Camera nestbox diary 2009

I have decided to remove my camera nestbox blog, for a couple of reasons. I think the main reason is that many people are unaware of my camera nestbox blog, and, as a result, many people did not see many of the nestbox videos. Now that the videos are merged into my main blog, I think more people will get to see my nestbox videos. I have written this posting as an index for my camera nestbox sightings in 2009. I hope this change works for you too- please mention if it doesn't.

Now that I have deleted my camera nestbox blog, I have decided to copy the postings from it into my main blog (well, the good ones anyway). As you may know, our camera nestbox, which was originally placed on the wall of our house hasn't been occupied this year! We did, however get to see great close-ups of the adult birds as they investigated the box around 5 times.

Below are the links to the postings following our camera nestbox in 2009:

Spring nestbox inspection

• First images
• Will I ever catch them?
• RSPB Garden Birdwatch Posting (includes Blue Tit visit video)
• Blue Tit investigates again
• Blue Tit removes wood shavings
• Both parents visit the box
• Moss in the box
• Blue Tits can't choose which nestbox to use
• Blue Tits choose non-camera nestbox

Winter roosting/inspections

• Great Tit makes early visit after nest box is moved to end of garden
• Great Tit visits again

We have now moved the camera nestbox to an apple tree at the end of the garden soon. This is mostly because we are likely to have building work done on the house next year, which is likely to disrupt the birds. Fingers crossed, we may get roosters in the autumn/winter and even birds nesting in the spring.

One today

Today, as you will see on the little gadget in the sidebar is the one year mark for my blog. I have really enjoyed blogging and sharing my wildlife sightings with all of you. Thanks once again for the Countryfile nomination and for visiting my blog in the last year.

In this posting to round off the blogging year I thought I would include a story of a mammal I was certainly surprised to see recently. As you may know, at the end of our garden is a railway line. Well, on the railway bank last week, my sister spotted some movement from her bedroom window. She pointed it out to me and, through the binoculas we saw a family of foxes!

So, we wandered down the garden for a closer look. I had my camera with me so that I could take any photos. We walked slowly up to the fence to see an adult fox plus 4 playful cubs. The adult watched us whilst the youngsters rolled around without a care in the world. The adult (didn't know whether it was a male or a female) seemed to be ok with me watching about 15 metres away. I got a few photos, but they are blurry because of the poor light. Honest, it was the poor light!

Just record shots but the 1st one is the best.

We watched the youngsters play-fighting (see below), and I couldn't help thinking, "that must hurt"! Again, blurry shots though. It was so great to see such a healthy family playing around. We have seen cubs on the railway bank in previous years, but definitely pre-blog. It could be that I won't see this family again for another couple of months at least. I suspect we will definitely see some more of the adults in the garden in the cold winter looking for any food scraps.

So there it is, 1 year of blogging. I really look forward to year 2, even if it is somewhat disrupted by my exams! Happy blogging and have a good week!

Garden Pond Building

Its now the end of yet another much enjoyed Springwatch series, and I reckon its been one of the best so far. I think its great for encouraging people to make their gardens more wildlife friendly. Recently, my Dad has been working on a little pond for our garden in true Springwatch style. Well, sort-of anyway!

We have wanted a pond in the garden for a while now, for a few reasons. I, for one thought that a pond would be great for the birds to bath and drink from. Whilst we already have a bird bath, a pond encourages ground feeding birds like Blackbirds to visit. Also, over the years, we have seen frogs quite a number of times around the garden, and we thought they might like a pond to live in. I suppose a pond provides habitats for other animals too. I'll look forward to seeing what uses it in the future.

Pond-building is such a great way to attract wildlife to your garden. A pond is also surprisingly easy to create, especially if you build a very small one like ours. I am sure that many of you reading this now probably have a pond already. I must admit that our pond really is tiny (just less than a metre across), but hopefully, it will still make a difference to the garden.

We chose to site our pond next to our blackcurrant, raspberry and Gooseberry bushes, where we had a little bit of spare space. My Dad then dug a hole about a metre in diameter with the middle of the hole being about a foot deep. He then used a stretched out empty bark chippings bag to line the hole. He put a bit of soil on top of the lining to weigh it down. And after the water had been added, the result was this... (see picture below)

After surrounding the outide with pebbles and a couple of plants, the pond is nearly finished. Over the next few weeks, we will plant some more plants, pondweed, etc to make it look a bit more natural. I know that you are thinking "it looks like a muddy pool" when you look at the photo below! The photo below was taken last week and, luckily, it has cleared quite significantly since then!



I have already seen the House Sparrows, Blackbirds, Greenfinches and Woodpigeons take a drink from the pond, which was great to see. Hopefully, when we get some more water plants, it will encourage frogs, etc into the pond at some point, despite its small size. While I'm on the subject, here is a photo of a frog on a low garden wall taken by me last year:


Maybe the chappy in the photo above will be seen in our new pond in the future. I'll keep you posted on any updates. The Alliums have been out a while in our garden now, so I think I'll post the photos of those soon. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.