Wales at New Year

As per usual, my New Year was spent on holiday with friends and family. This year, as with last year, we were in Wales, near Newtown (not too far from Welshpool). A good week was had by all, and I thought I would use this post as an opportunity to post some of the pictures I took throughout the week. I didn't take a huge amount but there were a few which are worth sharing. 

Luckily the weather we had throughout the week was actually not too bad for the most part, which is especially good considering the horrible weather we had in December. Even though the weather was generally decent when we were there, some of the fields in the surrounding area were flooded from the amount of rain prior to our visit. 

Luckily, the place we were staying in wasn't covered in water which was a nice bonus. The photo below shows the house that I was staying in. There was about 20 people in total, with 11 staying in this house, and the other 9 people split between two smaller houses across the road. 

And a picture of the house from the other side of the road where the other little cottages are:

The next set of photos were taken throughout the week on various different walks around the area we were staying. 

The next few photos were taken at a small local wildlife reserve. The site includes a wetlands area with reeds and a couple of islands, and some scrub/woodland in the surrounding area, with a couple of hides. We spent 2 or 3 hours walking around the reserve, popping into both of the hides for a while. In terms of wetland birds, it was actually pretty quiet and there wasn't a lot to be seen. It is only a small reserve, so it was always unlikely to attract huge numbers of wildfowl. 

Most of the bird activity, as is often the case at nature reserves, could be seen when walking between the hides in the scrub areas. All of the small common birds you would expect to see, we saw. There were a couple of unusual things to be seen though. I was very surprised by the number of Bullfinches in the area. We saw them 4 or 5 times when walking around the reserve, sometimes on their own, and more often than not, in a group with a couple of other individuals feeding on berries of various plants. 

Unfortunately, Bullfinches as I'm sure you're aware are relatively shy birds and it really is quite difficult to get close to them. This makes photographing them a bit of a pain, and as I was there, I was only really able to get a couple of record shots. Bullfinches aren't rare exactly, but it would have been nice to get some better photos of a bird that isn't seen all too often. Not only this, but I missed all the opportunities to take pictures of the male bird with its distinctive bright pink front. The photo below is the best I could manage of a female bird we encountered on our way to the first hide. 

Another bird we encountered was a friendly little Dunnock...

Once we had got into the first hide, there wasn't an awful lot to be seen. We did spot a Wren flitting around in the reeds though, which caught our attention for a while. They're such interesting birds to watch, but for something so common, they're surprisingly difficult to see. Even when you have spotted one, its often just for a few seconds or even less before it flies off into the undergrowth where it can't be seen. 

This particular bird stayed around a bit longer than normal, allowing a few pictures to be taken. Even though it stayed put, the bird was at quite a distance, and was obviously very small, so my 300mm lens really couldn't get particularly close to it. A very average cropped picture can be seen below.

We saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the way to the second hide, and a few other interesting species such as Teal and Great-crested Grebe could be seen from the second hide, but after a while we decided to head back. On the way back to the car though, we saw a tiny Goldcrest flitting through the scrub, a Jay, a Red Kite and a Kestrel. By the end of the day, we had seen a decent number of species for such a small reserve which was pleasing. Throughout the week, we saw other species such as Treecreeper, which was good to see. I've seen them a few times before, but its always fascinating to watch their unique behaviour as they climb up trees like mice. 

This reserve was just one of many in the local area around the house we were staying in. Wales generally really is a fantastic place to see birds, largely due to the fact that so much of the country has been left untouched. Pretty much every time I've been there I've ended up seeing an impressive range of species without really making an effort to go to many nature reserves. 

I think I'll leave today's post at that. I'm starting to run out of photos on my computer that I haven't posted yet so hopefully I'll have my SLR camera back from being repaired before too long. I also might try and add a couple of posts in 2012 to fill in the gaps I missed. Until then, have a great week :D 

Fledgling Starlings to come

Recently, we bought some live mealworms for the birds, thinking it would be helpful for any nesting birds to feed to their chicks. Well, we have certainly had a positive response from the local Starlings. They have been flying off with beakfulls of mealworms for a couple of weeks now. I think that there are at least 4 adult starlings flying off with food to feed chicks. With the frenzied feeding, I am sure it won't be long until we see some fledglings.

A while back, we got a couple of plastic green mealworm feeders with little covers and steep sides. Before this, we were always trying to find somewhere A) protected from the weather, and B) somewhere they couldn't simply crawl off. As a result, many of the mealworms we wasted. It seems that now, the problem has been solved and the mealworms have been disappearing fast.

