the hair of the dog ..

A single swallow over the bungalow roof.

On Tuesday, the last of our bramblings migrated north.  The first birds arrived in the middle of December and grew in number until they were our most-numerous garden bird. They'd been driven south in unprecedented recent numbers by a failure in their winter food supply in their north European homes. Here they found a bottomless supply of food and must have begun their northward journey in excellent condition.  No 'hungry gap' for these - they've eaten us out of house and home!

Great tit nest

And as if to signify the seasonal change, I opened the door and for the first time in months wasn't greeted by the burring of bramblings but by the cascading liquid song of a willow warbler. I'm guessing that this tiny bird was making its' way north on its long migration from Africa. The gentle song was the official signal of seasonal change for me - no starting gun, more of a gentle tinkle of bells.  The song of migrant blackcaps and chiffchaffs has now joined the native bird chorus.

We checked the nest boxes on Monday - over ninety now in the garden and on the farm in total. Great and blue tits, tree and house sparrows, tawny and little owls and a pair of kestrels were found. Our little owls had four young already.

We hope to visit again in around three weeks to ring the first of the babies.

Female blackcap

My uncle taught me all he knows about eccentricity in pursuit of birds. He visits the local dog grooming parlour to collect dog hair which he puts out in the garden for birds to collect for their nests. He gave me a large bag of dog hair in every colour. I watch a blue tit tugging out a beakfull of hair to line its nest - as large in volume as the bird itself.  I generously shared the dog hair bag with my sister. She stuffed dog hair into an old bird feeder and hung it out for the birds. It does look curious.

My mother (90) asked why my sister had hung a cat out in a tree ....

The same favourite uncle phoned today. Do I need any live mealworms? That's funny I was just thinking about that. House sparrows may have set up one or two homes with us. Seed eaters as adults, they feed their young on invertebrates. The RSPB recommends live mealworms to supplement their diet. He's getting me some...

The Vegetable Garden is filling. Radishes, spring onions, leeks and carrots have joined the beetroots, garlic, onions, shallots, broad beans and potatoes. Asparagus is cropping as are the polytunnel brassicas. The moles continue their war against me.

Another cubic metre of compost has been turned and is accelerating in temperature. It started at 18C and after five days has reached 45C, shortly to peak at 70C. 

We introduced cowslips to our garden three years ago and they have steadily increased in number. Last year I counted around a hundred flowering plants in the orchard - this year nearly two hundred. Cowslips are spreading through the meadow too. Our native English bluebells have been introduced and are now flowering in three different parts of the garden. Visually stunning, the increased floral diversity will help invertebrates too.

In the south-facing Fragrant Garden, there is a hotel development - I have a growing collection of bee hotels. Each contains hollow canes and tubes to attract solitary bees. Last summer was a success:  females had laid an egg in sections of tube, provisioning each egg with nectar and pollen. This may have been done several times along a tube before being finally capped with mud. 

Speckled wood

Now, the sun is warm and the young bees are emerging. As females come out into the bright light of day for the first time, they are met by a shifting, dancing cloud of males, all eager to mate.

Perhaps because of the dryness of the month, this has been a good spring for early butterflies. Brimstone, orange tip, red admiral, small tortoiseshell and peacock have all been spotted flitting about the garden.

That same dryness might explain why our two seventy-year-old sitka spruces are now bringing sepia tones to the conifer edge? They look very unhappy and are shedding their needles like a neglected Christmas tree in January. Their sheer bulk will be a loss to us, and the goldcrests who play there will feel that loss especially. These introduced conifers don't bring much to the biodiversity of the garden while they're alive. But, if they do succumb, we will have them 'topped' and leave 4/5 metre trunks as standing deadwood for insects to burrow into, eventually turning the wood to dust. We'll allow native birches and hollies to take their place.

We must do more to protect and encourage invertebrates. It is their abundance that influences many bird numbers. Studies have shown, for instance, that English cuckoos are in decline, in part, due to the lack of macro-moths they (and their host the meadow pipit) rely on. Sparrows, blackcaps, cuckoos, meadow pipits and swallows all rely upon invertebrates to rear healthy young. If we want the sight of these birds to be an entitlement for future generations, we must do all in our power to help them now.

Tonight the sky is forecast be overcast and temperatures not too cold - we may put the moth light out to see what's about.