Life is just a bowl of cherries

Outside my window is a large bird-cherry tree. It's actually in my neighbour's garden but right now it's full of ripening cherries and a family of four baby blackbirds with their long suffering parents. The babies fledged last week after two days of the parent birds feeding them with cat food which I had put out in a bowl on the patio. Each time the dish emptied (helped along by our own grey twins) Father bird tapped the bowl so we would go out and refill it.

The current antics start about 6am just as the day is starting to warm up and few shafts of sunlight bathe the branches. The fluffy babies fly in awkwardly crash landing on the bendy branches knocking cherries to the floor, or more correctly onto my front driveway. Then the squawking starts. The babies peck anything, branch, leaves, twigs and the occasional cherry. They haven't quite yet got the hang of retrieving a whole fruit and time and time again their intended breakfast slips to the ground. The more they lose, the more they squawk until finally an anguished parent hops in and deftly pokes a whole cherry into the gaping beak. Sometimes baby doesn't know what to do with this, should he swallow it or not? Eyes bulging they finally gulp the cherry down. Then a sibling starts up, he wants one as well and the poor parents hop from branch to branch, clucking and whistling at their offspring and stuffing them full of the ripe fruit.

These babies are almost twice the size of the parents and sit uneasily on the branches and gingerly move along the stems in search of the fruit. They lose their balance and sometimes their grip, at times sliding down until a flapping, flurry of wings renders them airborne and they find another branch to start the whole thing again.

Later, tired and full of fruit the babies doze amongst the branches and drunk looking heads with rolling eyes peep out from between the leaves. The parent birds use this time to feed themselves and leave the tree for an unhindered trip round the district or for a bit of worm digging on the lawn. Finally they've had enough too and a loudly clucking parent chivvies up the fat little babies and they are shepherded back to their nest in the eucalyptus tree opposite for a long rest until they get hungry again.

Summer is on it's way

The last couple of weeks we could almost be excused for thinking it was summer already. Long days of sunshine and the clearest of blue skies have sent the temperature here on the patio cum building site soaring. It's been too lovely to resist doing a bit of plant pottering, re-arranging my many tubs and pots and potting up a few summer bulbs. All this despite the fact I still have no actual garden to plant anything into.

The icing on the cake has been the arrival of the swallows and martins which wheel over the village all day and long into the evening. The resident blackbirds have been busy to making a nest just over the fence in a shrub in our neighbours garden. the male singing in the eucalyptus tree morning and night, a lovely sound I never had in the previous garden. How nice to have 'our own' blackbird. The goldfinches too have finally found the niger feeders and look like miniature parrots as they swing round 4 to a feeder busily pecking away.

Today though it's raining heavily, much needed water for the gardens. I wish there was more in mine than weeds to reap the benefits but without some decent topsoil I just have to wait.

Meet the gang 'cos the boys are here........

We haven't seen many birds in this garden yet. Several reasons 1) it still looks like a building site and at any given time there is likely to be someone out there making a noise of some description 2) the bird feeding station WH had for his birthday was really put in the wrong place, in the centre of an open space backed by a neighbour's eucalyptus tree 3) the resident cats are still staking out their new territory and patrolling fences to repel any potential invaders and 4) there are not nearly so many big trees. Despite the fact we are only 150m as the crow (or any bird for that matter) flies from the old place it really is quite a different habitat to get used to.

Yesterday, however, I took advantage of the good weather to remove the timber mountain from the future lawn, move all my pots of stuff awaiting transplant and had a general tidy up. I had to leave the cement mixer as it is needed later this week but 7 builder's dustbins were moved to the yard along with bags of sand and enough tools to stock a shop. I also moved the feeding station adjacent to the apple trees, with a neighbour's buddleia and a laurustinus nearby for extra cover.

This morning large as life I had a small flock of about 15 long tailed tits casing the joint and sampling the menu. They hung around for about half an hour until a neighbour's cat (thankfully not one of mine) appeared over the fence and looked menacingly at them. I took that as my cue to frighten him off and so the birds went too although half a dozen were back again in less than 5 minutes joined by a couple of great tits and a coal tit. I'm hoping this will be the shape of things to come and that they liked the new restaurant and will bring their mates. I now just need to attract the flock of goldfinches which fly past several times a day but as yet have not seen the niger waiting for them and it will finally seem like home.

Education in the kindergarten

My back garden has been renamed the nursery right now. Baby birds of all descriptions are vying for position on the feeders, teetering on the edge of branches and pestering their poor parents to death. At first it was the blue tits which caught our attention, six babies and their two extremely harassed parents, flew wobblingly from washing line to willow tree in turns. There were lots of crash landings and several false starts. Goggins lying in the sun on his favourite chair looked up, puzzled. He seemed to be saying 'Did I chase those once? Should I remember what they are? Are they something I should be interested in? Never mind I'll just go back to sunbathing.' The babies didn't know about cats anyway and just ignored him too. Even I stood less than 3 feet away and they just looked at me as though I was some sort of mobile perch.

