Jenny's Wildlife Gardening Blog

As the weather changes yet again back to colder conditions - and we have snow on the hill tops round about us in Shropshire - the wildlife using the garden also changes.  The fieldfares are back, feasting on the fallen apples beneath our trees which makes me think they must have excellent memories for a good food source!  Larger birds seem to dominate here at the moment, especially pheasants, of which we have a regular crowd of about six or seven.  One in particular, a female, is now a permanent feature as she is unable to fly (a possible window strike we fear) but easily finds enough food and shelter around the garden.  So she seems well enough and is also very feisty!  She regularly fights off the local grey squirrels who compete for the spilt seed on the ground under the feeders.  In spite of the reputation these mammals have for ingenuity, she wins every time!

Yet more weather changes in the last week, with heavy frosts making way for more spring-like conditions.  With great tits now singing - a very spring-like sound - it's easy to forget that it's only the end of January!  With no thrushes evident here yet, a bird that recently made my day by singing from the top of the hedge outside my office window, was a wren.  It's astonishing that a bird this small can make such a sound!  We always have problems in the spring when wrens choose our front porch for nest construction, in direct competition with the swallows.  Male wrens will create several nests to entice a female and fortunately ,so far, the porch nest has never been used.  There is no doubt that the swallows, on their return, would not be very happy as they don't like to share!

With a spell of very cold weather at the moment, the dominant wildlife around the garden has changed.  Most noticeably, a large flock of fieldfares has been flying around and eventually they were brave enough to come into the garden to feast on the windfall Bramley apples that litter the garden at the back of the house.  We use and store as many as we can, and give plenty away, but I always make sure lots  are left behind for the birds.  Blackbirds (predominantly males) have been feeding on them for some time, but eighty or so flighty fieldfares have joined the blackbirds to create a throng of birds in the back garden.  No redwings with them sadly but these beautiful thrushes are a joy to see.

10th January

Mild weather at this time of year always seems to freak everyone out, yet it is the two last very cold winters that have been unusual.  Looking back at my wildlife and weather notes in my diary, I can see that the temperatures this week in January 2008 were mild, we still had Hebe in flower, we saw wood pigeons mating and our snowdrops were in flower on the 21st.  Still a week to go before the latter happens perhaps, but something to really look forward too.  With regard to wood pigeons though, I think we have enough here at the moment, with a flock of around 200 in the field next door from time to time, but somehow I don't think that will stop them making a few more!

5th January

With relatively benign weather over Christmas and the New Year period, the current gales have come as rather a shock.  The weather is still mild though and the change in day length has already had an effect, especially on the birds in the garden and round about.  Most noticeable is the fact that we have a dunnock singing every day - in spite of the windy weather, staking his territory in preparation for nesting in the hedge somewhere.  It's a joy to hear proper 'spring' birdsong now, rather than the winter song of the robin which has such a melancholy air.  The dunnock sounds positive and ready for spring and I have to say, I am too!  Such a lot to look forward to in the next few months.

19th December

So proper winter weather is with us here in Shropshire - snow on the hills round about, snow in the garden and snow in our lane making it impossible to get our car out.  Luckily for our local wildlife, it is not too deep and already disappearing as the snow turns to rain.  The effect on some of our birds has been very noticeable though with marsh tits and coal tits caching large amounts of seeds, taking beak-fulls off into our hedges and trees.  A coal tit has even been seen hiding sunflower hearts in tufts of grass between the paving stones outside out back door!  I have no problem with this except that I suspect few are ever found and we do get strange plants germinating in the spring!  I wish I could let them know there will always be a good supply of food for them here!

12th December

Twice now in a couple of months I have seen a barn owl in our area - once flying low through the garden over the big meadow and then across the long borders, head down as he scanned for any movement that could say 'vole'!  With such an amazing summer here for small mammals its not surprising that we have seen and heard more of the top predators around us.  Last weekend though a barn owl was spotted sitting on the side of the road on the top of a narrow post in the hedge, a short distance from our house.  A classic pose - staring at us as we drove slowly past.  He then flew to a nearby fence, turned and stared at us over his shoulder before spreading his wings and taking off over the fields.  Next weekend's task - build a barn owl nest box!

