May 14th

14th - Sparrows dust bathing next door.

Andrew saw a fox down the road.
20th A hedgehog in garden.

Hedgehog (Ennaceus europacus)
Britain's only spiny mammal. Eats worms, caterpillars, eggs, slugs and snails. Hibernates in winter. Most babies are born in June - July. This one turns up about 10pm and eats the meal worms I'm putting out.

21st- A Squirrel scared a pigeon on the bird table today. He jumped from the fence.
22nd- 3 nights in row now the hedgehog has come to the garden. She I think because she is fat (I'm hopeful it's babies) is quite happy to have her photo taken.
23rd Garden is full of sparrows and starlings. The adults are collecting food and flying off to feed their young nearby.
26th - Sparrows in the loft have fledged and are being feed in the trees. The hedgehog is still coming for food.
28th Young Robin feeding itself on seed. Sunny but not too hot.
This has been a month of dandelions as they seem to be on every spare  piece of grass.
29th - 3 fledgling starlings on fence. I watch as they pester their parents for food. The young robin seems to have adopted the sparrows - when they feed in the garden so does he. I wonder how long that will last?
Rainy end to the month.





 

6th May

We have a very brave sparrow in the garden. She comes very close to me to get meal worms and, if I'm not there she lands on the door handle and looks into the conservatory as if to say where's my food? She has me very well trained feeding her on demand. As it turns out her nest is in our loft. Ahh. The babies fledged on the 26th. The one above is sitting on our fence waiting to be fed.

                                                 This one is being fed by mum.
                                        "In busy mart and crowded street,
                                            There the smoke-brown sparrow sits"            E .Cooke

11th Conker trees in full flower. Goldfinch briefly in garden before going next door to eat the groudsel.

                                   " I love to see the little Goldfinch pluck,
                                       the groundsel's feathered seed;
                                      And then in bower of apple-blossoms perched.
                                      trim his gay suit and pay us with a song.
                                      I would not hold him prisoner for the world.
                                                                                            J Hurdis"


Great tit , blue tit, sparrows, pigeons and starlings in garden today. Dunnock displaying fluttering behaviour as seen during mating and in  fledgelings at feeding time.
12th - Hail fell today.
13th- Goldfinch feeding today, and a collared dove was fighting a pigeon twice his size. The fledgling sparrows are in the garden feeding.

May 2010

1st - Cloudy but lots of visitors to the garden; goldfinch, sparrows, robin, magpie, pigeons, blue tits, great tits and collared doves. Day ends with a thunderstorm.
2nd - Dawn chorus weekend- |lay in bed  with the window open so I could hear the bird song. I'm not very good at identifying the different songs but I do know the blackbird who was the loudest amongst the soup of song that rang through the air. Also heard the "teacher, teacher", of the great tit and the tawny owl. The male does the "twit"  part while the female does the "twoo".

The male sparrows have fluffed up their tails and are fluttering them at the females in a courtship display along the fence.
May bank holiday we went to a nearby bluebell wood. The bluebells need another week to come into their own but we did see a jay.

Jay (Garrulus glandarius).   Present all year in woodland.  Eats acorns, eggs, insects and lizards. lays 3-6 eggs from April .
The Jay, the Pie, and even the boding Owl
That hails the rising moon, have charms for me.
                                                     William Cowper
We also saw wood anenome in flower, blue and whit bells and a fungi with bugs jumping about on it!

Wood anenome (Anemone nemorosa). Like the blue bell it makes most of the sunlight before the leaves block it out.