Category Archives: Garden

30 Days Wild 2018 – Day 03

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After the blue tits fledged yesterday I thought I’d sit in the garden this morning and see who else was about. Unfortunately we believe ‘nest box 1’ fledged early this morning and some if not all were predated by magpies. 4 magpies were seen in the tree chasing something and we can only assume it was the blue tit chicks. There has been no feeding flights to the box and no chirping coming from it. We just have to hope at least some survived. 

I didn’t time my bird count today, though I was watching for over an hour. I saw:

1 robin, 3 great tit, 2 blue tit, 2 woodpigeon, 2 blackbird (1 juvenile) 1 greenfinch, 2 goldfinch, 1 dunnock and 2 white dove

The robin has a pattern to his garden visits.  He lands on the corner of the garden shed, fly’s to the bird bath, and then either on to the feeders or the floor.  He followed this pattern on 4 out of 5 visits.   I haven’t seen any of the fledgling blue tits 🙁 

30 Days Wild 2018 – Day 02

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Last year we had one nest box in the garden and blue tits nested.  This year we have two nest boxes, and blue tits nested in both. Today the chicks in ‘nest box 2’ FLEDGED 🙂 I was lucky enough to sit and watch 5 little ones take the leap. 

Nesting started back on April 14th with the collection of nesting material.  As soon as we see them start to use the nest box we put up extra nesting material so they don’t have to use up too much energy going to find it.  They seemed to like the sheeps wool more than the moss this year.  

We first noticed them taking in food on May 10th so they have been feeding the chicks for roughly 22 days.  We didn’t look inside the nest box, as to open the boxes we have to take the sides off so there was no way I was going to chance disrupting them.  So, we have no real way of knowing exactly how many fledged today, but at least we know there were definitely 5.  I am hoping to see more of them in the garden but they did disperse quite quickly.  

I have heard the chicks chirping in ‘nest box 1’, looking at my spread sheet of data they started to feed their chicks two days later than ‘nest box 2’ so they could also fledge any day 🙂

My Patch – A Garden update

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The garden has started to develop a little, its unfortunate that we had so much rain at the start of spring as it was difficult to get out and work on it, but with our recent sunny spell its improved considerably. The snowdrops turned green so I have relocated a few of them underneath the hazel tree. There are lesser celandine and bluebells too so I am going to turn the area into a very small woodland and plant winter / early spring flowers around the dogs graves. 

The raised bed has been dug over and some of the ivy roots removed – the ones that would come out! The roses have been relocated slightly, they were at the front of the bed which meant it was difficult to tend, so they have been located closer together and fill a patch of their own.  Through the middle of the roses there is now a brick path to the fence, solely so plants don’t get trodden on when the trailcam is attached to the fence post! The fence has been jet washed and treated. The wildflower seeds have been sown – some are already sprouting 🙂

Before starting a proper plan for the garden I thought I ought to look up plants that are poisonous to cats and dogs.  I never knew ivy or cyclamen were harmful to them.  Seeing there are both already in the garden I checked with the owner what his thoughts were.  Seeing they have been there for years and there has never been any ill effect he is happy for them to stay.  I will however be checking anything I plan on planting first as I would hate to cause any harm to the furry residents!

I now have a rough plan for the garden but it is likely to adapt as time goes on and I learn what I am meant to be doing!  As you can see from the below, I plan on keeping the ivy on the outside of the fence away from the dogs but still accessible for insects.  There is going to be a very small pond area in the corner near the ‘woodland’ with a frogaloo next to it.  Next to the bird feeders will be a viburnum that will eventually grow large enough to offer a lot of cover for the birds.  The rest of the flower beds will hopefully be covered in wildflowers – though I am expecting it to be a sparse covering this year. I am however slightly worried about the grasses and stinging nettles that might appear from the other side of the fence and take over! so I will have to keep a close eye on what grows.