Breeding behaviour

March was very up and down, with a very cold start changing to warmer temperatures, before the cold arrived back again in what was dubbed the 'Mini Beast from the East' around the middle of the month. Fortunately, this freezing spell didn't last too long and by the end of the month it was back to normal. Now into the third week of April and temperatures are set to reach above 20° tomorrow and it will remain warm all week. The feeders have slowed down considerably, as have sales of food, as expected. There is plenty of courtship going on, lots of beautiful bird song and nesting material being collected. The first baby blackbirds are being reported on social media, although we haven't seen any here yet.

I did witness some interesting behaviour with the dunnocks at the start of April, with the female raising her tail and the male pecking at her behind. This is apparently known as 'cloacal pecking' and is an attempt to remove the sperm from the female's previous mate (it's fair to say dunnocks aren't always faithful to their partner...).

A pair of kestrels appear to be nesting in the church, which has seen successful broods raised for the past few years now.

Woodpigeons can be seen performing their display flight, noisily flapping their wings as they rise and then dropping back down quietly. Another territorial behaviour the woodpigeons can be seen doing is fighting. This often happens in the depths of a tree but two recently took their fight down on to the ground by the cow shed. The battle went on for about a minute or so before the defeated pigeon took off.

I heard my first singing blackbird at the end of January and they have been vocal ever since. Robins, wrens, dunnocks and goldcrests are all in good voice currently too. Our first cuckoo was reported by Lyn on the farm on Saturday 14th.

Our visiting hawfinches were last seen on the 25th March, rather amazing how long they stayed for after arriving in early December and what a privilege it was to have had them. There are still siskins around however, as usual they tend to arrive later in the winter and often stay until early Summer.

And finally a few photos of a red-legged partridge which made a rare and brief appearance on the 7th April.

Breeding Season Progress

This time last year we had young Starlings, young Siskins and young Pied Wagtails out of the nest, even the Blue Tits weren't far behind, as a mild winter led to an early breeding season.

This year, the Siskins never showed up, the Pied Wagtails have chosen to breed elsewhere as have the Starlings, though the latter are very active on the feeders now, so I'd expect they are breeding nearby and will bring their youngsters in soon. The Blue Tits recently fledged in the nest box as the adults are now making regular visits with food, putting their fledging date somewhere around the end of the month. The pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, which rarely used the feeders over winter, are back to nibbling peanuts in to small pieces to take away. One pair of the ever promiscuous Dunnocks are now parents, with at least a couple of babies lingering in the relative safety of the shrubs outside the shop.

Last weekend a pair of House Martins returned to one of the nests on the farm house. Compared to the numbers from 5 years ago, it seems there are very few now. The nests are still there, so what the reason is for their local decline I'm not sure. Fortunately the Swifts are back in relatively good numbers, the first of them arriving on the 8th May, a week or so later than 2014.

Swift

House Martin

Fledgling Dunnock

Busy Blue Tit

Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

First Swallow of the year

One of the main reasons for starting this blog was to record first dates of Summer/Winter migrants so we can look back at our records in years to come.

This morning (7th April) we recorded our first Swallow, the first of any summer migrants this year for us. I have heard Chiffchaffs in numerous local woodlands while out walking the dog but none heard/seen at Feathers yet. Hopefully over the coming weeks we will see our first House Martins & Blackcaps and hear the distant call of the Cuckoo.

We have had some interest in a few nest boxes from Blue Tits, though we're not sure for sure whether any will be used. The Kestrels seem set in the Church which is great news, the House Sparrows and Starlings are using the multiple barns and buildings to nest, particularly the old Oast House next to our Nature Area, and there are a pair of Dunnocks nesting somewhere nearby the hide too!

Male Kestrel with prey

Male House Sparrow on the Oast House

Nest building Dunnock

The weather was fairly fine throughout March and has warmed up in to April, with temperatures set to reach as high as 17° on Friday, up from 14° today (which still feels warm!). A few butterflies have been about, mostly Small Tortoiseshells here emerging from their winter hibernation. The Bees are buzzing too, joined on the "viburnum bodnantense" by a Large Bee-Fly last week.

Large Bee-Fly

Large Bee-Fly

Finally a few Goldcrest pictures from lunch time today: