A year ago this April was my first visit to my patch and my first blog about it. The year seems to have flown by far to fast!
Now daylight saving has occurred and Spring has finally arrived, my evenings are filled with visiting the patch or garden after work when time allows – the garden has been top of the list because I want to get the wildflower seeds in!
April 5th – The starlings and jackdaws were all collecting nesting material and flying up to the roof. I need to try and locate where they are all nesting in the roof. I’m sure the jackdaws are using the chimney and facia boards as they did last year but need to do more research on the exact location of the starlings.
April 9th – Two mute swans flew in to graze and a rook landed on the bird feeder. It’s the first rook I have seen land in the garden area. I am surprised that the mute swans are still about, although low in numbers now. Last year they didn’t stay as long, though it was a different crop in the field. I can only assume they will visit as long as there are shoots to graze on.
April 10th – I put the trailcam out last night after thinking I had identified hedgehog feceas in the garden, I was correct 🙂 There are also loads of baby snails in the garden; feasting on the cyclamen leaves.
April 12th – I went to put some food out for the hedgehog and discovered that he had already found some!
There are definitely jackdaws in the roof, you can clearly hear them chattering through the ceiling of one of the bedrooms 🙂 the occupant of the room isn’t so pleased about it! I wish I lived there, it would be lovely to wake up to them chattering every morning.
The trailcam footage from the garden showed that the hedgehog feeding station isn’t really working…
At least we now know that a fox is visiting the garden! It explains where the cat food dishes have been disappearing too!
April 19th – The deer were in the field first thing, barely noticeable in the rape.
April 20th – I took a short walk in the field this afternoon, to be honest it was a bit too warm to be doing so. The oil-seed rape has sprung up since the weather has improved which does mean it looks very pretty now. Along the field margins are many 
wildflowers; dead red-nettle, etc The stinging nettles which are now great in number are camouflaging the rabbit holes rather well! I know this as I managed to put my foot down one, thankfully it had been dug out at an angle and not a direct drop! I may have to tie ribbon to the hedgerow to mark out where they are! There were bee-flies, and numerous butterflies; brimstone, small tortoiseshell and peacock all of whom didn’t want to sit still for long enough for a photograph, when they did they kept their wings firmly shut! There were also some white butterflies in the distance but I couldn’t clearly identify them. I could hear the pheasant calling down the bottom of the field, he is quite vocal these days. In the hedgerow I could see house sparrows and blue tits, while woodpigeon’s and crow’s were flying over overhead. On my walk back I didn’t fancy my chances with the rabbit holes so walked along the track just the other side of the hedgerow, the deer were grazing in the next field over 🙂
April 24th – there was a toad in the garden.
April 25th – a starling took a leaf under the roof tiles, a different location to where I noticed them the other day.
April 30th – a jackdaw was sat in the tree with a beak full of fur! I heard my first cuckoo of the year 🙂
