April 09'

Weather This Month

Max Temp =  17.5°C                 Min Temp = 0.1°C

Max Wind=   20.8 mph              Max Rain in 24 hr Period = 16 mm

Max Rain in 1 hr Period =  4.6 mm          Total Rain For Month =  54.9 mm

Diary

30th. The rain that ended the good dry spell has carried on today with 3.1mm falling throughout the day as light rain/drizzle. It has not dampened the House Sparrows enthusiasm for mealworm although the trade of in worms is out weighed by the chiirruupp that I can now hear outside the office window. The new water butt timer is working a treat and the pond is now looking like...well a pond again! No more sightings of the Mealy Redpoll but I hope it was not a one off as the Lesser Redpoll still come now and again. With all the sun and now rain we have had it has sent the garden into a fit of green and yellow with a good deal of plants attaining a lovely fresh green colour which has been complimented with yellow from the Marsh Marigold, Cowslip, Primrose and the now flowering pink of the Red Campion.

I can't help thinking of the things in store fro the month of May as the flowers in the garden start to show. If the Met office is to be believed we are in store for a real treat of a summer.....bring that on I say!!!

27th.  The weather finally broke down today with a rainfall of 15.5mm. Whilst I have enjoyed the almost 2 weeks of sunshine I think the garden and particularly the pond has been in much need of a good drink.....and now it has. I store water in a butt that is connected to the house roof downspout by means of a diverter and have a timer rigged up that is set to give water out at 2 minutes every 24 hours. I noticed this was letting water seep out even when off so the water was not being conserved over a long period of time. I have replaced this with a new model and can set this to a finer degree of only one minute over 24 hours.

Bird wise it has been interesting as the Siskins that reached a maximum of 20 have now departed. The arrival of the Lesser Redpoll have coincided with a thought of having a Mealy Redpoll that has visited the feeders. This species of bird was and the same, often being referred to them as Common Redpoll with the Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis cabaret) being thought as a subspecies of the Mealy Redpoll (Carduelis flammea). This has now been given as a seperate species that is quite a hard bird to distinguish in the field. When taking away the Arctic Redpoll (Carduelis hornemanni) the variation on these two birds can overlap with some features seen on both. Typically the Mealy is slightly larger, paler, more white to the rump, more pink that often only extends to the flanks unlike the Lesser which usually covers the chest and belly. Other marking on the undertail coverts could not be seen so i have been waiting to see if it returns to pose for a picture as the camera is at the ready. Other good news is the fact that the House Parrows are back in town with them finding the supply of mealworm irresistible. About 3 pairs are here most of the day as they ferry the food to their young. The mealworms always proves a big hit at this time of year as most birds find them a great resource for protein.

House Sparrow

Siskin & Lesser Redpoll

20th.  Wow the hottest day of the year arrived today at 18:00. It was a massive leap from the previous warm day of 16.2°C and to be honest it has really felt warm. The 17.5°C was a perfect day with mostly unbroken sun and only a slight breeze. I had the afternoon at home and made good use of the day with a few jobs being moved along even if not finished. I have been putting a ceiling in the pergola, which was built several years ago to give some protection from the sun, rain and the falling leaves of next doors Sycamore tree. I used york stone in the base of the pergola and when autumn arrives it can become a real slip hazard, so hopefully the new roof will help alleviate the problem. I have also done some cleaning up around several areas but the pond drew my attention for quite some time as I watched with a neighbour, our frogs bathing in the warmth of the sun. I also noticed that a Pond Skater was on the surface of the pond, waiting for any passing prey. It's not all that common in our pond to see one of these as most of the water is covered due to a plant I put in taking over. This year I have carefully extracted this plant each time I have noticed it rearing his head and will try to eradicate it once and for all. The pond is extremely short on water with all the hot sunny, and dare I say rainless periods lately. I set up a water butt to collect water from the roof of the house and have this diverted via the butt and eventually into the pond. I put a timer on the hose to allow a small amount of water into the pond every day but I noticed this had failed and was letting water through all day...hence I have now run out of my reserve and the pond is looking rather empty....have I a leak or is it the plants and evaporation I wonder? 

15th  After some careful consideration a new tree has been added to the garden. I long ago took a fancy to the Sorbus family and after sifting through lot's of cultivars we settled on sorbus aucuparia "sunshine" which is a small erect tree that has yellow berries, grows to about 20ft and has a great red colour to the leaves in Autumn. This tree is more than likely going to replace a Crab Apple "John Downie" as this tree has never really been well since we planted it 4 years ago. It has canker and probably had this from the beginning so I will let it flower (and if as usual it produces no apples) it's a goner! The usual Sorbus is a red berrying variety but I noticed that the Starlings usually strip the tree of these almost as soon as they ripen so I have seen the yellow, white and pink variety get left a little longer....long enough I hope to see the arrival of Waxwing in winter. These birds really would be a bonus as whilst I have seen them from the garden in 2004 they have never been in the garden...so here is to hoping.