The Starlings have been seen deliberately spilling the mealworms onto the lawn so that they can collect them more easily. The video below shows a Starling collecting some mealworms and flying off with them. Note how the Starling quickly flies off with the mealworms before the second starling is able to take any! I was so lucky with the way one Starling replaced the other when recording the video.



Another ineteresting sighting in the garden has been a juvenile Dunnock. I also managed to get a clip of this too, albeit a short one. After watching this clip a few times, I thought the juvenile Dunnock could in fact be a very scruffy adult Dunnock. See what you think. I must say though that the Dunnock does appear to beg for food from the parent. This "youngster" appears to be able to feed itself, so I don't think it is a recent fledgling.



Now, I also wanted to talk about a very strange encounter in the garden yesterday. In the late afternoon, I saw a small flock of Long-tailed Tits visit the garden. Fairly normal so far, then. But I then saw a pair of the little birds hanging around near our conservatory nestbox. To my surprise, they actually entered the nestbox for a short time. I have certainly not seen this kind of behaviour before from this bird, although I know that Long-tailed Tits are beginning to exploit food from a wider range of feeders. When you look at the list of birds which use an ordinary tit box, the Long-tailed Tit is not part of the list. It would be great if the little birds visited the box again at some point, and maybe even thought about a late nesting attempt there.

To finish off, below are a couple of pictures of Collared Doves seen in the garden recently They seem to have learned how to feed off our bird feeders now!

Hopefully I will see some more fluffy youngsters over the coming weeks.

Patch plants and garden birds

Much of our garden wildlife is out and about at the moment, especially the birds. Particularly the finches seem to be stocking up on seeds. Yesterday at about 6:00 in the afternoon, I filled up one of our bird feeders, only to find that it was empty at about 10:00 the following morning- that has to be a record. Even though it hasn't really been very cold over the last week, the birds are glued to the perches of the bird feeders.

In this posting, whilst I am on the subject of birds, I am also happy so announce that we have seen our first fledgling of the year. A very young Robin has been seen in the shrubs around our garden- I hope both parents are still feeding him/her because it does look quite vulnerable. Elsewhere in the garden, I spotted our nestbox Blue Tit male feed sunflower hearts to Mrs Blue Tit, who I reckon is probably incubating a clutch of eggs in the nestbox at the moment.

Below is a photo montage showing some of the main visitors. They all seemed happy to feed whilst I was outside. On the left is a Dunnock , whilst on the top right is a male Chaffinch and a female Chaffinch is in the bottom right photo. The Dunnock looks very thin in that photo, don't you think? Maybe it is currently feeding hungry chicks in a separate garden. The Chaffinches are the most common visitor at the moment, and are the main reason for the bird feeders emptying so fast.

Now, to some garden plants. It has been a while since I have mentioned my flower/wildlife patch. Plants are popping up everywhere, including some unwanted ones too. The photo below, however shows some flowers which were planted a while back. I can't believe it, but I have completely forgotten what they are. They certainly need thinning out a bit, which could probably be a job for another time. In the photo, you may also spot some little flowers. amongst the bigger plants. Again, I've no idea what those are.

Elsewhere, weeds are coming up all over the place. I know they need to be removed, but a closer look at the flowers reveals loads of colour.
Here is a closer view of the flowers that were in the top photo. As a wildlife gardener, I am unsure on many plants, even ones that I have planted myself. It could even be a weed, but I just don't know. If you know, could you tell me please. I haven't seen too many bees in the past week, mostly due to the rain, but hopefully, some of these flowers will help attract them into our garden.


In my next post, I have some more blossom to talk about. But not the apricot tree blossom that has been and gone. No, this blossom is from a different tree. Last year, I don't remember seeing much blossom on this tree, but it is appearing in large clumps at the moment. I also have a Blue Tit video to show you which was captured about 2 weeks ago now. But for now, enjoy the sun!

Its the wrong nestbox

It looks like the choosing of a nest site by our Blue Tit pair is over. And, yep, you guessed it, they haven't chosen our camera nestbox this year. Over the last couple of weeks, the Blue Tits have more frequently visited our "conservatory nestbox" and even showed interest in a newly erected nestbox behind our shed. Its amazing, the effort and time the birds put into choosing a suitable safe nest site for the year ahead. The video below shows what looks like it will be the last visit by both Blue Tit parents this year captured by me.

