Avian Visitors

Tags

Barnacle geese, birdsong, Blue Tit, Fieldfares, Firecrest, Garden birds, goslings, greylags, mallards, moorhens, nesting, Redwings, song thrush, Springtime, starlings, Suffolk, Swallows, Tufted Ducks

We have had some warm periods of weather at last, after a long, cold spring.  Spring flowers have rushed to bloom and set seed before summer arrives and the trees have clothed themselves in delicate green leaves.

Any warm days we had in early spring were quickly followed by much cooler and wetter weather and the returning birds were confused, I am sure.  I saw a couple of vanguard male Swallows (Hirundo rustica) at the beginning of April but the ensuing wet and windy weather must have sent them back south because I didn’t see them again until mid May!

Two Swallows on the electric cable above our garden in April

Swallow number 1

Swallow number 2

We are pleased to say that the Greylags (Anser anser) did arrive in our garden, a little later than usual and spent a couple of hours a day inspecting the place…..

Greylag male and female

…..until they were ready to set up home here for the duration.  A nest was built on the island and the female began to sit on her eggs at the end of March.

The geese taking up residence.

The island

The goose on her nest. She lowers her head to become less noticeable.

The gander patrols the water…..

….but often went off elsewhere to eat and meet his friends, though was within calling range.

The goose sat and sat and sat, only leaving the nest for a couple of minutes in the morning and evening to snatch a quick bite to eat.

Eventually, right at the end of April the goslings hatched.  There are four of them but I have had great difficulty photographing them.

Retreating Greylag family

As the goslings have grown the parents have become a little more relaxed but still beat a hasty retreat if anyone gets too close.

Gander on the lookout

Four fat babies eating our grass

These photos were taken at dusk and with my zoom at full stretch!  The goslings are on the move all the time and it is very difficult to get them in focus.

This photo was taken a few days later from Elinor’s bedroom window

I managed to get the whole family in this one!

While the goose was still sitting on her nest we had some surprise and unexpected visitors in the garden.

Barnacle Geese! (Branta leucopsis)   They had the cheek to land on the Greylags’ island while the goose was on her nest!

They appeared to want to set up home there too.

Richard saw them visit a few days later when the Greylag goose decided she didn’t want them there any longer.  She called her mate who arrived very quickly and saw them off.  These photos were taken from Elinor’s bedroom window again.

The pond has also had many visits from Tufted Ducks (Aythya fuligula).  There have often been two pairs of them swimming together.

Male and female Tufted Ducks

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) male and female

Mallard drake

A pair of Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus)

The Moorhens again; one displaying its white feathers under its tail.

Before the leaves appeared on the Ash tree we had frequent flocks of Starlings visit in the evening

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)

We also had Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) and Redwings (Turdus iliacus) congregate in that same tree before they flew north and east to their breeding grounds.

Once the winter birds had left, Spring decided it ought to do some catching up.  Flowers appeared, summer birds arrived despite the cool temperatures and I took this rather shaky video of our pond, mainly to record the birdsong (and the lambs!)

I managed to photograph a Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) in our Rowan tree.

Blue Tit. There is also a crescent moon behind the tree

The next photo is a bit sad.  Sad in one sense that it shows a dead bird and sad in another that I am strange enough to want to photograph a dead bird!  I apologise to anyone who is upset at seeing these photos which were taken to record the presence of the bird in the area.  I buried the bird as soon as I had finished looking at it.

A Firecrest (Regulus ignicapillus).

I found this poor bird in the flowerbed under one of our windows and I assume it had flown into the glass and killed itself.

It is a tiny bird as you can see when compared with my hand.

Here is a link with information about Firecrests

We get Goldcrests in our garden but this is the first time I have seen a Firecrest here and am sorry that it had died.  It proves though, that there are probably other Firecrests about so I must be more observant.

A Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) singing at dusk

I also made another poor video of this lovely bird singing.  I had to balance on one leg while peering round the corner of our house to make the video which is my excuse for the poor quality.  The video is dedicated to Richard Sutton of A Listening Heart blog who lamented in a recent post that he hadn’t heard a Song Thrush for a while.  Please do visit Richard’s blog.  He writes beautifully about the countryside where he lives and about poets and writers too.

 

A Windy Day and a Wet Blanket

Tags

Escallonia 'Apple Blossom', greylags, laburnum, moorhens, peas, potatoes, runner beans, tomatoes

The day began sparklingly.  Green and blue so intense and raindrops scintillating in the sun and breeze.  I went out into the garden quite early to open the greenhouse and have a wander about.  The wind was picking up and blossom was flying from the trees.  I went back indoors and collected my camera.

