Friday 22 May 2009

Des Res

It may say something about me, but one of the most exciting moments of my rather mundane life, was having bluetits take up residence in our garden this year. I won't win any awards as wildlife photographer of the year, but I managed to snap this picture this morning. There are six chicks in there, and they all look pretty healthy.

Their mum and dad are the hardest working parents imaginable - they're providing a constant supply of live insects for their babies as they fly back and forth throughout daylight hours. Occasionally they stop for a snack themselves, and I always try to keep a good supply of bird seed, peanuts, suet balls etc. I don't know how soon these little ones will leave the nest, but I would love to see them when they make their first flight.

We get plenty of birds in the garden, sparrows, blackbirds, starlings, collared doves, pigeons, robins, and even have occasional sightings of wrens and thrushes. We also see swallows and swifts overhead.

We've also seen a couple of hedgehogs over the past few weeks, and I have put food out for them occasionally, though I don't think there is any shortage of slugs and snails for them in my garden!

As part of my effort to reduce my impact on the environment was to replace my ancient Flymo with a human powered lawnmower. It's pretty good, quite lightweight and easy to use and it even has a grass box, which means I can either add the grass clippings to the compost bin, or allow it to dry and use it for the rabbits' litter trays.







3 comments:

Jo said...

Love the picture! Lucky you having bluetits nesting in your garden. We don't get nests in ours (because there's scrubland on the other side of the fence which is much better), but they like to pop in for food.

Hope you get to see them when they start to fledge.

Best wishes,
Jo

Karen said...

I am so jealous of your baby birds. I have had a birdhouse forever and no sign of anything! Thanks for your lovely words on my blog. Karen

Anonymous said...

Aww that is so cute. I know how you feel. It is so exciting! I have six baby robins over my blog.
http://woollywotnots.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/what-is-hiding-beneath-your-junk/