Next up came the sparrows. Their training ground was fence to washing line, washing line to magnolia, magnolia to fence. 'Whoa there, maybe I'll try a suet feeder. Missed it, Oh OK I was really trying for the mock orange. Overshot that, OK, fence it is then." Their parents found a ready supply of kid-sized meals on the suet feeder and flew backwards and forwards from feeder to gaping mouth all day long.

The greenfinches were in hiding lest Misty and Nelson should find them. Apparently my wayward cats prefer the taste of greenfinch, or at least they did last year. So far this year there have been no catches at all, my tellings-off must have done some good. When temptation got the better of them, the greenfinches too brought the family to feast at the all night diner. More aggressive then the sparrows, they dislodged them and ruled supreme for a few hours until their arch rivals the starlings flew in.

Starlings, now that's another proposition entirely. Since they appeared, the garden resembles Saturday night at a rough wedding reception. They don't fight the other birds however, the stupid starlings fight amongst their own family. Drunk , or overstuffed with peanuts and suet, they squabble, taunt, push and shove. The noise is amazing, you'd think from the sound there were fifty out there, but no there are only 5 at the most. The parents try to bring them into line but their wayward children peck them instead. squawking and hissing and flying at each other. Then a fight between three of them breaks out and away they fly in winged combat, leaving the feeders in peace, just right for the little coal tits to fly in, grab a nut and retreat to the top of the willow before the angry starlings return.

In the midst of this mayhem, the goldfinches swing on the niger feeders and watch everything. No one else likes their food so they're happy. Well mannered and cheerful they ignore the rest of the rabble and twitter to each other companionably. Two little siskins too remain from the flock which arrived in late December, they must be breeding here but no sign of any babies yet.

It's been a real education this year, more babies than we have ever seen. It's hard to believe that 23 years ago no bird ever visited, there were no trees, no cover and certainly no free food. poignant then that this will be my last season in this garden. The new one awaits, barren and cheerless save for a lone robin who defends his territory from the apple tree. Time to make some changes then and ensure that next years babies are just as well fed.

Concerto for nightingale and blackbird

WH finally picked up his new hearing aids earlier this week. The difference to him is immense. He can't believe just how many little things he can now hear again. Perhaps a rowdy children's party was not quite the best place to wear them for the first time but he didn't need to remove them or turn the volume down and no-one noticed he was wearing them until pointed out to them. All in all they seem to be a success.

Later that same evening we went to look at a small parcel of land which is for sale locally. Mostly mixed woodland, there are some redundant buildings and a pasture which floods in winter, a haven for local wildlife. We soon realised that buying this would not be the dream we had thought it might be, noise from the motorway some 7 miles distant seemed to funnel up the valley and broke through the silence. A minor road above the fields also echoed loudly and WH with his newly acquired hearing deemed it far too noisy.

Nevertheless we walked the pathways and and enjoyed the warm evening listening to the numerous local birds, joined by a brace of pheasants who were roosting in some rhododendron bushes. As dusk fell another tune began. Two nightingales in adjacent trees struck up a conversation and sang their sweet song in the falling light. We stayed the best part of an hour listening to them until we were forced to leave, driven by the falling light and the need to negotiate some rough ground in poor light.

It had been a magical hour, the stillness, the unspoilt ground and the amazing song of the unseen birds. WH told me that he had not heard sounds like that for the best part of 20 years. I was stunned and momentarily felt empty as the realisation of all that he had had missed hit me like a thunderbolt. At least with his new aids he can begin to make up for that loss. Then as if to celebrate two blackbirds joined in and the road noise was obliterated as we left the site to a finale played by a quartet of the loudest birds even I had ever heard.

Listen here for the sound of the nightingale. Click the forward arrow above the waveform to play.

Headbanger

Sitting here the other day up to my eyes in paperwork for the end of the financial year I heard a strange sound. A bit like a spring or maybe it was feint knocking sound. Whatever, I couldn't find the source of it until I went outside later on and I heard it more clearly. A quick check on the internet proved without a doubt. It was the sound of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker and he has obviously set up home in the oaks opposite my house. He started drumming this morning just after dawn and has continued intermittently all day. Some times he sounds closer still, perhaps moving trees.

I've wasted hours looking for him and still can't see him it's really infuriating. It's good to hear though. I hope he does manage to attract a mate and then we might get the sight of the whole family later in the season.

You can see and hear one here, although he's picked an odd choice of tree to drum.

Some of last week's highlights

1. I spent a day in the sun sorting 4 huge piles of bricks.

2. A Mistle thrush set up home in the oak tree opposite my house and has been singing to us ever since.

3. The garage door on the new house finally went on with the help of youngest grandson who insisted on putting in all the 'big' screws himself.

4. I weighed in at the GPs and was 8kg lighter than I was 8 weeks ago. Not bad huh??

5. I made some headway on a puzzling aspect of my family tree but I'm still trying to figure out how my dyed-in-the wool, Cockney, uncle came to be born in Edinburgh.

6. It has been sunny for 6 whole days.

7. I discovered that my new fig tree gets the sun all day every day. That promises even more figs for this year.

I've got to look on the bright side. WH is suffering from extreme stress and clinical depression. Not much fun and mostly caused by one particular customer. We urgently need to get some sun and some rest.

Watch this space.