The greylags keep paying us flying visits.  The female goes onto the island and sorts over the old nest.  Poor thing !  I wonder what happened while we were away.  Did the eggs hatch out and then did she lose her goslings or did they not hatch at all?  Did something (an otter?) eat the eggs or were they infertile?

Amusingly, while the female was busy on the island the gander was attacked by a moorhen.  Moorhen are quite feisty birds when they want to be and despite being much smaller than the gander, this one made the gander run very fast!  I walked round to the far side of the big pond and could hear moorhen chicks calling but couldn’t see them in the thick reeds.  Moorhens feed their chicks until they are quite big and are very caring parents until they are spooked.  They then run off as fast as their silly feet allow them, leaving the chicks to fend for themselves!  Why?

I had a look at R’s vegetable patch and admired the potatoes already coming up.

We are growing two types of potato – white mid-season and red lates.  I like it when R grows potatoes as they store well and I don’t need to buy them from about August until Christmas or later.

The trees were whipping about in the wind so I thought I’d better take a picture of the laburnums before the wind and rain stripped them of all their flowers.

 

These laburnum trees were meant to look the same, as I have been hoping to make a little arch with them.  But look at them!  One is squat and spreading outwards and the other is reaching for the skies!  I will still try to make an arch but I don’t think it will end up looking like ‘Homes and Gardens’ material.  They also grew A LOT last year and I didn’t get my act together and do anything with the trees at the right time – oh dear!

Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’.  The book I have says this is a dense evergreen shrub.  This one is not at all dense and I’m not sure why not.  Other Escallonias we’ve had in the past have been really good shrubs – good enough for hedging with, but this loses all its leaves in the middle and a number of branches die off after a year or two.  I think I will cut it hard back and see what happens.  It may also need a lot of feeding as the soil it’s in is a little stony.

I went into the greenhouse.

Some of R’s runner bean plants.

And some of his peas.

His tomato seedlings are doing well too.

The heavy showers started shortly after I returned to the house and they’ve continued on and off all day.  A couple of times I’ve ventured out only to have to dash back in again, usually from the furthest parts of the garden.

And if you are wondering where the wet blanket comes in – that’s me with my woolly head and deafness, my runny nose and tickly cough.

Apologies

Tags

geese, mallards, marriage etc, moorhens, rooks

I feel I must apologise for last night’s sentimental outburst. There is no real excuse for it, but the night was so lovely, and, a little bit of soppiness (within reason, of course) never did anyone any harm – yet.

Not much to report so far today.  The day started cold and frosty with ice on the ponds.  This quickly disappeared as the wind got up and it is now raining hard – again.

The rooks have started fiddling about with their old nests in the rookery.  Mark Cocker in his book ‘Crow Country’ says that they dismantle the nests each year and start again.  I am not sure about that, though I am no expert.  The rooks pair for life but they still feel the need to court each other again each year – bowing and nodding and lifting the feathers on the back of their necks.  Human couples, in the main, don’t seem to continue to woo each other after they have decided to get married/live together.  Perhaps they should (I don’t mean bowing and nodding etc. – they’d get funny looks from passers-by) but perhaps try to remember what it was that attracted them about their partner in the beginning/make an effort to listen to each other or spend more time together/try not to take each other for granted – I’m sure you can think of lots more.  (What has got into me?! It must be Valentine’s Day!)  R and I decided some years ago to forego sending each other cards and giving presents on this day (at my instigation if I remember rightly) and what a relief it was not to have to sort through hundreds of simply awful cards trying to find something appropriate to us and our marriage.  We ended up with cards with no message and scenic views or gardens or flowers on the front and then wrote our own rather restrained messages.  I’m not usually a sentimental person (last night was an aberration) and I found it an uncomfortable experience.  It all seemed very silly.  As a girl I would have loved to have received a card from an unknown admirer but as a middle-aged woman….. No, ridiculous!

The geese don’t have the big pond to themselves any more.  The moorhens are very busy, paddling about doing moorhenny things and a group of five male mallards have arrived.  They are stalking one lone female – waiting for their chance!

Lunch break over – I must get back to the ironing and then I’m off to Diss to pick A up from the station.  She is coming home for a long weekend and I am looking forward to it very much.