5th December

I should never complain about the weather being too mild at this time of year - this week is due to be freezing and we have already had a dusting of snow on the hills around us.  The garden birds are emptying the feeders daily but also making use of some of the seed heads that have been left for them, especially the lavender outside the back door.  Lavender seeds are usually the domain of our goldfinches, but this year the house sparrows also seem to be feeding on them - something I have never seen before.  Birds are very capable of learning quickly especially where a food source is concerned by watching each other and presumably experimenting!

28th November

The continuing mild November weather is making things rather difficult for hibernating insects.  We have found a  couple of butterflies in the house lately after doors to the garden have been left open, and large numbers of lacewings and ladybirds are wandering around in the house.  I am never entirely sure what to do with the butterflies in particular, as they use up valuable energy if they are active at this time and have no means of replenishing it.  They are taken out to the log store and placed safely in the depths where hopefully it is cool enough for them to become dormant again.  The lacewings get the same treatment, but the ladybirds are left to creep back into the edges of the double glazing.

21st November

The last few days have been foggy, misty or both.  The last really bright day we experienced here - at the end of last week - was glorious, and on opening the door at the back of my house I heard a massive twittering of finches coming from a nearby field.  I naturally assumed it was a large flock of goldfinches which we do get at this time, and didn't bother to take time out to check them which was a bit of a mistake.  They were linnets with a sprinkling of yellowhammers!  Still, its nice to know they are around as linnets are one of my favourite birds.  We see them often here in the spring when the dandelion seeds provide them with natural food, but they are reluctant to visit the feeders in winter.

One of the joys of creating a wildlife garden is feeling that you are contributing to the well-being of your local wildlife, either by providing suitable habitat for shelter or breeding, or because birds, mammals and invertebrates can find food there.  Once in a while, you know a garden visitor has arrived for none for these things - maybe your garden is just a temporary resting place.  This makes in none the less exciting when something special turns up, and the beautiful woodcock that appeared in the garden last week, on a path between the wildlife friendly herbaceous borders, was a treat.  Sadly the camera was out of reach - the borrowed painting is by Ian Lewington:   www.ian-Lewington.co.uk

We have had some wonderful weather here, with blue skies, buttery yellow leaves on hazel and dark red on dogwood.  Its a shame the leaves don't last a bit longer - or the good weather for that matter!  It's cold, damp and grey now and around the garden we have a huge flock of wood pigeons just looking for a place to land to forage for food.  The stubble next door will soon be full of them and just for interest I always do a count and 200 or so usually visit this field.  In the garden though we tend to get just a few - maybe up to 10 - and they gobble down any food they can get at on our low bird table.  Something about these waddling birds appeals to me though even though they are so greedy!

I find this an odd time of year in my garden.  There are still summer flowers blooming including Verbena, Cosmos and a few sweet peas, yet we have had our first brambling on the feeders - a male who blatantly showed off and then promptly disappeared!  I look forward to seeing him again.  And while the weather is relatively mild, the odd bumblebee and small tortoiseshell butterfly are also around.  The bumblebees are visiting lavender flowers that are still hanging on in a sheltered part of the garden - all huge queen bumbles that should be looking for a hibernation place now.  The vole, shrew and mouse activity throughout the garden this year will have provided them with plenty of places to find an abandoned nest to spend the winter months.

