Summary June 2012

Summary June 2012

Garden

The good weather that was a feature of the end of May was promptly replaced by heavy rain for the start of and this lasted for most of the month. Our pair of Blackbirds had three fledglings that they were feeding in our garden and a little later that appeared to be four fledglings. A Coal Tit and two fledgling Coal Tits have been visiting the feeders, several Blue and Great Tits and their young and around ten Goldfinches are regular on the feeders. A Dunnock is often to be seen but perhaps less obvious than usual. We think that we have seen a fledgling Dunnock some times. A pair of Bullfinches, a male and a female, have been daily visitors to the feeders, sometimes several times a day. The House Sparrows from over the back seem to spend a bit more time in our garden and we still have to fend of the Woodpigeons and Collared Doves so that the other birds can get a look in. On the downside there are still no Robins or Starlings to be seen. We found a large bundle of feathers on the lawn one day early in the month which made it look like we had had a visit from a Sparrowhawk but we haven’t seen it ourselves – or rather we hadn’t seen it until 30th June when Anne walked into the garden disturbing it and it flew to the tree next door and then away from there. Unfortunately, by the time she had called me it was gone which was a shame because I still haven’t seen one this year yet.

I at last got round to drilling a hole in our rear wall so that our nest box camera is now working full time but it is probably a bit late this year. I have set it up so that we can easily move the whole box and camera down to the back of the garden if we think that that will be a better option for next year.

Another feature of the spring has been the absence of Swifts. Presumably this is as a result of the terrible weather. I do see the odd one from time to time flying high up over our house but this is nothing like the usual annual showing of a dozen or more every day and every evening.

As the month came to an end the weather picked up a little though it is very uncertain most of the time and parts of the country have had further flooding. It seems like the Blackbirds that visit our garden have more young on the way as they are displaying the same food gathering and warning calling that presaged the previous fledged Blackbirds. By the end of the month a Robin has appeared in our garden which makes me feel much better. It’s a poor garden that doesn’t have a Robin visiting it.

 Birding Group Days Out

The first Tuesday of the month was off as a result of the bank holiday / jubilee activities. The second was on the 12th when we went to Goyt Valley where we saw Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Dipper and Little Owl. On the following Monday (the 18th) we went to Burton Mere Wetlands where the main attraction was the Avocet chicks and the Little Egret Roost. On the 26th we went to WWT Martin Mere where the main attraction was the Marsh Harriers although there were a couple of Avocet chicks. Some left-over Pink-footed Geese were also a curiosity. The last date of the month was at Marbury but I wasn’t able to get to that one because we were preparing to go go to Mull on holiday later in the week.

Walks and Days Out

We didn’t have much chance to go on days out this month with a combination of repainting of the rear window, Anne’s big birthday and her Open Garden day combining with generally poor weather meaning that we had few opportunities outside of the birding group days that we managed to get to. With a busy birding month last month and hopefully a busy birding month coming up in July we just had to settle for our birding group visits.