Moving in!! Great tits taking up residence!

 We are very excited that a pair of Great Tits are going to use the camera nestbox. I had seen her, pecking around the hole and putting her head in.  The hole was not big enough for a Great Tit - it had been made for Blue Tits. 

A pair of blue tits had settled on the other box which is about 15 yards away from this box, but doesn’t have a camera. My perception of the situation was that no other blue tits would nest so near. Therefore, the hole at the camera box needed to be enlarged to let another species in. Paul made it a bit bigger - 28mm., and within 10 minutes a great tit was looking into it!

They are now definitely in. So exciting, but a huge time-waster!!

She spreads her wings and rotates - a nest-forming movement that was performed many times before there was actually any nest material.

Husband looks in repeatedly but as yet (27th March) has not been seen inside.

Moving in day! Saturday 27th. March 2021. This nest material is about 5 trips-worth.

An early visit by the female Great tit.

A nestbox camera

 I have long wanted a camera with which to see what goes on at a bird’s nest. I was triggered into actually getting one by being given a gift voucher towards the purchase.

There isn’t room in our present nestbox; Paul made a taller model and we now have it all fixed up, it had to have a power supply and be able to access a good wi-fi signal. It had been up about a week when I saw a beak coming in through the hole (which is 26 mm), with glossy black head attached!!  I think it was a Great tit.  It didn’t come into the box, just put its head in and out a few times.

Then, a few days later, my son saw this blue tit actually in the box. He took video but for some reason  I cannot get them to play on this blogger so here’s a capture from it. We’re very excited by this “viewing”, and really hope our little visitor takes up residence!

The camera is fixed inside the roof of the box, pointing downwards. The entrance hole is in the front, not in the floor!

More nest boxes - milk bottle and welly boot

 Following on from that we have put up two more nest sites - bit of an experiment, this. One is a 4 pint plastic milk bottle and the other is a cut down Wellington boot.

The milk bottle has been wrapped in black tape to darken it, been pierced to make a few drainage holes and positioned horizontally just below the eaves of the garden shed.  The hole is 30mm. probably not quite big enough for sparrows but we shall see.

The boot has been cut to form an open cavity that might attract a robin. It is positioned about 8’ up, under an open shelter, next to the old stables.

Here they are -

Nest boxes...

 At the beginning of 2020 we built a nestbox - well, I drew out a template and the build was a joint project for Grandpa and grandson. It went upcountry, worked really well and was used by a pair of bluetits.

This year Paul has made one for us. It is positioned on the old wall about 15 feet from the kitchen window, so we have a really good view. By the middle of February I had seen great tits and blue tits on the perch, putting their heads in and out of the hole, and by late February the blue tits were going in and out properly.

A stoat....!

 This video of a stoat was captured by my son-in-law whilst he was taking a coffee break where he was working in Berkshire. He said the stoat was after a mouse. I have seen the same stoat behaviour here, but have never managed to film it!

Sulphur Tuft or Honey Fungus?

 I popped out to pick a handful of runner beans yesterday; the weather is atrocious. It’s Storm Alex all over this weekend and we have had several weeks worth of rain in three days. I imagine that the dampness has triggered this amazing flush of toadstool growth, which I am certain was not there two days ago because I had then been standing sticks there, and would have noticed. 

I’ve looked it up and am slightly confused as to which of these it is but am leaning now to the Honey Fungus diagnosis.

Sulphur Tuft it is the most common UK fungus and is poisonous. 

Honey Fungus is “endemic in UK woodland”, not poisonous but considered to be disastrous

The fungus is growing on beech; in fact this is part of an enormous and ancient bole that has spread over several yards diameter. 

My Runner Beans

 Here are my runner beans, which have been spectacular after a rather shaky start. 

The first thing I did wrong was to plant them out too early in March - I got caught out by a late frost and it really set them back, I thought they were all dead. I planted two more seeds at each pole, and they developed fast and overtook the frosted ones. Also, SOMETHING started biting off the lower bean leaves and trying to drag them through the netting; several plants were killed like that. I assumed it was mice and searched for a remedy. Holly leaves, somebody said. That was an excellent idea, we have plenty and I put a good layer all across the bottom of my “beanery”. That stopped the damage!

I’m glad now that I planted so many - it was my own saved organic seed and we have had tons of beans and given away loads.  The plot they are in is a very old, very deep bed of horse manure. It has simply become earth;  easy to dig and holds the moisture so well that I hardly had to do any watering at all.

In the picture you can see the last of the potatoes which I had just dug - they’ve been good, too.

The crab apple tree down our lane

 This lovely old crab apple tree is absolutely laden this year, as are our domestic apple trees and indeed everything seems to be producing a huge crop. Holly, hazel, hawthorn, sloe, oak etc. 

These little apples will all be on the ground soon. I made Crab Apple jelly some years ago, so may be it’s time for another batch. Not too difficult because you don’t have to peel them!

I saw a hare this evening...

 It was casually hopping up our driveway - I had frozen as I noticed it and it didn’t appear to see me at all. It turned off before it reached me, onto our neighbour’s drive. I crept around the corner to see where it had gone but it saw me immediately and dashed away into the undergrowth.

It was quite pale, but seemed to have a lot of black on its ears.

I found out what’s eating the hedgehog food..... it’s a hedgehog!

 He or she is coming every night and seems to like the little handful of “Spike’s” hedgehog food.