There are certain birds I love to see around my garden (even if they are not actually in it) and one of those is the red kite. In my previous Oxfordshire home the kite was a common sighting overhead, with its easy, elegant flight making it a joy to watch, but here the kite situation is rather different.  Red kites have been doing exceptionally well in Wales after their disastrous decline and now have spread and breed in the South Shropshire Hills.  My own little valley, just 6 miles from the Welsh border often has a kite flying lazily overhead and more recently we have seen him perched and feeding on the ground in the fields around us.  I can't wait for the spring to see if he attracts a female and they nest in the area.  Our local small wood is a very suitable nesting kite spot and it is visible from the house!

18th October

Coming home to a garden devoid of birds is always a worry.  The feeders are all empty and the birds have abandoned my garden for other reliable sources of food - and who can blame them?  Luckily it only takes a couple of days for them to return - goldfinches, greenfinches, five species of tit, house sparrows and blackbirds.  As autumn settled in though, the usual suspects were joined for a day by a huge flock of redwings, some of which visited the garden here.  I can see they were checking out the hawthorn berries which are looking plentiful, along with the holly.  Something makes me think there will be none for Christmas decorations again this year!  And while it is sad to leave the summer behind, autumn migrants make the change worth while.

12th October

Once again I have been marvelling at the wildlife in other people's gardens.  This time it was the formal garden and semi-farmland surrounding a small hotel in Menorca.  There were very familiar species behaving in familiar ways (house sparrows in particular) and a red kite reminded me of home every day!  In particular the joy of a warmer climate is seeing the insects  that we see here if we are lucky with our weather.  Red admiral butterflies were very abundant as were hummingbird hawk-moths - only one of the latter has been seen here this summer.  Best of all though was the flock of twenty or so stone curlews that frequented the rocky ground where horses and sheep roamed.  Not something I am likely to see in my Shropshire garden!

26th September

At this time of year I am really glad that we planted plenty of spindle and dogwood in the hedges we created when we moved here 6 years ago.  Our focus was shrubs with plenty of berries and nesting sites for birds, and neither of these two shrubs is especially good in that respect, but along with field maple they are the first to colour up in September.  And spindle - an absolute favourite from childhood country walks - is the best of all with its bright pink leaves and pink and orange fruits.  Autumn brings its own flavour as the garden changes colour and the nights draw in.  And although I lament the loss of summer, the colourful hedges and a barn owl hunting  in the garden at dusk makes the season change more than bearable.

19th September

Over the last few days the bird species in and around the garden have changed.  Instead of swallows overhead we have herring gulls and our sparrows have disappeared!  It's ploughing time in at least some of the fields as preparations are made to sow winter wheat.  On one side of our lane, gulls and buzzards sit behind the plough as it moves slowly across the hillside - these birds are picking up whatever invertebrates the farm vehicles turn up.  The house sparrows though are feeding in a field close to the garden, where oats have just been harvested.  These stubble fields will remain through the winter  and are attracting different birds, including the sparrows as they pick up spilled grain.   Either way, plenty of birds are happy.

12th September

Growing fruit in the garden here is done primarily to provide food for ourselves, but there is the added bonus of feeding our local wildlife.  At the moment we have apples, plums, damsons and pears to pick (and store in some way) but those that are not good enough to keep or have already started to break down are being visited by butterflies - red admirals and speckled woods, birds - blackbirds and chaffinches especially, and small mammals especially bank voles.  As the weather gets colder this free source of natural food will be much in demand as will the berries on hawthorn, dogwood and holly.  This means in years when I am overwhelmed by our fruit crop (as I am this autumn) and feel less guilty leaving some fruit untouched. 

30th August

However many nectar plants you add to your borders to attract butterflies, there will always be a few that have their own specific requirements.  One of these is the brimstone, that sulphur yellow harbinger of spring.  Second brood adults are around now (don't confuse them with clouded yellows!) but this garden has always been a poor place for brimstones, in sharp contrast to the Oxfordshire garden where they were very common.  Early on I planted alder buckthorn here, one of their preferred larval food plants, in a little sheltered group near a hedge in the hope that spring females might find them and a colony would get going here, but to date no obvious luck.  A beautiful male brimstone in the garden a couple of days ago makes me think it still might happen. 

