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What have you noticed in your garden during the lockdown?

Arequipa

Hi!

I hope you are all well.
I am at home a lot more the last few weeks and have enjoyed Spring springing in front of my eyes.
Daffodils, tulips and shrubs blooming, blossom on trees, bees buzzing in the air and the evenings getting brighter...
And also the birds have just been great to watch... it is like they are all on some Spring drug...it is all go..
First I notice a significan increase in birdsong: robins, blackbirds, bluetits, and the fabulous wren.
I have a camera nestbox and unfortunately the bluetits have not chosen it this year.. but I think they are nesting nearby... as they are feeding on the peanuts and chasing great tits away from my garden.
To the left of my garden is a large tree. 2/3 up the tree, there is a woodpigeon sitting on her nest... and about 10-15 feet above this is a magpie next. A few days ago x2 magpies were having a proper tiff with the pigeon. But the pigeon stood her ground.
I just hope when the eggs hatch that the magpies dont predate the chicks.

Then 3/4 nights ago I watched 30 - 40 brent geese flying in a v formation north on their big trip to Arctic Canada.
It is amazing to see all these changes happening...I think I have noticed a lot of things I didnt have time to before, which is nice..

Oh yes... the last thing I noticed was a magpie coming into my garden with food....digging a little hole and sticking the food in and covering with bark mulch...I went out to check the other day.. and found a big chunk of meat/steak where the magpie hid it... Never realised that they do this.. As I rule I am not fond of magpies, but I admire their intelligence and determination..

What have you noticed in your garden since the lockdown?

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New Home

Arequipa wrote: »

I have a camera nestbox and unfortunately the bluetits have not chosen it this year.. but I think they are nesting nearby... as they are feeding on the peanuts and chasing great tits away from my garden.

Just a note on that - please please please make sure the peanuts are crushed in much smaller pieces before filling the feeder: the parents' mouths are big enough to carry them whole, but they may choke the chicks.

Arequipa

Will do ....

[Deleted User]

I would have loved to have seen the geese in flight in the v formation! But like many things in life, it’s about the experience in the moment rather than the ‘insta’ photo. I love being present in those short, fleeting magical moments. I think that’s what enjoying wildlife is all about. I hope one day I get to share this passion with my sons.

At the moment my ‘thing’ during lockdown is learning about bees. I’m really enjoying this....https://www.biodiversityireland.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Crash-course-in-bumblebee-identification_2015.pdf

As for feeding birds. I have learned over the years, always feed peanuts through mesh peanut feeders because the baby birds can choke on whole peanuts , but the parents can only nibble on nuts through a feeder therefore small enough to feed their babies.

www.birdfood.ie is a great website to get started on bird watching.

magicbastarder

lots of holly blue butterflies in the last few days. plus a goldcrest, a rare visitor to our back garden. the pond is a good draw for the birds at the moment, clearly the dry weather brings them in.

Ulmus

2 pairs of linnets visit my bird feeder. They're beautiful, graceful birds but unfortunately they're on the Amber list in Ireland and Red list in the UK. Because of lockdown there's no herbicide spraying of paths, roads and even walls by Dublin City Council and Waterways Ireland. I wish they would give up destroying wildflowers and grasses altogether.

Del.Monte

New Home wrote: »

Just a note on that - please please please make sure the peanuts are crushed in much smaller pieces before filling the feeder: the parents' mouths are big enough to carry them whole, but they may choke the chicks.

Which is why feeding during the breeding season used to be frowned upon - why/when did it change? I was out of birdwatching for the best part of 40 years and find many of the changes baffling.

New Home

Decrease in bird numbers/natural food sources, perhaps? I couldn't tell you.

Del.Monte

New Home wrote: »

Decrease in bird numbers/natural food sources, perhaps? I couldn't tell you.

No, my point is when did it become the mantra that all-year round feeding was good.

magicbastarder

it's on both the BTO's and the RSPB's site that they recommend supplemental feed during the summer.

http://ww2.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/news/284908-feeding-birds-in-summer-mythbusting

New Home

Sorry, I wasn't clear - it probably became the mantra when it was realised that due to a decrease in food sources the birds were decreasing in numbers and needed extra help to feed their broods. But again, it's just a guess.

