Sunday 1 June 2014

Bird, wildlife and flower log, 26 May - 1 June 2014

Hello :) I am thinking about a new format for my weekly (or maybe, not so weekly at the moment, post). I will have to see what I come up with!

I like to log the birds as some don't come to the garden all year round, but I have to say that this year they all seem to have been in most of the time so far. This is different from the previous two years. The flowers are useful to note as this will have an impact on the insects seen, or not seen. Although this week I am skipping the log section.

It has been a busy few weeks in the garden. There are lots of flowers, all over. The birds have all been in stocking up to take back to their young. I've seen a juvenile blackbird, and the best bit so far, a whole family of great tits. Every time I am in the garden all I can hear is all their high pitched tweeting! Although they seem to have got the hang of the seed hangers they still run after their parents when they have food. I guess this is the easier option! And I nearly forgot the other newcomer is a young robin - young, fluffy and full of robin attitude!

The blue tits in the neighbours roof have not yet fledged and the parents are still back and forth all day long. One has real difficulty in getting in the small gap to the nest but the other is straight in each time. But today we had a surprise. It turns out that one of our nest boxes in the garden also has a family of blue tits in it :) It is hidden by tree branches when we look from the house so we hadn't noticed. Steve heard lots of tweeting inside it today. So that is really great. Again two busy parents in and out. I think it has been a good year for caterpillars as that seems to be a staple from what I have seen.

There has been lots of great spotted woodpecker chasing. There are a least two females and one male. The seem to spend all day collecting fat block, which seems to be a staple baby bird food. One block is lasting two days at the moment!

Lots of damselflies around the pond today, all large reds. The other noticeable bugs were lily beetle's. And yes they were eating the lily leaves!

The strawberries are flowering, and I am hoping there will be a few servings. The hosta's are all out now too and are looking great. Well most of them, some are suffering the usual problem of being a slugs dinner!!!

My lupin's died last year, I think it was to do with the hot weather (even though I watered them lots), so I was surprised to see one lonely lupin this year. It's a pity as I grew most of them from seed and the last few years they have given a lovely display of colour to the front garden. I will have to grow some more next year.

All the flowers are out around the pond and it is a sea of purples, yellows and pinks. The purple of the campanula against the yellows looks striking.

The herbs are all doing really well, I grow different mints, lemon balm, sage, rosemary, lavender, marjoram, oregano and thyme. I used to grow coriander outside too but that was another slug favourite so I gave up! The great thing about all of the above herbs is that all I have to do is to chop them back each autumn and every year they come up good and strong.

And to finish this weeks post is a photo I took today in the garden of the French golden oregano. I think it's time to start using it in the cooking :)

French golden oregano © 2014 Natasha Forder

1 comment:

  1. I laughed at your oregano, mine took over everything last year - like your garden blog :-)
    Ps saw some lovely swallows when in Cornwall too

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