26th August

My annual trip to the British Birdwatching Fair is always something I look forward to, whether I am working or just being a visitor.  Apart from fuelling my (slight) obsession with birds, it also reminds me to catch up with other organisations and causes I support.  A passionate lecture on cork oak forests by Frank McClintock from Paradise in Portugal, had me scouring my local shop for wine with proper corks when I returned.  And after three days away from the garden I was keen to return to see what was around here.  My curiosity was rewarded with a new butterfly species - a purple hairstreak - and several juvenile chiff chaffs and willow warblers, joining our young whitethroats that have been feeding around the garden for a while.  Good to venture abroad, but also to come home again.

In spite of not the best weather in the world, the late summer butterflies I expect to see in my garden are doing well and feeding on Echinacea and Verbena which I have planted in some quantities in the nectar borders.  Filling a garden of this size with plants could have been a very costly experience, but I am a great believe in 'growing my own' and love seed sowing and pricking out and all the fiddly gardening jobs that some people dislike.  This is also a good time to look at borders and make decisions about how to improve them next year and more of the same in terms of good insect attractants is the way to go.  I only have to see a butterfly or bumblebee on Echinacea to know that its definitely worth planting a few more.

This appears to a 'vole year' in my garden.  Everywhere you look, there are bank voles dashing out of the borders or long grass and picking up peanut crumbs or seeds under the bird feeders.  One is even sitting on my windowsill a lot of the time, picking up seeds that fall from the window feeder.  These are the cutest little mammals and every 6 years or so, generally after a cold winter, there is a boom year.  This will coincide with better survival of young tawny owls and kestrels, as there is more food around for them. Three young tawny owls have been frequently visiting my garden at dusk or calling from the wood next door - a wonderful consequence of last winter's long term snow cover which protected the over-wintering voles and therefore increasing the spring breeding population.

I'm trying not to be too depressed by the lack of summer weather here - it's cool but not damp and if its not going to be warm I'd rather have some rain!  The dry weather has meant that all of our ponds are desperately low, with the exception of the two small 'mini-ponds' which are easy to fill with a watering can.  One of these, just outside the back door, is used constantly by birds for both drinking and bathing and the local bullfinches, still feeding on seeds around the garden, have become bold enough to use it which is wonderful.  I never tire of seeing these bright, beautiful birds which are surprisingly acrobatic in spite of their dumpy shape.  Nuthatches too use it frequently for drinking, but I have never seen one having a bath!!

Back in my Oxfordshire garden, the end of July meant gatekeeper butterfly time.  For several weeks it would be the commonest butterfly in the garden, feeding mainly on wild marjoram which grew well there on the light soil.  Here the gatekeeper is more of a rarity and so far this summer only one has appeared.  Rather than feeding on marjoram it is spending its time in the meadow on knapweed, which this year has had an incredible number of   species of butterfly feeding on it - fifteen in total so far, plus countless bumblebees.  Already goldfinches are starting to find the ripe seeds and a small flock of about 12 is currently flitting around the clumps of this magic plant.  Looking forward to seeing how big a 'charm' we can attract.

There are always surprises in a wildlife garden and even though I have been gardening this way for many years now, unexpected things can still happen.  For some years I have grown a particular scabious in the borders here as it is a great bumblebee attractant.  This summer however, it is providing food for birds as well.  As soon as the seeds started to set a family of bullfinches was there, dragging the long stalks down with their weight in order to get at the seeds.  A pair and a juvenile male were in the garden every day and by the end of the week were becoming quite bold and feeding close to my office window.  A goldfinch also appeared showing how birds can learn from each other where a new food source appears.  It's a privilege to have these beautiful birds around and to feel we are providing a habitat for them.