The video below was captured in late February. I have only seen single Blue Tits visit the box over the last few weeks, and just recently, I haven't seen either of them enter the box.



If you visit my camera nestbox blog, you may also know that our Blue Tit pair even started to build a nest in the box. Click here to see the posting about that. The pair visited the nestbox daily and looked like they would definitely nest there. I am not sure what changed their mind, but I do have some ideas. I think that the size of the nestbox hole will have made an impact. The size of the hole is 32mm (I think), and this might have put them off. The nestbox is also not sited anywhere near cover and is in obvious view.

The possibility that there were 2 pairs visiting (one pair in the camera nestbox, and one in the conservatory nestbox) did cross my mind. I don't think this can be true though as I haven't seen more than 2 Blue Tits in the garden at any one time since the end of January. Also, the ID of the pair which visited the camera nestbox, seems to be the same as the pair that is visiting the conservatory nestbox. Confusing stuff!

Over the last few days, nothing has entered our camera nestbox at all and plenty of nesting material is being carried into our conservatory nestbox. A quick look inside the Conservatory nestbox without disturbing the birds showed a nearly complete nest. The poor female has been working very hard, and I have seen her collect nesting material around the garden. She is very cautious when collecting material on the ground and is scared by the smallest of movements.

There are some positives about the nest site which has been chosen in the end. For starters the conservatory nestbox is fairly near cover, and hopefully it is quite safe from predation by cats, starlings, magpies, etc. Also, the nestbox can be seen very well from the office building, so I may be able to get some good video capture for you to see in the future. I just hope the parents will be able to find enough insects for the chicks in a month or so.

I think I will finish on some of our other garden birds. The Dunnock in the photos below is starting to become quite tame.


Our other garden birds are feeding frantically at the moment too, especially the House Sparrows and Chaffinches. I may post on these birds soon. But for now, good luck to all breeding birds in the UK this spring.

It's all out there...

You just have to look for it in our garden. Today, as I went outside at first look there was nothing there. But just stand back and observe and you will notice all sorts of nature in almost every garden. But what nature? Well, just by standing around near our garden shed, I saw all sorts of interesting things- birds, plants, the sun. But it takes time to notice these things sometimes, especially when everything appears to be hidden. So why are things hiding in the garden at this time of year?

The cold is probably the most obvious threat for any garden life in the winter, causing most living things to try and find somewhere warm. Obviously this is difficult for a plant seeing as they can't walk or fly to a warm spot in the winter sun, but today I spotted a tiny wild flower at the end of the garden in the sunlight. I was very surprised to see this colour in our garden at this time of year. This really was hard to see and was very well hidden in all the undergrowth. But its not just the tiny wild flowers that were hidden for the winter- the Rhubarb plant really has died down, and all that's left at the moment is a pile of the black and brown leaf remains.

Today, many of the birds were found in our evergreen tree at the end of our garden. Is this because they are more covered and protected there? The apricot tree with no leaves is certainly a bit exposed at this time of year. A predator such as a Sparrowhawk would easily see a bird in our apricot tree and would be a real threat. So I have placed some new bird feeders deep in cover in our garden, in the hope that the more shy birds will take some food from them. We have bought a new fat feeder which we put deep in the cover of our apricot tree (the Blue Tits have already found it)! I have just ordered some mealworms and I will put them in a makeshift feeder as you will see in the photo below. This one is placed in an evergreen bush and is definitely in a covered place.

I went out with my camera earlier to see if I could take any bird photos. The Dunnocks were very shy and were also "hiding" in the trees today. Most of them took a quick snack from our hanging bird table before flying back into the trees, but I managed to get a picture of a more tame one on a branch. Whilst I was outside I also saw a Coal Tit flitting through the conifer with a Blue Tit. Recently I have also spotted a visiting Wren whilst outside. All of these small birds were probably looking for food with lots of energy. The fat block and balls I have just put up must have come in very handy for these birds.

Shirl posted about her visiting Blackcap not that long ago. Well, I am pleased to say that we have also seen our first Blackcap of the year. It was a female with its chestnut brown cap. In previous years we have mostly seen them on our fat feeders and seed feeders but this time it was seen on our peanut feeder. Hang on a minute... I have only just realised. It isn't even supposed to be here at this time of year, but it was definitely a Blackcap - no doubt about it. Blackcaps are summer visitors, not winter ones. So why am I seeing one in our garden?