A growing number of seasonal birds have been present today with at least 9 Siskin and 4 Lesser Redpoll. They are not as skittish as many birds which visit the garden with some allowing me to get within 6 ft of the before heading for cover. I have tried to encourage nesting behaviour in the 2 Tit boxes on the side of the house by putting new fronts on with one 32mm and one 25mm hole being cut into them. Nothing as yet has been seen in them but I hope this may change. 

13th.  I had no sooner wrote that the GSW had gone missing before I turned to look out of the office window to see him hanging on "his" fat cake. The pair of Lesser Redpolls also turned up with the reappearance of 3 Siskin. Whilst numbers of birds are down in general as they spread out to find nesting places the actual number of species visiting the garden is surely greater than in previous years, although when I look back at my records kept since 2003 last month saw a slight increase in numbers throughout most of the species that visit the garden. I have also looked at records for weather that I have kept since 2007 and strangely enough the last 3 months have seen the least amount of rain compared with the same months over those three years, any correlation I wonder?

The other good news is that the massive journey for two of our most eagerly awaited migrants is over as two House Martins were noted hawking on the 11th and today a single Swallow was chattering away as it passed over. This amazing journey that is undertaken twice a year by these migrants has never failed to ignite a sense of hope as each year they return to a local nesting site. The other migrant is the Swift but they are two weeks away from making their journey although they will be well into it by now. Let's hope for a safe passage for them.

I have also noted several birds taking my nesting material away with the cat hair at the moment being the most popular with the Coal Tits and Great Tits being rather partial to it. I also witnessed a Greenfinch taking Alpaca hair a week or so ago. This time of year brings about a tidy up and one of the things I now do is to keep any strands of dead material inc long grass etc as Blackbirds like to use this as an ideal material to weave their nest with. Later in the year I also try to mix a bit of mud with any grassy fibrous material as they go mad for this..I just keep it nicely moist.

Having taken away my feeder trays from the base of the feeders I have noticed a considerable drop in consumption as the Collared Doves, Woodpigeons and of late some Feral Pigeons are demoted to picking tit bits up off the floor. No bad thing it seems as the rate of food I was going through was quite imense and with the price of sunflower hearts being so high I think this is going to be a little more permanent. I shall try to rig up some sort of catching bucket lower down the poles that will help with the food going stagnant on the floor which when dry weather is here it's OK but any wet weather just creates a mess.

11th.  We have been lucky enough to keep the Lesser Redpoll at the moment although it has only been the female that has been feeding. She has returned quite often and stays for a long time as she munches through a lot of niger seed. The Great Spotted Woodpecker is again missing so I hope nothing has happened to him but it seems the Blackbird and Robin's attempts of an early nesting chance have been scuppered as neither is now taking food away for young. Some good news on the nesting front though as Mandy has located a Mistle Thrush nest that we hope to get a few pictures of as she sits on eggs.

A trip to the garden centre is a must shortly as I would like a few more daffodils and a replacement tree for the John Downie apple tree that I planted four years ago that has never really performed. My lack of knowledge at the start was probably my biggest problem as I ws not aware that it was riddled with canker that I just cannot eradicate. I am thinking of a Rowan tree although I think I would like a small variety that produces red berries.

5th  Warmer temps have stayed with us of late and a mostly sunny garden has been observed. I have been keeping an eye on the longer range forecast as I have a little time off over the Easter period but as it approaches it seems it way well be a poor one on the whole. I like to use an online weather forecaster called metcheck which I find a very good and quite humorous site at times as it seems it has a geeky edge to it that weather watchers appreciate. If you are interested in a good weather forecaster click HERE.

The Hedgehog was seen last night which again soon found the dried mealworm I put out for it whilst it sat, almost waiting, for me to place them before it! No returns from the Lesser Redpoll or the Reed Bunting but on my extra vigilance of the garden we noticed a Greenfinch taking away nest material on the 4th. She chose some of the alpaca hair we put out which has now been replaced with more of the same. We have also put out cat hair, horse hair and some feathers from an old pillow. No interest really shown from the Tit family as yet but it is still a bit early fro us Northerners. The Blackbirds are still taking plenty of mealworm and sultanas away and the Robin is seen taking the odd mealworm away to feed his mate. What has happened to the nesting pair in a neighbours garden I wonder. Always hard to tell but Cat's, cold weather and Corvids can all take it's toll.