A week away from my garden means lots of catching up when I return.  A week ago we had a new butterfly in the garden - dark green fritillary - feeding on the knapweed in the meadow.  Today there is no sign of this beauty, but other species have appeared including some red admirals, painted ladies and small skipper.  The big meadow is also a good place to find dragonflies, probably because there is a plentiful supply of food in terms of the insects there.  The emperor dragonflies are still mating and laying, as are several species of damselfly.  Our most numerous species is the azure damselfly with more than 60 counted on one sunny day.  They mate and lay constantly in the shallow water on the pond edge - wonderful to see these beautiful delicate creatures in abundance.

While some of the country basks in baking sunshine, the South Shropshire Hills are warm and sunny, but with the ever present cooling breeze from the west - just perfect.  Perfect weather for butterflies too and although the actual numbers are not good after such a poor start to the summer weather, there are eight species in the garden at the moment.  A wildflower meadow not only looks great at this time of year, it also attracts a range of butterflies that are not abundant in other habitats, so it's good to have meadow browns and ringlets around.  They both like to visit ox-eye daisies and knapweed which I have planted in abundance, as do the small tortoiseshells.  New brood holly blues, commas and small tortoiseshells are also feeding around the garden but sadly there is no sign at the moment of the white letter hairstreak that we sometimes see. 

A calm, sunny evening with a wonderful sunset, and a dry Monday - it can't last!  And the weather forecast suggests that it won't so I'm making the most of it by taking some summer photos around the garden.  The Big Meadow has done exceptionally well in spite of the cold windy weather, with the yellow rattle almost taking over and the knapweed about the burst into bloom at any moment.  The ox-eye daisy bank also looks fantastic and spurs me on to create two new meadow areas here in the autumn, another 'pure native' but the second with insect friendly non-native flowers amongst native grasses.  Species of Rudbeckia, Coreopsis and Echinacea are already waiting in little plugs to try this out.  It may not work, and if it doesn't I will add natives instead.  Reckon its worth a try though!

The weather certainly has been dominating my thoughts over the last few weeks, and no wonder - I'm sure it will be 'the coldest spring since records began' or something similar.  But after torrential rain here over the weekend we have a pretty full pond!  This means I am not complaining as it was very low and also needed some rain which always refreshes the water.  Sun today is very welcome and hopefully all the usual wildlife events can get back on track.  The lack of butterflies here is worrying but nesting birds are coping as our yellowhammers have shown - feeding young in the nest now which we were able to film - there is a link here - just a short clip with the camera on zoom but a joy to see.

Another cool week has passed and no prospect of anything much warmer ahead.  This doesn't bode well for the butterflies that are being filmed here next week for the new Alan Titchmarsh gardening programme - I hope the film crew have some flexibility in their schedule!!  Generally by the middle of June I can expect to see plenty of meadow browns over the long grass in the meadows and the orchard, but at the moment we have no butterflies but plenty of other insects. The Big Meadow though is looking wonderful!  This year has seen a huge increase in the yellow rattle, producing a haze of gold interspersed with the pink of the common spotted orchids.  The knapweed has yet to come into flower but looks like this will be the best year yet!

The poor weather continues but it hasn't stopped the garden filling up with young birds (or new species - a tree pipit at the moment) and the feeders are emptying faster than you can say 'fledgling'!  Young sparrows, greenfinches, blue, great and marsh tits, chaffinches and mistle thrushes are all feeding around the garden and this morning I saw a great spotted woodpecker carrying peanut fragments to a youngster in the copse.  It looks as though nesting has been very successful for some of our regular species, while others, especially the swallows, can't even get started.  Other nests are still in use and I'll continue to try to get a picture of the bullfinches as they dash into the hedge about 3 meters from my kitchen window - no luck so far.

The poor weather continues.  I'm thankful that at least some of our nesting birds, including the yellowhammer and mistle thrush, have fledged their young and hopefully they are able to find shelter from the gale force winds and occasional torrential rain we are experiencing at the moment!  The swallows are certainly having problems negotiating the approach to the front porch and I suspect will leave egg-laying for a day or two.  The poor weather has meant that I am inclined to work inside a little more and time taken to plan two new borders has been worthwhile, but a day filming for the wildlife gardening DVD has been cancelled until better weather.  On the bright side, more and more orchids are appearing in the meadow every day.