Well, when I am confused about some bird sightings I tend to resort to a bird book. My question was answered the Complete Garden Bird Book which said, "Blackcaps are generally summer migrants breeding across the whole of Europe, but they are now also a regular and an increasingly common winter visitor, particularly in milder areas of Britain and the warm climates of southern Europe" Today I also spotted a Starling for the first time in a while on a fat feeder near the house.

Whilst I was outside, I took the opportunity to take a look at my "nature patch". I must admit that I am not very good at regularly digging up weeds, but in the winter the weeds aren't growing particularly fast anyway. However, my wild flower seeds are growing quite steadily and look like they are surviving the cold weather we have had so far this winter. The shop-bought plants from Homebase are also doing well and are starting to fit in and flow with the rest of the patch. Hopefully, they also continue to live through the frosts we have been having recently.

Talking of nesting sites for birds, I bet the Ivy in the photo below is a great site for nesting Robins, as well as a nice feature in our garden. Last year we had our Cherry tree (which was not growing very well and looked unwell) cut down. On it was a Robin nestbox, which is obviously now spare. So I wondered if the nestbox could be sited in the ivy. Even if it wasn't used for nesting there, it could at least be available for any winter roosters. Its definitely got enough cover from predators there. Again, it was only today that I noticed the bright green colour of the ivy. Ivy has got to be one of my favourite plants, so I don't really mind that its growing quite rapidly on the tree now.

Coming back to my main post theme of animals and plants "hiding" at this time of year, there aren't any Blue Tits roosting in our camera nestbox, or any of our nestboxes for that matter. I am guessing that it is warm enough for them to be outside in this weather. In fact today has been a fantastic day in terms of the weather. Sadly it isn't going to continue tomorrow with heavy rain forcasted. In this posting I must mention the fact the bloggers which take part in the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post certainly managed to "find" plenty of "hidden" plants to talk about this month!

All photos taken in my garden on Sunday 18th January 2009.

Birds bathing

It seems silly that at this time of year in the sub-zero temperatures, that any bird would want to wash itself in cold water. Well, Sunday morning while I was filming the birds, a Magpie decided to have a splash in our bird bath. I had only just tipped the ice out of the bird bath and filled it again with water. It was very funny to watch, and quite sweet too, even though it was a Magpie.

I had my tripod placed in the usual position of our office building. Again, please forgive me for the bad control of the tripod in the video below. I will learn! The other birds didn't dare to take a dip at the weekend, but were busy on the feeders most of the day. The main features were Blue Tits (it appears that 2 have already paired up for spring as they flew around together), House Sparrows (which have been very common recently), Great Tits, Dunnocks (as always), Robins, Blackbirds, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Magpies and of course Woodpigeons and Collared Doves too. I have read Shirl's posting for today, and it looks like her garden was very busy with birds coming and going. Notably the Blackcap, which I haven't seen so far this year. Hopefully the extra suet I put out on Sunday should attract them again this winter.




I haven't seen any investigation of our terrace nestbox for a 2 or 3 weeks now, so I hope they return when I relace it with my camera nestbox (hopefully this weekend). Its interesting to hear that birds in different parts of the country nest earlier than others. I am guessing that because the south is warmer, birds such as the Blue Tit are more likely to investigate nest sites earlier than in previous years.

The other video I wanted to show you timed out when it was uploading, but I will try again tomorrow.

Both videos were taken by me in our garden on Sunday 4th January 2009

Winter garden

Studying has been my main priority for the last 2 or 3 weeks, but I have had time to occaisionally go outside and take some photos. Enjoy!

Dunnock (the top one isn't very photogenic)
Blue Tit (I tried a bit of editing on this one). The apricot tree branches aren't really that red!

I did 2 posts today, so you might want to look at the last post too.

Sunday birdless gardenwatch

Firstly I would like to say that I did realise that it isn't Sunday today... just! I would also like to say that I am exaggerating a little when I say that the garden was birdless. So actually the title for this post is a little misleading-never mind! There were a few around but the feeders weren't exactly filled with birds. I am happy to say that our main feeder has been half-emptied today. Just my luck that its Monday, I missed the action while I was at school and it was nearly dark by the time I had got home. Nevertheless I saw enough yesterday to post about and enjoyed going outside to look for the birds for a change.

