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 -
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!
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!