What have you noticed in your garden during the lockdown?

SnowyMuckish · 28-04-2020 10:32pm

blackplum123 wrote: »

Got photo of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat.. In Wicklow

Beautiful!

deadlybuzzman · 02-05-2020 2:35pm

Not quite in the garden but a couple of mins walk down the road in a 100 m stretch in 1 week I've heard a buzzard seen a fallow deer and then today seen a mink/maybe an otter... Hopefully!

mossie · 02-05-2020 5:56pm

Have had a lot of rabbits in the lawn, 9 at one time on Weds morning. I'm rural so not too unusual but the most I've seen in 10 years in this house. Also counted 22 in the field at the back one evening but, as the grass is getting longer, I probably won't better this. Spent an hour yesterday watching a fox quartering the field, probably on the trail of some of those rabbits. Eventually gave up and left.

11-05-2020 12:28am

A beautiful red squirrel, and our resident male pheasant who prefers to walk and jump over walls as opposed to flying. They can actually run quite quickly, I guess it would take more effort to fly.

bilbot79 · 11-05-2020 12:30am

I've noticed that a magpie comes at 5pm everyday to look for food. I've also noticed that blackbirds seem to always have one eating and the other on the wall keeping watch

bilbot79 · 11-05-2020 12:30am

Sunnyspot wrote: »

A beautiful red squirrel, and our resident male pheasant who prefers to walk and jump over walls as opposed to flying. They can actually run quite quickly, I guess it would take more effort to fly.

Are you around Leitrim?

bilbot79 · 11-05-2020 12:31am

blackplum123 wrote: »

Got photos of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat..

You should report that in Birding Ireland

greasepalm · 11-05-2020 12:40am

At the end of our garden we have a raised bed with double sleepers put in years ago and 1 small apple tree survived in among the crap that is growing there.Notice i have 2 holes in 2 sleepers and space underneath with topsoil on the path.Thinking foxes have moved in.I hear them shrieks in the back and front late at night.

John_Rambo · 11-05-2020 1:31am

blackplum123 wrote: »

Got photo of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat.. In Wicklow

That's fantastic. A woodpecker!

We've a very old, slow grey squirrel with half his tail missing stealing our bird feed. He's on his last legs, my little boy has taken a liking to him and leaves nuts out for him. I know he's a grey, but he's up against it with a huge fox population and a good few cats in the area. He doesn't even run away when we're a metre from him now! There'll be creative stories when he disappears!

fryup · 11-05-2020 11:39pm

there's this pair of robins that go in & out of my elephants ear (plant) with insects in their beaks..so i presume their feeding chicks...but..on closer inspection there's no sign of a nest and there's no sound of any chicks when they fly in there

any idea what's going on??

Mac-Chops · 12-05-2020 10:15am

Juvenile Robin checking progress on some chives.

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Tiercel Dave · 12-05-2020 10:34am

fryup wrote: »

there's this pair of robins that go in & out of my elephants ear (plant) with insects in their beaks..so i presume their feeding chicks...but..on closer inspection there's no sign of a nest and there's no sound of any chicks when they fly in there any idea what's going on??

Maybe gathering a beakful of insects at a time, they come out with more than when they went in?

Penfailed · 13-05-2020 5:09pm

We have coal tits nesting in the gaps in a dry stone wall in the garden. Found out where the nest was earlier. The adults are busy feeding the young.

two wheels good · 13-05-2020 8:00pm

Nothing here as exciting as a woodpecker.
Blue tits nesting in a cavity wall again. The entrance is a gap in the mortar, no more than 2cm high. So nest is invisible and inacessible.

BTW I heard on Mooney the other night that photographing a bird's nest is actually illegal. In close proximity obviously, not via zoom-lens.

SnowyMuckish · 13-05-2020 10:07pm

two wheels good wrote: »

Blue tits nesting in a cavity wall again. The entrance is a gap in the mortar, no more than 2cm high. So nest is invisible and inacessible.

We have nest box on the wall outside our room. This year there are blue tits in it. My God they are a noisy bunch at night! I’m up around 4am feeding the baby and they’re flat out chirping at that time in the morning!

fryup · 13-05-2020 10:28pm

we've got starlings nesting behind our facia board, and the parents go nuts if you so much as walk past screeh screeh

Alun · 13-05-2020 11:13pm

SnowyMuckish wrote: »

We have nest box on the wall outside our room. This year there are blue tits in it. My God they are a noisy bunch at night! I’m up around 4am feeding the baby and they’re flat out chirping at that time in the morning!

Do you have chicks already then? Ours laid their last egg on the 1st May, so the first is due to hatch very soon now. We have a camera in the box with sound, and yes, they do get very noisy when being fed once they get a little bigger!

Alun · 14-05-2020 9:14am

First two bluetits hatched this morning.

New Home · 14-05-2020 9:39am

Unless there's a nature camera already installed, please, please stay as far from the nest as possible, there's a risk that if the parents feel they've been disturbed they'll abandon the nest.

YAY! for the new birdies, though.

Alun · 14-05-2020 9:49am

New Home wrote: »

Unless there's a nature camera already installed, please, please stay as far from the nest as possible, there's a risk that if the parents feel they've been disturbed they'll abandon the nest.

YAY! for the new birdies, though.

I've had a webcam installed in the same nest box for the last 5 years. Have had a pair of bluetits in there every year.

New Home · 14-05-2020 9:56am

Ah, excellent!!

Alun · 14-05-2020 10:18am

Just seen both birds trying to feed an enormous green caterpillar to one of the chicks. It was bigger than it was!!

New Home · 14-05-2020 10:58am

Their bellies are like the Tardis, they're bigger on the inside.

SnowyMuckish · 14-05-2020 12:34pm

There must be chicks already, as the pair are flat out in and out. I’d love to get a camera at some stage down the line. I’d also like to get a camera for our hog house as we have a pair of hedgehogs again this year but I daren’t go near their box. I’d love to know if we have little hogs!

Alun · 14-05-2020 12:37pm

Apparently a baby hegehog is called a hoglet, didn't know that! Cute name!

NIMAN · 15-05-2020 7:08pm

I guess I am spending more time looking out the window, and recently have really noticed the amount of bird action out the back of my house.

I live in a rural location and have just spent a while watching a collection of little birds flying frantically around the fields and gardens near me.

I am guessing they are playing?

They are small, compact birds and from googling I am guessing sparrows.

They seem to have built a nest under the apex of my neighbours garage (this is an annual thing) and every evening they seem to do this. Fly round mad after each other but all within maybe 100 metres from their nest.

Is it the young? Or parents? Seems to be more than 2 for sure though. Or would it be more than 1 family group?

magicbastarder · 15-05-2020 8:43pm

when you say built a nest, do you mean in the house martin style?

NIMAN · 15-05-2020 9:05pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

when you say built a nest, do you mean in the house martin style?

I'll admit I had to google that .... first thing that came into my head was Paul Heaton and the Happy Hour again.:pac:

Yeah, that type of nest....so I have just learned that they are house martins.

New Home · 18-05-2020 12:46am

CBear1993 · 18-05-2020 1:02am

Mary, Mary, quite contrary

New Home · 18-05-2020 1:09am

Beg your pudding?

CBear1993 · 18-05-2020 1:34am

I spotted Mary , and she was quite contrary.

New Home · 18-05-2020 1:36am

Right...

magicbastarder · 18-05-2020 9:07am

i would beware using containers like that to put the food in - i've seen videos of hogs standing on the edge and flipping the container, and all the food ends up on the hog rather than in the hog.

New Home · 18-05-2020 9:39am

Thanks for the warning, I'll change the container, now I know s/he visits, too - it was only meant for the cats.

Alun · 21-05-2020 5:08pm

Unfortunately the mother bird in our birdbox seems to have disappeared. Everything was going swimmingly last night up until 9pm when my scheduled recordings stopped, with 6 very strong chicks all eating voraciously. I checked again at around 10.15pm when usually the mother bird will have long taken up residence for the night, and she wasn't there.

She still wasn't there first thing this morning, but around 6am a bird arrived with food, probably the male, but by this time the chicks were in a bad way and weren't interested in food at all, probably cold from the night before. He went in and out for a while and then gave up. Then he reappeared again around noon, and up until now, he's in and out like a yo-yo, sometimes popping repeatedly in and out of the box chirping away with the same piece of food in his beak, but they're getting weaker by the minute, and only one seems to have any strength at all.

Heartbreaking, and very difficult to watch.

Penfailed · 22-05-2020 8:38am

Alun wrote: »

Unfortunately the mother bird in our birdbox seems to have disappeared. Everything was going swimmingly last night up until 9pm when my scheduled recordings stopped, with 6 very strong chicks all eating voraciously. I checked again at around 10.15pm when usually the mother bird will have long taken up residence for the night, and she wasn't there.

She still wasn't there first thing this morning, but around 6am a bird arrived with food, probably the male, but by this time the chicks were in a bad way and weren't interested in food at all, probably cold from the night before. He went in and out for a while and then gave up. Then he reappeared again around noon, and up until now, he's in and out like a yo-yo, sometimes popping repeatedly in and out of the box chirping away with the same piece of food in his beak, but they're getting weaker by the minute, and only one seems to have any strength at all.

Heartbreaking, and very difficult to watch.

'Our' coal tits have disappeared too. I'm not sure if the fledglings have already left the nest. It seemed like a very short space of time between noticing they were there and noticing that they had disappeared...

Alun · 22-05-2020 9:45am

Penfailed wrote: »

'Our' coal tits have disappeared too. I'm not sure if the fledglings have already left the nest. It seemed like a very short space of time between noticing they were there and noticing that they had disappeared...

I don't know about coal tits, but for blue tits, between the first egg appearing and hatching is about 2 weeks, and then another 3 weeks to fledging. Add another week for nest building and you're looking at 6 weeks in total where there'd be lots of activity.

Del.Monte · 22-05-2020 9:57am

On a happier note, I live in a town centre - no garden but plenty of roofs with a variety of nesting birds - Grey and Pied Wagtails, even wall nesting Sand Martins a couple of years back, but my favourite is the resident window ledge nesting pair of Blackbirds. This year they are on their 2nd brood already with the male flat-out feeding two large fledglings, dropping food to the nest and remaining on guard duty to ward off intruding Jackdaws. Heart warming stuff and all visible from my kitchen window.

22-05-2020 10:00am

I saw a red squirrel twice in the last few days. There’s usually plenty grey ones in that area, but I’ve not seen a red one before. He’d disappeared by the time I got my phone out to take a photo.

Storm 10 · 22-05-2020 10:06am

Alun wrote: »

Unfortunately the mother bird in our birdbox seems to have disappeared. Everything was going swimmingly last night up until 9pm when my scheduled recordings stopped, with 6 very strong chicks all eating voraciously. I checked again at around 10.15pm when usually the mother bird will have long taken up residence for the night, and she wasn't there.

She still wasn't there first thing this morning, but around 6am a bird arrived with food, probably the male, but by this time the chicks were in a bad way and weren't interested in food at all, probably cold from the night before. He went in and out for a while and then gave up. Then he reappeared again around noon, and up until now, he's in and out like a yo-yo, sometimes popping repeatedly in and out of the box chirping away with the same piece of food in his beak, but they're getting weaker by the minute, and only one seems to have any strength at all.

Heartbreaking, and very difficult to watch.

Very sad is there any way that you could help say with small worms and a tweezer to feed them if it was me I think I have a go even though I know its nature.

Penfailed · 22-05-2020 10:36am

Alun wrote: »

I don't know about coal tits, but for blue tits, between the first egg appearing and hatching is about 2 weeks, and then another 3 weeks to fledging. Add another week for nest building and you're looking at 6 weeks in total where there'd be lots of activity.

We only discovered them during the feeding stage so I suppose it is possible that they've gotten big and bold enough to leave.

griffin100 · 23-05-2020 4:24pm

We’ve had a pair of ravens in the garden regularly over the last couple of weeks - we live in a rural area and they’re some long stands of trees lining our site. I assume they’re nesting nearby. Sends the magpies nuts when they’re in the same trees that the magpies are nesting in. This is the first year I’ve seen a pair in the garden. They’re impressive up close.

John_Rambo · 23-05-2020 11:14pm

Deleted User wrote: »

I saw a red squirrel twice in the last few days. There’s usually plenty grey ones in that area, but I’ve not seen a red one before. He’d disappeared by the time I got my phone out to take a photo.

Cool! How Far East or West are you?

New development for us... Blue tits nesting in a little bird house that's been attached to the house for about seven years. First time it's been dwelled in.

magicbastarder · 24-05-2020 4:32pm

Just watched a sparrowhawk take what was almost certainly a juvenile starling about 20 foot from me in the garden.

ldy4mxonucwsq6 · 24-05-2020 7:06pm

Pair of magnificent buzzards who are regulars here, spotted overhead today but this time with their chick in tow.

Very exciting, first time I've seen them with a chick. Nothing like their call, I love to see them.

24-05-2020 7:28pm

Magnus Flat Chessboard wrote: »

Pair of magnificent buzzards who are regulars here, spotted overhead today but this time with their chick in tow.

Very exciting, first time I've seen them with a chick. Nothing like their call, I love to see them.

One flew ahead of me during the week. The road is fairly closed over, so it flew along the road, about 6 feet off the ground, until it saw an opening. It did a 90 degree turn without slowing. Magnificent.

SnowyMuckish · 24-05-2020 11:19pm

I let my dogs out for their nightly sniff around when I heard some excited barks, which is always a cause for investigation when it comes to my devilish pair!

Then I came across this little guy!

This is my first glimpse of one this year, my OH has been lucky enough to see a pair together a few nights this year. A quick snap and I left the poor wee thing in peace to recover from all the commotion.

Made my day ❤️

ozmo · 24-05-2020 11:33pm

Arequipa wrote: »

Hi!
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... Never realised that they do this..

I saw similar last week - was watching them as a magpie took food I left out - and hid it high up in the gutter under some gutter covers I have - just a few minutes later a smaller bird uncovered it and stole his stash

John_Rambo · 25-05-2020 12:45am

Massive increase in insect activity compared to previous years in St. Annes park. Most likely due to the lack of strimming and weed eradication. The banks of the river Nanakin are covered with nettles & foliage that would be otherwise not there. Huge amount of bugs, butterflies and moths.

At the start I notices a big increase of buzzard activity most likely due to the lack of roadkill causing them to forage further than the motorways.

Foxes getting braver due to the lack of food source from the cafe and farmers market.

If the park is within your 5k zone it's worth a visit at dusk or at dawn.

What have you noticed in your garden during the lockdown?

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