Back soon

I know, its been a long time. A very long time. But, I will be back to posting regularly in a couple of weeks. Basically, being a year 11 student doesn't come without its problems. I've had loads of revision/coursework over the last few months. Although, to be honest, I will admit that, once I had left the blog for a while, I lost a little bit of motivation to post again. But, I WILL be back in a couple of weeks when my exams are finished, promise!

I have been keeping up with your blogs over the last months though, and WOW, its been interesting to see how spring has unfolded in various parts of the country. I'm sorry I haven't left any comments recently either, but again, I'll get back to that soon.

A lot has happened over the last few months in our garden. And it has been a shame not to be able to share it. Maybe a massive update post is in order in a couple of weeks. But for now, I'll just tell y'all what's been going on.

So, in the garden, we haven't seen a lot in the way of nesting birds. In fact, none of our nestboxes were used this year, despite our best efforts to place them all in the best spots. What we have seen, is a lot of fledglings in our garden, who have popped out of nests in gardens surrounding ours. The first fledglings we saw were Blue Tits. We have had a family of around 6 or 7 fledglings being fed by two parents. These were followed by noisy Starlings and Magpies, Robins, Dunnocks and Great Tits. It really has been busy. We still have Blackbird adults carrying insects off to various nests recently too, so maybe they will be next on the list.

Our plants also made the winter to spring transition a while back, and it was great to have planted a great deal more this year. We have grown much more veg this year, and it was great to plant a lot more flowers, shrubs etc. In fact, we have spent a LOT more time sorting stuff out in the garden this year than we have before, so its now the closest its ever got to looking neat. We've still left lots of wild messy bits though to attract the lizards and frogs.

As well as all this, I've made a camera upgrade in the last few months. I now have a Canon 500D SLR camera, which I had been looking forward to buying for a couple of years before. It really is a brilliant piece of kit. I have the 18-55mm kit lens, but I have now only just saved up for a 300mm lens for bird photos. I really look forward to taking some photos to share on this blog soon.

Even though I take about 10 GCSE subjects, I usually have more than one exam per subject, and so far I've taken 12 exams. 6 more to go over the next two weeks, so I'm off to revise some more in a minute. Once I've finished them all, I'll have loads of time for posting this summer. So stick around folks, more to come soon.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Just a quick posting to show our results for the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. At about 8:30 this morning, I topped up the feeders, ready for the count. With a cup of tea, some binoculars, and a pen and paper, we started the count at 9:00 and finished at 10:00. Here's how it went...

We saw a total of 14 species this year, one more than we did last year. I was pleased to see a Song Thrush pop by, as it did for the birdwatch last year. It's not a bird we see too frequently. The usual suspects also visited, although we didn't see a Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit or Starling this time around. However, the most frequent visitor was a Blackcap, which was around for most of the hour. Here's the full count:

Blackbird x2
Chaffinch x3
Dunnock x3
House Sparrow x5
Magpie x2
Blackcap x2
Great Tit x2
Song Thrush x1
Woodpigeon x8
Blue Tit x2
Collared Dove x2
Goldfinch x5
Greenfinch x4
Robin x2

I enjoyed the hour, and I have enjoyed checking out other people's counts too via their blogs. Later on in the day, I saw a a couple more species, including Long-tailed Tit and Starling. I was also glad I managed to get a few shots of the Blackcaps throughout the day. They have been showing great interest in the new ground bird table, which is fairly close to the house. The did struggle to get a look in at times though with the Woodpigoens and Magpies around! The photos in the montage below were taken after the birdwatch.

Left- Magpie, top right- Female Blackcap, bottom right- Male Blackcap

I noticed that one of the female Blackcaps was looking around the ivy on the garden fence. The photo below shows it perching on the cable for the camera nest box.

It was great to see a Robin have a look inside one of our open-fronted nest boxes today. We have seen two male Robins chasing each other around for a while now, and it looks as though one of these males is now paired up with a female. I could be wrong, but it looks as though this is the case. Anyway, I was glad to see that the Robin found the box amongst the ivy, it really is quite well hidden. Maybe it would be worth setting up a camera in this box.

Lastly, I would like to apologise for not keeping up with your blogs and commenting. I have had quite a bit of school-related work recently, mostly revision for GCSE mock exams, which are over the next two weeks. I expect that, from now until the end of June, I will only post when I can. Half-term soon though, so I expect I will be able to keep up with the blog then. Have a great week, and I look forward to seeing many of your Garden Birdwatch postings soon.

Birds can share!

I thought I would show you some of the birds which have been visiting our garden today, that I was unable to photograph for my last posting. School was closed again today, so I was able to get out in the snow again. Usually, the birds in our garden are always squabbling, especially the Starlings. It was pretty much the same today with some species. However, its interesting to see how some birds in the garden are able to share the feeders with other birds...

Earlier on in the year, Blackbirds were quite a rare sight in our garden, and they were very timid, often allowing smaller birds to feed first. As their numbers have increased into the winter, they seem to have gained some confidence, and they are now perfectly happy to feed with other species. That doesn't stop them argueing with each other though!

The new ground bird table really has been popular with the Blackbirds and Woodpigeons. This morning, they were both seen feeding on the table at the same time. The male Blackbird was quite bold in this case, and perfectly happy to feed alongside the pigeon. The table can hardly be seen now, as the wooden legs have sunk into the snow!

Male Blackbird and Woodpigeon

The Woodpigeon eventually waddled off, leaving the Blackbird on its own. Considering the photos were all taken through the glass of the kitchen window I thought they came out alright.

A little while later, the Woodpigeon returned and was joined by a female Blackbird.

Different Blackbird, same fat Woodpigeon (above)

I noticed how a Collared Dove just sat and watched the action from the top of the feeder pole.

Collared Dove

Today, I saw a Great Tit on the hole of the nest box from the house again. I just hope it would have a look inside. Maybe we will see this tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of the week, and stay warm!