The Garden Diary 2013

7 May - A bright sunny morning and a surprise when I switched on the monitors -

'Our' first Swift has arrived and moved in to SW(le), much to the annoyance of the Sparrow that had been busy building the nest in there.

SW(up) hasn't been occupied at night so the box was empty when the Swift entered for the first time at 6.47am.

However, soon afterwards there was loud chirping from outside the box, and the flickering light at the entrance confirmed that a Sparrow was protesting the invasion of its nest.

After a prolonged effort from outside the box the Sparrow (a male) decided to engage the Swift directly.

There were a few moments of blurred conflict between the two before the Sparrow was ejected and the Swift settled down to rest for an hour and a half before it left again at 8.18am.

During the rest of the morning and afternoon it returned just once when it brought in a beakful of short lengths of straw(?) around lunchtime.

This evening it returned at 5.30pm and left again two hours later.

During the day I saw up to four Swifts flying overhead so it will be interesting to see if any more Swifts move in overnight.

There was a lot more encouraging behaviour by the Blackbirds during the morning, starting with a first visit to the nest site by the female at 5.36am, and then again at 5.54am and 6.15am.

At 6.50am the male visited, then the female, then the male again before the female appeared once more, all within a minute. During the rest of the morning there were four more occasions when both birds visited in quick succession and nine visits by the male alone.

The day turned into the warmest so far in the garden, with Farnborough registering 21C for more or less the whole afternoon.

We continue to enjoy our grandson's company as he starts his recovery from Chickenpox - much happier today, and more able to sustain himself longer during the serious business of playing. Today we had a great few minutes studying a Drone-fly that had found its way into the house - its buzzing during flight had him calling it a bee!

He didn't get to see a few butterflies that came into the garden. The first was this Speckled Wood (my first sighting of one in 2013).

A short time later I spotted a small white butterfly land on a Garlic Mustard. I was able to get close enough to see the mottled underside of its hind wing(s) that indicated that it was a female Orange Tip.

Frustration - with the little lad here I had been carrying my small Canon G12 with me more or less all the time, but I had left it in the house when this butterfly appeared. It flew away as I emerged from the house with the camera.

There are quite a lot of Garlic Mustards at the bottom of the garden so there's a good chance that I'll get another chance. Earlier I had seen a male Orange Tip that didn't land, as was the case with a couple of Holly Blues that passed through the garden.

At around 9pm a second Swift moved in, this time to SW(ri).

As a result, tonight we have a 'score' of Swifts 2 : Sparrows 1 in the four camera-equipped Swift boxes.

Both SW(ri) and SW(le) were used by breeding pairs in 2012, while the pair that had previously used SW(up) failed to return. SW(lo) has yet to be used by Swifts.

8 May -  A day that saw low cloud for much of the day, some rain in the early morning and evening, and a high temperature of 16C in between - disappointing after the good weather of the holiday weekend.

And there was a touch of disappointment in the garden too.

The first Blackbird activity was at 8.44am, late but understandable given the weather conditions.

That visit involved the female arriving first and then being joined by her partner (see the image). The male then left, followed quickly by the female.  This was the last time that she appeared on camera all day.

The male continued to visit during the rest of the morning - seven times, with a final appearance at 12.47pm.

It may have been easy to blame the weather for the lack of interest if I hadn't seen the female busy collecting nesting materials. She made at least six visits to the pond in the early afternoon, disappearing into the conifers each time.

It looks as though I can now concentrate on the Swifts for at least the next few weeks, although I will continue to monitor the site, just in case the new nest is raided, or abandoned for some reason. I have yet to see a Blackbird fledgling in the garden from the first brood.

There have been no additions to the Swift boxes today. The two 'early birds' left for the first time this morning at 8.46am (SW(le)) and 9.01am (SW(ri)) - the Sparrow had headed out at 6am. The Swifts returned this evening just after 5pm.

9 May - A day that started off bright and sunny but by late morning there were light showers under increasingly grey skies. A strong breeze from the south south-west increased in strength somewhat in the late afternoon when we had winds of around 28mph with gusts close to 50mph.

