The turn of the apple tree

This year has seen our best blossoms in a long time. The apricot tree blossom came quite early this year, after the cold winter. It is now the turn of the apple tree to bloom some colourful blossom. Over the last couple of weeks, the blossom has appeared. Over this time, I have taken pictures of the growing blossom.

The blossom which was first noted a few weeks ago was rather pinkish as it was only just emerging. In the sun, the colours were stunning. In the photo montage below, you will see this.

A week or so later and the blossom started to change colour to white. The evening sun lit the flowers up beautifully and I took a few shots of it. At this point the blossom was starting to get bigger too. The macro mode on my camera really came in useful with the flowers.

The montage below shows the blossom in complete bloom. I will soon start to see the large white flowers falling to the ground and the leaves will take over the tree. I wonder if the bees will like the fully emerged white blossom.

It really is amazing to follow the lives of garden plants through their blooms, especially if you get photo records too.

In my next posting, I hope to talk of my most recent nature reserve trip (albeit a short one) and my sightings there. But for now, I think I will just enjoy the sun while it lasts here in South East England.

Evening finches

When I get home from school, I sometimes hear the somewhat irritating news that it is my turn to clean our 2 rabbit's hutch out. Its irritating until the moment I open the back door to the sight of our garden birds enjoying some evening sunshine on our bird feeders! Yesterday was no exception and some of the birds seemed pretty desperate to stock up on those sunflower hearts. Maybe the midday sun is unbearable for our finches...

I usually bring out my camera whilst I am out with the rabbits, so that I can take a photo of anything that arrives whilst I am out there. It seems to be the various finches that like to feed at this time. The bossy Greenfinch in the photo below was daring enough to feed just a couple of metres away from me- although it struggled to find food in that near empty bird feeder. Those sunflower hearts are just too good to resist for the Greenfinches!

Next up on the bird feeder queue was the Goldfinch (pictured below). They are a little bit more shy than the Greenfinches and tend to perch on the shrubs of next-doors garden before feeding on our nyjer seed feeder. I haven't posted photos of this colourful bird in a while, so I was glad to get a shot of one. The thing I love most about the Goldfinches is that fantastic song they produce when in small groups. They have got to be one of the reasons why it is worth feeding garden birds.

And last, but by no means least is the female Chaffinch in the photo below. It was still quite bright outside when I took the photo, but they are so much harder to photograph than the Greenfinches and Goldfinches. Chaffinch numbers have been very high throughout this month which is why they have featured in many of my previous posts. It was nice to capture the female this time rather than the very bright males.

I thought in the last part of this posting, I would share a video that I meant to show you at least a week ago, but never got around to doing it. In case you didn't know, we have Blue Tits nesting in a nestbox on our conservatory at the moment, and we think that a female could currently be incubating eggs. One of the Blue Tit parents is spending long periods of time in the nestbox at the moment, whilst our male seems to check on her and feed her every now and then. Because this isn't a camera nestbox, it's impossible to be sure, but this is what we think is happening.

The video below shows a very cautious Blue Tit (we think it is the male after ID checking) on the hole of the nestbox. He is seen looking around to make sure the coast is clear to enter the nestbox. Maybe it is me that he has seen, but I thought I was quite well hidden in our office building with my tripod. Ah, well I managed to capture Mr Blue Tit for around 2 minutes before he flew off.



My next posting definitely will include the blossom I wanted to show you. I thought I would show the flower stages of the blossom, so taking the photos has taken a little longer than expected. Still, the post should be all set to go tomorrow, or the day after that. But for now, enjoy your evening finches.

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!