Baby birds

 Feels like summer at the moment, it's been sunny and warm (sometimes too hot) for a couple of weeks now. There have been a lot of baby birds in the garden, mostly (very noisy) starlings, Although we have also seen a baby robin, some young sparrows and a young blue tit. The baby starlings like to sit on top of the bird feeder and shout at their parents until they come and feed them. It's adorable, but very loud.

A very sweet family of geese visited the garden the other day, 2 adults and four babies. Our neighbour called my husband to let us know they were in our garden. We watched them for a few minutes, they wanted to get through our garden to the field at the back, but the wire fence that was put up a couple of years ago was stopping them. Poor things looked very confused, then the babies started to wander off away from the parents. So, I went out and pulled up the fence (which was not put there by us, but it's on our garden boundary), making a big gap at the bottom. Luckily, after a bit of searching for their babies, all the geese went under the fence on their way to wherever they were going. The big gap/hole shall remain in the fence...as I don't want any wildlife getting stuck in a stupid wire fence. (I'm very proud of myself for making a hole in the fence to help some geese!)

One of the baby geese

 

Also, actually saw a deer in the field at the back last night. First time we've manged to see one in there! My son spotted it, while looking out of his bedroom window.

Blossom and wildflowers

 It's been ages since I've written anything here! I've been really caught up with working through the last essays for my degree (nearly done...just need to finish the final essay), and we've just had the bedroom re-plastered, so about to start decorating in there. We are sleeping downstairs while that is all being sorted. The other night, I heard a noise outside. Looked out of the window to see three badgers rummaging around under the bird feeder. They wandered off under the fence quite quickly, as I think I surprised them by appearing at the window.

We have a fair amount of blossom on some of the little fruit trees this year, so might actually get some fruit! Although, the trees are still quite small, so maybe I'm being a bit too optimistic. Even of we do get some fruit, the liklihood is the birds will get to it all before we do.

We scattered lots of wildflower seeds around the lawn earlier this year (and last year). It looks like a few are starting to grow. There are definitely some large thistles coming up in various places around the garden, which is quite nice, I think goldfinches like thistle seeds. Not planning on mowing the lawn any time soon, so hopefully some more wildflowers will appear in the next couple of months.

Vegetable planting

 I have written on here before about how I am a fairly lazy gardener. Well, that is still the case. Finally managed to weed some of the raised beds (which were all full of grass), and plant out some vegetables. I haven't planted a lot this year, as I'm expecting that we will have another heatwave over the summer, and possibly water restrictions put in place. This is what happened last year and most of the vegetables and some plants ended up dying. So, I have only planted some garlic, a lot of onions and some potatoes. The garlic seems to be doing quite well, so far. The onions have just started to grow, but the potatoes aren't doing anything yet.

As the badgers seem to visit our garden most nights, I was a little concerned about them digging up everything we'd planted. But, apparently if you lay holly branches over any new bulbs you plant, it deters various creatures from digging them up. I tried this, so far it seems to have worked. (I don't really want to put netting or anything over the vegetables, as I'm worried about birds (or other creatures) getting tangled in it.)

The trees all seem to be doing quite well, some of them have a bit of blossom on, some have small leaves and a few still just have buds. I'm not sure we'll get any fruit off of any of them this year, as they are all still quite small. But we shall see.

Goldfinch and partridge

 Although it is basically spring, the weather is still quite winter-like. It's been really cold, and the last couple of days have been very rainy. The rest of the country seems to have had or will be getting a reasonable amount of snow, but there has been none here, disappointingly.

We've done few odd bits in the garden recently, mainly just tidying up a bit. We did plant another tree - a silver birch. We also cut all the dried teasles, and hung them around the outside of the workshop, so the birds could still eat any seeds. This morning, I saw a goldfinch fluttering from one teasle to another, pecking at the seeds...so at least our efforts have been appreciated. Saw a couple of greenfinches on the bird feeder a few days ago too.

Also managed to see a red-legged partridge wandering in the field next door, it was just on the other side of the fence. First one I've seen so far this year. The rabbits seem to be in the field, running around a bit more as well. 

I haven't managed to plant any vegetables in the garden yet, and I need to do a lot of weeding! It's just been too cold. Hopefully the weather will get a bit milder soon, so I can actually go out and get some stuff planted.

Signs of spring

 In spite of all the frost and below freezing temperatures we've had recently, there are a few signs of spring appearing in the garden. New buds are visible on most of the trees (apart from the spindle tree and the oak tree, which never recovered from the heatwave last summer). Also, daffodils have started to spring up in the lawn.

Lots of birds have been visiting the garden, and it seems like a pair of collared doves have started nesting in the giant hedge, we keep seeing them taking lots of twigs in there. Today, my son spotted a sparrow going into the nestbox. It flew straight back out again, but maybe was just having a look for potential nest sites? The blue tits and long tailed tits have also been visiting the garden a lot....mainly the bird feeder.

It's still really cold, but I think we're supposed to get some milder temperatures soon....hopefully.

Regular Visitors

It seems that summer has arrived here, it was quite sudden. The last few days have been very warm and pollen levels have been very high (I have been sneezing a lot).  The grass in the garden-meadow has reached waist-height. There are still plenty of birds visiting the garden, although they are not the same birds who visited us in the spring.

Back in the spring, we enjoyed watching all the regaular birds coming to the bird feeder. There were two long tailed tits who visited every day, along with the blue tits and great tit. A couple of blackbirds would hang around in the garden, as well as two (or sometimes four) robins. I assumed, wrongly, that these birds would be around for most of the year. I'd talk to them occasionally (don't judge me, I don't get out much!). I think I took it for granted that they'd always visit our garden, and come to our bird feeder.

Now we are in summer, I don't see those birds anymore, or at least not as much. Occasionally, the great tit still flits into the garden for a couple of minutes, then disappears again. However, we do see a lot of sparrows now, they are in the garden or on the bird-feeder for most of the day, and fly back and forth to the hedge. Also, there are a lot of noisy starlings around, who also like the bird-feeder. We've seen a lot of swifts flying over recently too, and occasionally a couple of goldfinches. I'm not complaining at all, I love seeing all the starlings and sparrows. The young ones are adorable, funny little creatures! The blackbirds still hang around the garden a bit, and I think two of the robins still visit regularly. I do kind of miss the other birds though. Maybe this is just what happens in summer, and this is the first year I've actually noticed? (And yes, I have started talking to the sparrows and starlings too. Would be rude not to!)