The Swifts left the boxes at around 8am and remained out until the late afternoon. In the meantime, while there was no Sparrow interest shown in the nest in SW(le) there were many visits to SW(ri) - possibly the same Sparrow?

This image confirms that it is not the same Sparrow that roosts in SW(up).

 It was 3.53pm when the first Swift returned, to SW(ri), literally seconds after the Sparrow had left for the final time.

The occupant of SW(le) returned at 4.03pm, with a beak full of either feathers or plant down.

This was about the time when the windy conditions were at a peak - gathering these must have been quite a challenge!

At 5.55pm there was a momentary darkening of the entrance to SW(le), prompting a threatening hissing sound from the bird inside. A few moments later the 'intruder' returned and entered the box.

 After a moment of confrontation it was clear that the pair recognized each other,

and quickly settled down together. It seems that we have our first breeding pair of 2013 - great news.

I hope that the Blackbirds have chosen a site that is protected from conditions such as we have experienced today. The monitored site was visited just three times today, at 8am, 11.12am and 6.24pm by the male.

Despite the conditions, one of the Wild Garlic (Ramson) plants 'choose' today to open the first Garlic flowers of 2013 - first flowers seen on 29 April in 2012. It looks as though we should seen several more of these plants flowering over the next day or so.

This plant is at the side of the small pond, under the shade of the Hawthorn which has yet to start flowering. It does look as though the next sunny day may trigger the first buds to open.

10 May - A calmer day, with a brisk breeze rather  than the gusty conditions of yesterday. As a result of those winds the far end of the garden is  strewn with discarded male catkins form the Birch and petals from my neighbour's apple and pear trees.

There are no additions to the Swift boxes today. I did see more 'soft stuff' brought in by one of the pair in SW(le) as they came home to roost.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed that the front panel on SW(lo) was being lifted slightly by the wind as I had forgotten to replace a pin intended to prevent this from happening. This morning I put that right, and at the same time took the opportunity to refit the original camera. All being well, that should be the last time that I need to visit the Swift boxes this nesting season.

It seems that like me, White Spot (the male Blackbird) has decided to continue monitoring the nest site rejected by his partner.

He visited it five times today, at 9.21am, 3.05 and 3.07pm, 4pm and then finally at 6.27pm (shown in this image).

No Hawthorn flowers yet...

11 May - A somewhat brighter day with just a couple of showers, and a brisk westerly breeze that helped keep the temperature between 11 - 12C just about all day (apart from a brief excursion up to 14C around 1pm).

There is little to report about the nest boxes today, apart from this delivery of downy feathers(I think) to SW(le) early this evening. So far, I have seen nothing brought into SW(ri) by its sole occupant.

The male Blackbird appeared on camera just three times today, at 7.56am, 8.57am and 9.31am.

We still await the first flower on the Hawthorn (last year it opened on 2 May).

Also late is this Herb Robert which did open today. In 2012 the first of this species opened on 24 April, in the same spot below the Birch tree.

12 May - A day that started off bright and sunny, but which turned grey and wet during the afternoon, and it remained cool with a high of 12C, and that had dropped  a couple of degrees by mid-afternoon.

Family commitments  meant that little attention was paid to the garden, but by the end of the afternoon we were still waiting for the Hawthorn to bloom. Some of the buds are plump and white this evening so I'd be surprised it they didn't open tomorrow.

 I think I've just about caught up with the large images for May, and the Nest Box Diary and Webcam are now in operation, so there will be no further entries about nesting birds in this diary for the foreseeable future.

15 May - These last few days have seen the weather and daily temperatures deteriorate to the extent that we have been resorting to our log burner once more. Yesterday the temperature didn't get about 11C, and after a dry start we had drizzle for the rest of the day. Today a wet morning saw the temperature remain below 10C until things brightened up a bit in the early afternoon and a high of 14C was reached briefly before clouds rolled in from the southwest and rain dragged the temperature back down below 10C.

As if passing comment on the conditions the Hawthorn continues to keeps its flower buds firmly closed

The rest of the garden is looking quite green and really does need some attention, but there is no chance of anything being done for the moment as things have been and will continue to be rather busy here - there will be a pause in the diary.

Things will get back on course in a couple of weeks.....

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