I find it very hard to enjoy warm dry weather when I know nature will soon redress the balance - and she certainly has.  Periods of torrential rain and strong cold winds have put paid to the planting I was planning to do in a new border - I am afraid the plants might be blown away!  The rain at least has brought about some rapid growth in the meadow which is good and the yellow rattle is about to burst into flower.  On the positive side too, the mistle thrushes are finding earthworms galore to feed their chicks which must be growing like mad.  The week ahead should be drier and warmer so our first common blues butterflies may be on the wing - something to look forward to.

With still so much to do in terms of 'spring' gardening, the coming week is going to be difficult!  We are now having our fair share of rain which has been wonderful, but of course this means that everything is growing apace and that includes grass.  So there is plenty of mowing of the more open areas here, while the meadow, left to its own devices, is close to bursting into flower with ragged robin and knapweed.  At least the nesting birds seem to be finding plenty to feed their offspring and currently in the bird boxes, hedges and trees we have blue and great tit, robin, blackbird, mistle and song thrush, yellowhammer, bullfinch, dunnock and house sparrow, plus probably many more that we don't know about!  A great spring so far for nesting here.

After the tattered butterflies of early spring - those adults that have made it through the winter - it's good to see some 'proper' spring butterflies in the garden.  And it's clearly been an excellent year for the orange tip.  We have them everywhere inside and outside the garden as they breed both on the garlic mustard (also called Jack-by-the hedge) that abounds around here, and on the lady's smock that pops up in the wetter clay areas.  This lovely butterfly feeds on the lady's smock flowers but also on honesty which I grow for spring colour.  It is also an excellent nectar plant for early bees and butterflies.  I am looking out for holly blue, but only a glimpse of one so far.

Busy as I am at this time of year I am totally distracted from work by bird nests.  Every year, as the garden matures, we have more and more species nesting here and I find myself wandering around the garden, binoculars in hand, watching small birds going in and out of nest boxes and hedgerows.  It's gratifying that the work we are doing here is paying off - planting new hedges in particular.  Our newest hedge now has several nests and yellowhammers are nesting on the ground in another part of the garden.  It does make moving around the garden a bit difficult at times though as I try my hardest not to disturb them!  As spring continues butterflies are becoming more apparent, especially the lovely orange tip.  Holy blue soon hopefully!

A bit more sun, longer days and spring is rushing on rapidly!  Nesting is going on all over the garden and to my delight, house sparrows, nesting here for the first time last year, are now building in another spot around the house.  Holes under eaves were blocked to prevent nesting when we first arrived here, so unblocking and allowing access to birds is slowly paying off.  The new nest is under the eaves of a single storey part of the house, so easy to observe and photograph.  Mistle thrushes are also building a huge nest of moss and grass in an apple tree, lined with mud from the small pond.  Whether they will persist in this busy part of the garden remains to be seen.

One of the reasons that we get so many birds in the garden here is the fact that the Welsh Marches are a convenient route for migrating upland birds.  A wheatear in the garden yesterday was a joy to see and brought our garden bird list to 65.  But birdwatching aside, there is a massive amount of work to do in a garden of this size, in spite of many areas being left relatively uncultivated.  Nectar borders still need to be mulched and last year's dead growth cut back, shorter grass need to be cut and there are vegetables to be planted and sown.  For me this is the busiest time of year in the garden so a brief pause to listen to a blackcap or chifchaff, or to watch a bluetit nest building is the only rest I get.

