Last year we moved from quite a small house with a small, rather horrible little garden into a nicer, slightly bigger house with a decent size garden. We are surrounded by other houses and not far from a city centre but there are gardens all around us and a lot of trees and bushes. One thing I noticed almost immediately was the amount of garden visitors we had in our new place. Having bought a fairly decent camera not long before we moved I purchased a bird table and other bird feeders when we settled here as we have the garden space and activity now.
Over the past year it's been amazing watching the wildlife. The most magical times were last summer when we had fledglings growing up and now this year where some of them have returned to start families of their own. I'm looking forward to summer again. Being in lockdown has meant that I've had the time to watch them and photograph them. Some of my shots I've included here. It''d be nice to see other people's photos of their garden visitors.
These are some of my fav shots. I also have some pictures of the Sparrows and Tits but they're too quick to get a clear shot of I'll keep trying.
So this week I focused on my sparrows and I managed to get some really nice photos of them. These are some of my fav shots of the week.
These are specifically the female Sparrows they're just so pretty but they're not around as much as the boys.
The boys are around more often I have some nice shots of them too.
Although my favourite shot this week was this one. I'd not seen a Dunnock in the garden before but I'll be looking out for them now.
Well what can I say about May? It's been a good month in terms of garden growth. The birds that live in or near my garden are sparrows, tits, robins and blackbirds. The blackbirds and the sparrows have fledged now. Not seen any baby robins or tits yet, maybe they'll come later. Mr & Mrs B were the first to show their kids to the world. I've only seen two of them. Not sure if that's a good number or not? One of them is nearly a full grown up now and we don't see them often but one of them still hasn't quite got all his big boy feathers yet. He's a confident flyer and can feed himself but dad still keeps an eye on him occasionally.
We still see the Tits and Robins but they haven't brought their young out yet. We also saw the squirrels in the tree this morning too.
The most magical event of the month so far is my boy sparrow from last year who settled in our garden to raise his own kids this year and today they appeared and he's teaching them how to fly and how the bird feeders work and how to forage. I spent most of the day watching them today.
However my favourite shots are of this majestic creature.. We weren't sure if it was a blackbird or not, it just seemed a bit bigger than they usually are, but that's all we can find that it even remotely looks like.
Lovely photos Jessie Meg
So as May ends and June begins I'm looking at least another month at home as my work won't open until at least July. The garden has got quieter. The young ones which were fledgling at the beginning of May are mostly grown now, completely independent and have gone off to explore more of the world. They pop back occasionally to visit the bird table but no where near as often as they used to. I've seen 2 young squirrels in the trees now so I'm hoping as they get braver they'll start venturing closer to the house and I can get some nice photos of them. As for the robins and the great tits I've not seen their babies yet but I suspect it won't be long, it was about the beginning June I saw the robins last time. There's a couple of tits that I'm starting to see more often now collecting food so I'm wondering if their brood are close to leaving the nest now. Only time will tell. I've not managed to take as many photos over the last week or so because the gardens just not as busy but here are a few.
_____________________________________________________
A lovely collection of photos Jessie
Despite having 30+ Sparrows feeding daily & chilling out in Pyracantha I am still waiting for their babies to fledge & appear in garden!