Warm summer days in my Brittany garden....

Like many at this time of year, it's been hard trying to juggle work and the many jobs needing to be done in the garden as well as allowing time for keeping up with posts on my blog and keeping up with the many wonderful blogs out there - so please forgive me for not being a regular visitor at the moment... I will return!

There have been so many things going on since my last posting -

On the bird front we seem to have a garden full of young fledglings at the moment - our Pied Wagtail's single chick has been making plenty of noise as have the various families of Great Tits and the Woodpeckers have also continued to frequent the bird table in search of the fat balls! We now have 3 swallow babies in the stable which seem to be doing very well - I think in my last post I'd mentioned that I'd found 8 empty egg shell halves on the floor one day and as there were no obvious signs of chicks took a quick peek in the nest as it's not that high up to discover 3 more eggs laid.... and thus now 3 chicks! So not quite sure what was wrong with the previous eggs but nature does have a marvellous way of taking it's course. It was also a wonderful surprise to discover another swallow nest right at the top of the barn space next to our office - the babies are obviously quite far on and from the little I can see of the nest I'd not be surprised if they're not that far off from fledging... will keep you posted on this.

Out walking along the stream/small river which runs along the bottom of our woodland and then along the route I usually take with the Lucy every day I discovered a Moorhen's nest and have been keeping a careful eye on this - started with one chick and 4 unhatched eggs - yesterday there were 3 chicks and still 2 eggs to hatch... you'll notice from the photo that only one chick is visible - the two older chicks had hidden themselves in the bank as soon as they saw me!

Our garden speaks for itself really but we could really do with some rain as the ground is getting extremely dry at the moment - the months when I'm grateful for the well we have in the garden as all our water is metered here so having a well is a real bonus!

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend and a good week ahead.... watch out for the v. warm temperatures - forecast to be 31 degrees here later in the week...

More excitement in my Brittany garden...

It just gets better.... it would appear that whilst I was out yesterday (wanted to make sure!) that the Great Tits mentioned in my previous posting have all fledged - I caught sight of some very young birds today but obviously they might not have been the same ones - almost impossible to take photos as the tree canopy is SO dense at the moment but will keep trying!

The other really great news was going into the stable this morning and discovering 8 little halves of swallow egg shells lying below the nest so am guessing that we have a minimum of 4 little babies deep in the nest - Mum is almost glued to the nest at the moment whilst Dad is visiting with the food but will keep you posted on progress. Someone might be able to tell me, but I thought that the egg shells were eaten by the adults??? I've never seen this with the swallows before? Any thoughts?

Moving on from birds... after the various sightings of Swallow Tail Butterfly caterpillars on the Fennel last year, I have managed my first picture of a butterfly - really not easy to photo as they never keep still - these were the best two.... they seem to love the Fennel and also Dill - just incase anyone is interested in attracting them to their gardens. The amazing thing about Swallow Tails is the actual height at which they can fly and the sheer speed!

To finish off with a few of my favorite photos of plants this last week - a new Poppy to my collection - Patty's Plum and my Aquilegia "Nora Barlow" (see above) which I bought at the Bristol University Plant Fair almost 9 years ago and it's survived it's voyage across the Channel to our garden here, then finally this beautiful Cistus which just thrives in warm sunshine...

It's been a stunning day here - around 26 degrees and v. warm - more warm weather forecast tomorrow so might get out in the garden to do some more then... Bon weekend tous le monde...

My own Springwatch in Brittany...

Great excitement this morning....

Back in March when I was in Cornwall I bought a couple of nesting boxes to go in our woodland but didn't manage to get them put in place until April and have never noticed any activity around them at all - so it was with regret that I thought I'd have to wait a whole year to see some activity...

Well little did I know....

This morning I was out on my morning stroll with Lucy in our woodland and noticed that one of the new boxes had come off the tree during the storms last night and on closer inspection the screw holding the box to the tree had completely sheered off... still quite sleepy I picked up the box and got the fright of my life when I saw movement inside the box as it had fallen with the hole facing towards the ground. I left the box where I'd found it, took Lucy in for her breakfast and returned to the fallen box with a step ladder and new screws and a good screw driver!

On careful inspection there looked as if there was a complete family of young Great Tits inside as the parents were going berserk but my biggest concern is that by this point were not moving at all and I was very concerned that they were injured or even worse. But without wasting time I thought I'd no option but to fix the box back in place and take a back seat and watch.... which is what I did.

It was an exhilarating start to my day to watch both parents going in almost immediately and feeding the chicks as well as removing faecal sacs from the nest. I went to check on them this evening and all seems well - large amounts of high pitched cheeping from the nest so I'm guessing they were just keeping as still as possible out of fear and trepidation!

I wonder how long it will before they fledge?

Mummy and baby woodpeckers have been very present in our garden again today... she's been feeding them from the fat block on the bird table which certainly seems a favorite - it's wonderful to watch and just a shame that I'm limited to taking pictures through a window...

Birding news from Brittany

Many thanks to all of you who've left postings and comments on my blog these last few weeks have really appreciated the contact - it's been very busy with work, leaving little time for blogging... but looking at the forecast this coming week you may see a bit more activity on here and with any luck will give me the chance to catch up on what's going on with your own blogs...
There's been all sorts of things going on on the bird front in our own garden as some of you may know... some really good and some not so good....

The first bit of great news is that all 5 of the blue tit chicks fledged last weekend - they've been spotted along with Mum in the oak trees in the main since then feeding on all the green caterpillars - particularly after the episode with the Great Spotted Woodpecker attacking the nesting box.


News on the Woodpeckers which have been nesting in our woodland somewhere - a young male was spotted on the bird table this morning - these pictures were taken through the bedroom window, so not bad I guess!


I was devastated about 2 weeks ago to discover one of the female swallows had died - she was the second female to set up nest in our stable - I have a nasty suspicion that it was one of our cats. Noticing that none of the swallows were on any of the nests following this incident and fearing that we'd not have any swallow babies this year, did my best to make the openings into the stable as cat-proof as possible - since then Mummy Swallow No. 1 has returned to her nest of eggs and has been sitting tight since then.... so watch this space...


Out in the garden this week we appear to have a pair of Wrens nesting somewhere as they have been incredibly noisy and mouthy whilst I've been outside... hopefully there'll be more news on them too...

I wonder what news anyone else has on the bird front - they play a vital part in the garden so are worthy of more than a mention on here...

Hope the weather is a bit more cheery where you are... bon weekend!