Valley CreationsDuring the current heatwave it is pleasant to get out in the garden early. We use rain and grey water most of the year but supply is running low so I thought I’d use a hose for a change to help things along before a likely ban comes in.
A couple of clips here that I am not sure about (nothing new there). The first (ignoring the Tits) is obviously a young bird. At first the second looks the same, not sure how to get at the food then suddenly works out a way. Then all becomes clearer on a new clip of the mother feeding the young one at the feeder.
This is quite long but very entertaining.
And there seem to be strict sitting times for the feed by bird type. A few minutes later.
Between Ruth and I we’ve accidentally ended up with a theme.
We’ve crept into May and the temperatures are swinging with the change of wind direction. Some glorious sunshine but not enough rain. Trees swapping from blossom to leaf and everything looking crisp before it all becomes too overblown.
13/04/26 Pleasant weather after a cold start. Ruth, Simon and I all pottering. Some sluggish bees about and everything changing fast. Between us we created a log pile from the defunct arch, mended a boundary fence, potted seedlings trimmed back a willow arch, cleared beds of weeds and mulched more tender plants, Cleared the debris from an earlier pond clearance and put it in the dead hedge…….
It is nearly 20 years since I moved into this house and there were old, unused, nest boxes here then. Those were put up by Ruth who arrived here 10 years earlier. Despite that we’ve put up several since. One was hidden in a conifer about 20m away from where I film with an old Fairphone 3 but just about visible from that angle. Then wood pigeons nested and played trampolines on one of the branches and the following winter snows made a big gap in that part of the conifer.
Still no sign of activity, other than a quick investigation. Suddenly from another room, I spotted a bird going in, so rushed up and set things up. Over several days there have now been multiple sightings. Hurrah.
The first video is the best so far. The second just illustrates the effect of a change of wind direction on temperatures and thus insect activity in early April.
It has turned from reasonably cool to excessively warm and back to cool again in a week. Today has been warm in the sun. After finishing the arch replacement a well deserved ramble to take in the garden’s other pleasures.
Having watched a program on solitary flower bees and having recent logs lying around, I thought we’d give making another bee intended log pile/ stumpery a try. I did manage to overheat a small drill with my usual gung-ho approach. First I had to remove all the suckers from the Hazel, then split some of the logs, then the drilling and piling