So, why were our feeders quieter yesterday. As Shirl correctly mentioned in her wildlife blog, it is probably due to the more mild weather we had then. Today, it was absoloutely freezing, and low feeder levels matched this dip in temperature. Tiny Coal Tits were a feature in our garden yesterday. I talked about these last week too but I must say that I couldn't resist talking of them again. Blue Tits and Great Tits were also present in numbers but the Coal Tit is a bird that is a bit rarer and more fun to photo.

The Dunnock is a bird that will visit when every other bird isn't around. In fact, I think they prefer visiting the quiet feeders. There were 4 of them at the end of our garden and they flit in and out of cover. They are quite shy, but as long as you are careful, they allow you to go nearer to them. I find that they tend to prefer the seed mixture that we have in one of the feeders and the bird table.

There weren't many of the usual dominant Greenfinches or Chaffinches, so it gave an opportunity for the smaller birds to come in and feed. The Dunnocks don't tend to feed on the fat feeders but some of the others have been very busy feeding. Coal Tits, Blue Tits and Robins have been taking food from them. In the winter I find that it is important to provide some high-calorie foods that will help the birds keep their energy levels up through the cold winter months.

Its interesting to see what has been going on in Shirl's garden. The chaffinches she saw yesterday weren't in our garden in such large numbers but I'd love to see them in our garden this weekend. Although our feeders were quiet yesterday, the Jay has visited again. Every time it comes, it gets closer to our bird table. Fingers crossed that I will see it again soon. The Blackbirds aren't really feeding on our lawn as much as last year but there are definately more of them around. They have been in numbers in bushes either side of our garden.

All photos taken in my garden on 9/11/08

Garden birds update

Its almost like a circus outside at the moment with the birds. We are getting large flocks of tits, especially Blue and Long-tailed. Yesterday, there were 7 Long-tailed tits, and 6 Blue Tits, along with 4 Greenfinches, 2 Goldfinches, 4 Chaffinches, 1 Goldcrest, 2 Great Tits, 2 Coal Tits, 2 Dunnocks, 2 Robins, and of course the usual pigeons, doves and magpies. They seem to fly from feeding station to feeding station, eating as much as they can. I think most of our birds have finished their moulting for the year, and the feeders are needing constant refills. I would really like to get a picture of the tiny visiting Goldcrest, but because the are so small, it means I have to try and get close to them. So I decided to stick to the more common birds this time! Fat is the best food to attract Long-tailed tits, and the one below is enjoying some of our fat block.

The quality of the video isn't as good as normal because it is taken through glass, and it was raining outside.

The Goldcrest that is visiting occaisionally at the moment is very shy and its difficult to get close up to them. They don't take food from the feeding stations, but they seem to like the conifer tree at the end of our garden. Its amazing to think how small the nest of this bird will be. I looked the Goldcrest up in a bird book, and it does say that they are likely to nest in conifer trees. Fingers crossed that we get them nesting in our garden. Talking of nests, I was planning to, at some point get a Camera Nestbox or Feeder cam. The trouble is that they are mostly quite expensive. Any suggestions?

Just a quick note on the weather. It has been awful here over the last week or so, making the return to school seem even more tedious. It has got to be something to do with global warming, because this isn't the way I normally remember summer!

All quiet at the bird feeders

I was quite busy today. I woke up this morning and thought I would go outside and do a spot of birdwatching. I was a bit put off by the miserable weather, but decided to go out anyway. So, I walked out at about 9:15am with my camera and a pair of binoculars only to find... well, nothing actually.

I was patient and gazed at the empty feeders with patience, but honestly there was absoloutly nothing. I went back indoors, and got a drink. I then thought I would give it another shot about half an hour later. So, I strode out again, and this time I had a bit of luck. I saw a Dunnock, followed by a Blue Tit, 2 Great Tits and a Coal Tit. I struggled to get pictures or footage, but the Dunnock finally stayed long enough for me to record it.

Over the last few weeks there has been a much less activity at the bird feeders and tables. The Greenfinches have disappeared completely. I wonder if the poor weather is putting them off?! This hasn't been the case in the past, and somehow after some serious thought I don't think this is the cause of the problem.

There has been a cat visiting our garden recently, which could be scaring the birds off. However, when I was outside, the cat wasn't there and there were still no birds. I do also know that birds are moulting at this time of year, which could mean the birds are less active. I'm just confusing you and myself now.
I wonder if this is the case elsewhere in the country?

Have a good day and fingers crossed, I can get out to do some more birdwatching.