Our first set of Blue Tits have fledged and left the nest, the second set look at max a week away, so another dozen to add to the local population, which is thriving. The Great Tits have also gone, and the Robin in our Jasminoides is busily feeding.

One thing I have really noticed this year is the cuckoo... not exactly my sound of the summer - I prefer hearing the swallows and swifts personally, but it has been worrying that in many recent years there have been at max half a dozen occasions when I have heard one and rarely from the house. This year it has been pretty much every day since the 23rd April and still going strong.

Anyone else heard more this year?

---

Our first set of Blue Tits have fledged and left the nest, the second set look at max a week away, so another dozen to add to the local population, which is thriving. The Great Tits have also gone, and the Robin in our Jasminoides is busily feeding.

One thing I have really noticed this year is the cuckoo... not exactly my sound of the summer - I prefer hearing the swallows and swifts personally, but it has been worrying that in many recent years there have been at max half a dozen occasions when I have heard one and rarely from the house. This year it has been pretty much every day since the 23rd April and still going strong.

Anyone else heard more this year?

You might find the following links of interest:

Thousands of migrating birds arrive on coast 11/4/2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5n7593jl9o 
BTO Cuckoo satellite tracking project
https://www.bto.org/cuckoos 2024 
 

---

You might find the following links of interest:

Thousands of migrating birds arrive on coast 11/4/2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq5n7593jl9o 
BTO Cuckoo satellite tracking project
https://www.bto.org/cuckoos 2024 
 

Thanks Roger, the tracking project looks like an interesting website. As it says on there, and as I understood it, the numbers are down a lot and that's exactly why I found it strange that this year seems to be a reversal of the trend... here at least.

---

A local lad (and BTO trained ringer) has just been around checking our bird nests and nest boxes. We have two swallow nests (as last year, but many less than the eight we have had in the past) one with advanced chicks (they got here v early and have got well ahead). We have loads of house martins, like last year.

But our big news is we have barn owls in our nest box and four eggs 👏. It's amazing to see them as I last saw a barn owl around here at least 40 years ago. What's changed? Our bit of east Dartmoor is less farmed than it was (though only a mile away the reverse is the case), our wildflower meadow and that we no long let our field be cut for silage are possibilities that come to mind.

---

Looked out of the bedroom window this morning [7am] as a roe deer was running down the main street of the village in a panic. For a moment I thought it was an escaped foal going crackers in traffic. On a walk yesterday 7+ housemartins were collecting mud from, a puddle on "The Viking Way". The Local Barn Owl camera is down so I won't post the link to it until it is working again - but they have 4 chicks, growing fast. Here's some images from it:
https://www.lenpicktrust.org.uk/news/category/lenpicktrust/owlblog/ 
 

---

Good building weather and materials for housemartins this year.
I'm planning to visit the sandmartins in an old gravel pit.
 

---

Four peregrine falcon chicks born at Cathedral 👍
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crggzjpxkjpo 

---

I've been up close and personal with a family of Goldfinches in my back garden this morning. They've been about for a few days now as they have a very distinct sound, compared to the other usual birds. They were seeking out bugs, I believe, on the Morello Cherry tree. Quite delightful!

---

I've been up close and personal with a family of Goldfinches in my back garden this morning. They've been about for a few days now as they have a very distinct sound, compared to the other usual birds. They were seeking out bugs, I believe, on the Morello Cherry tree. Quite delightful!

We are just back from a walk in Scotgrove Wood. Full of birdsong, the smell of honeysuckle, the sound of a Roe Deer barking loudly and orchids in flower. Hard to believe this peaceful place was the site of Thor Missiles during the Cold War and before that the base of "The Other Dambusters". Back then local kids, mostly girls, used to "adopt a Lancaster, count it out and, sometimes, count it in again, sometimes not. Hard to imagine...
https://www.visitlincolnshire.com/things-to-do/walking/bardney-short-walk/ 
 

---

Nicholas Watts, a Lincolnshire farmer known to Roger and others, reports in his latest 'News from the Farm' bulletin that some years back he persuaded the local drainage board to cut only one side of the local ditches alternately each year and that only once. The result has been more reeds, hence more reed warblers, hence more cuckoos which he now hears daily as compared to 40 or 50 years ago when there were none. This year a bittern has turned up.

And the drainage board has saved money!

---

Nicholas Watts, a Lincolnshire farmer known to Roger and others, reports in his latest 'News from the Farm' bulletin that some years back he persuaded the local drainage board to cut only one side of the local ditches alternately each year and that only once. The result has been more reeds, hence more reed warblers, hence more cuckoos which he now hears daily as compared to 40 or 50 years ago when there were none. This year a bittern has turned up.

And the drainage board has saved money!

Well remembered and perfectly correct.

---

I've just pulled the curtains overlooking the patio (as for once it's dull and gloomy) and while I was holding the pull-cord I spotted three birds in a procession across the lawn... a blackbird, and two brown birds with black beaks following closely behind. I carried on watching as the blackbird led the other two around the lawn for a minute or so, then all three flew off to land in an elderberry bush. Looking it up online confirmed what I was thinking - the brown birds were fledgelings and I guess it was dad showing their territory to them!

That follows on from seeing a half dozen or so young starlings perched on the conifer last week, and judging by the quietness in my bedroom the sparrows resident in the eaves have said goodbye to their youngsters too. And while I was using the exercise bike earlier (positioned by the front window of the living room), a blue tit randomly landed on the window sill and stayed there for a few seconds - first time I've seen one in my garden.

It's not just birds visiting, either. I've got a bumble bee nest for the second year in a row, and they've been very busy on the sumac (three or four on some of the cones), as well as the fuschia, which they seem to adore. The former was planted by my mum in the 80s and now extends for 20 feet along one side of the garden, while the fuschia arrived in a large pot after the Kent County Show around 20 years ago... my dad, ever savvy for a bargain, bought one of the large display plants from a car dealership stand (they always sell them off cheaply at the end of the last day). It's now a massive bush, 8 feet high, 6 feet round and absolutely festooned with pink and purple flowers. The bees love it - there have been honey bees on it too, visiting from the hive on the nearby farm.

People may be complaining that it's a few degrees below average right now, but the wildlife doesn't care one iota!

EDIT: A couple of photos I took yesterday.

https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/bee1.jpg?a 


https://ukwct.org.uk/weather/bee2.jpg?a 

---