Spanish Eyes

Well I have never seen so many butterflies as over the last weekend. Just sitting in the garden (I know I'm lucky to have one), and they came and went for hours. Lovely.

Robins abound too, they are courageous feckers aren't they, but so amusing too.

Some pigeons too, that's ok since the magpies have gone now. But the blackbirds will sing very soon too. Magical.

Some like me, have never appreciated the things you can see in your back garden whether on lockdown or not.

Birdnuts

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Well I have never seen so many butterflies as over the last weekend. Just sitting in the garden (I know I'm lucky to have one), and they came and went for hours. Lovely.

.

Yeah - serious number of Tortoishells about atm

Arequipa

It is amazing how quik spring builds in momentum... a few weeks ago, it was cold, wet, dark & now we have flowers, bumblebees, birds nesting and butterflies!

Arequipa

Glad you are enjoying your garden....
One benefit of the lockdown is we are seeing Spring nearly day by day... in slow motion.. normally, many of us are too busy to really notice! ðŸ˜‰ðŸ˜Š

dogmatix

I have noticed that I have a good sized eucalyptus tree at the very back of my garden – never knew it was in my garden and I’ve been living here nearly 5 years. I knew the tree was there but had always assumed it was in the field next door (that part of the garden is fairly overgrown and inaccessible).

Just goes to show what a 2km lockdown and an excuse to go exploring can reveal.

Other things I have noticed: an increase in pheasants (and even larger numbers of pheasant hens). And I have noticed that Red Kites are starting to appear around Glenealy, which is pretty cool (perhaps the two are related).

Arequipa

Hi! Pheasants and red kites..
I would love to see some red kites one day...
I saw a lovely male pheasant the other day.. tbey seem quite brave in tbe breeding season..

It is nice that u are able to explore and notice new things.. one of the benefits of lockdown!

a148pro

Arequipa wrote: »

Hi! Pheasants and red kites..
I would love to see some red kites one day...
I saw a lovely male pheasant the other day.. tbey seem quite brave in tbe breeding season..

It is nice that u are able to explore and notice new things.. one of the benefits of lockdown!

Not sure where you are based but there is a red kite walk in avoca in wicklow which apparently gives you a great chance to see them. I've not been yet but if lockdown relaxes it's on the list.

I've definitely learned more about the nature around me, in terms of identifying stuff, in the last 6 weeks or so than the previous decades. Another one of those "lifestyle" benefits of covid.

blackbox

Lots of big bumblebees, especially on the Rosemary, and armies of ants.

A few ladybirds.

tom1ie

ive seen butterflies, plenty of bees, wood pigeon (love the call of a wood pigeon!), blue tits, blackbirds, magpies, foxes, cats, ladybirds.
love the garden.

New Home

A brown hedgehog!

And some digging near a gate and some scat, which I think might belong to a fox, but I'm not sure.

willabur

mice

loveisdivine

Anyone else's garden become over run with some sort of flying black things? For about the last week there are just swarms of them in our area. They seem to have long-is black legs.

New Home

YES!! Smallish, the size of a normal fly, not as big as daddy-longlegs or as fat as bluebottles.

loveisdivine

New Home wrote: »

YES!! Smallish, the size of a normal fly, not as big as daddy-longlegs or as fat as bluebottles.

Yep just with slightly longer legs that dangle down as they are flying around!

It's actually put me off sitting outside a few times because there's just been so many of them.

New Home

I was out at lunchtime, they don't go anywhere near you.

punisher5112

No birds at all is what I see..... We have food out in feeders and not touched.... Birds were in plenty before all this....

Manach

Corvids - lots of rooks, magpies and jackdaws.

Tiercel Dave

loveisdivine wrote: »

Anyone else's garden become over run with some sort of flying black things? For about the last week there are just swarms of them in our area. They seem to have long-is black legs.

St Marks Flies?.....

https://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2017/04/22/news/take-on-nature-the-mark-of-a-saint-999336/

New Home

Very probably.

Accidentally

New Home wrote: »

Very probably.

Yes they've been around for the last week. They emerge every year when the ground warms up, a first feast for the birds