Spring tends to come a little later here that in my previous garden - we are at almost exactly 200 meters above sea level and the garden faces into the westerly winds blowing over the Long Mynd from Wales.  Still, that really is not a problem as we find that summer seems to last longer too - everything has just shifted forwards a couple of weeks!  What has happened in the garden in the last week though, is winter and summer have collided in terms of the birds here.  Chiffchaffs sing from the wood next door while bramblings and redpolls feed on the nyger seed.  Birds are clearly nest building, especially dunnocks and tits, while fieldfares are still passing through.  An interesting time with much to do in the garden, but also much to distract me!

28th March

It's great to be home again and to see the changes in the garden in just two weeks.  There are butterflies now - tatty small tortoiseshell and peacock - and lots of massive queen bumblebees searching for nest site.  They should be pretty successful in that regard as many of the wilder areas in the garden are a mass of vole and mice runs and holes.  In spite of the sunny and warm weather we still have 'winter' birds here including bramblings and fieldfares, and yesterday - a lesser redpoll - a first for the garden. If the week ahead stays mild and dry I will be sowing vegetable and flower seeds including broad beans, sweet peas and parsnips, and preparing the greenhouse for early salad crops. Real gardening!

11th March

If I am on holiday in the UK somewhere, it is usually in a rented cottage in the Welsh, Cornish or Scottish countryside. Taking a bird feeder with me is a priority – it may sometimes bring bird species to the garden that I rarely see at home. My temporary home beside a tidal creek on the River Fal in Cornwall has a tiny garden on the edge of the water. From the windows I have seen a variety of waders and ducks including shelduck, teal and curlew, but the garden has little visiting it apart from dunnocks and a song thrush. A peanut feeder has immediately changed that and within a couple of hours three species of tit and a chaffinch appeared. Garden total so far is only eight species but maybe that will increase as the feeder gets noticed.

28th February

The birds in the garden have been my main focus for some time now - there is little else about!  But this morning a trip to the Big Pond revealed the first few clumps of frogspawn, almost a month earlier than last year.  February 2010 was freezing, with snow until late in the month so I guess that the short bursts of milder weather have encouraged the frogs to return sooner than usual.  With daily visits from six mallard I hope the spawn is safe!  The mallard were joined by a female teal last week, tiny by comparison but enjoying the pond.  It's good to know that we have created a habitat in the garden that wildlife not only uses frequently, but relies upon for breeding.

A return to colder weather has brought some welcome winter bird species to the garden feeders, specifically bramblings and siskins.  We only seem to see that latter in late winter and early spring here, but they clearly nest not far from this area and it's great to see a breeding pair on the niger seed. Another daily visitor is a buzzard.  He often sits in the hawthorn trees in our boundary of sometimes on the back of our garden seat down by the pond.  It's only when you see these gorgeous birds close up that you realise just how huge they are.  They are currently battling for an established nest site in the largest oak tree on our boundary - for the last two years the crows have won.  I'm hoping it's the buzzards turn this spring.

The week has dawned bright and sunny but cold, with many birds now singing around the garden and in the hedges in our lane.  Great tit and dunnock are most noticeable but yellowhammer has also been heard over the last couple of days, plus a song thrush every evening in the wood next door.  Now the snowdrops are well out (and even a primrose in a sheltered spot in a border) its time to think about gardening!  But only a little - I hate disturbing hibernating insects and do as little as possible until the weather has warmed considerably.  One job that must be done though is the pruning of our apple trees to ensure a good crop in the summer.  Getting outside will give me the chance to watch our many local buzzards soaring in the clear skies.

It has been a while since we have had such persistent windy weather here.  Elevated as we are in the South Shropshire Hills, with our house facing westwards towards the Long Mynd, we 'see the weather coming' as it is usually approaching us from the west.  Sometimes the Mynd itself appears to block the weather, with clouds hanging over the long hill and never reaching us.  At the moment though, the wind seems to be from all directions - from the south this morning and now, although easing, from the south west.  An enormous flock of wood pigeons is flapping around the garden and field next door today - at least 40 invaded the edges of the Big Pond this morning for drinks and a bath before the blustery wind scattered them.