off from the far end of the big pond with something in her beak. Rather than flying into the shelter she flew over it and into the conifers, in almost exactly the same place as she did during her previous nesting attempt. I waited for a few minutes and sure enough she returned to the bank of the pond, collected more material before heading up to the same spot once more.

It would seem that she may have changed her mind once more, although I need to wait for a couple of days to see what happens in better weather conditions (no rain is forecast, and there will be sunny periods).

And just to add insult to injury, at just after 3pm this Blue Tit arrived at the Blue Tit site to steal some straw for its nest building!

Needless to say, the straw wasn't destined for the Blue Tit box just below this spot!

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