Blackbird, thunder and a rainbow

It has been a coldish summer day, the evening brought torrential rain showers with it, preceded by thunder.

The fox food had been scattered on the newly mown grass and as usual birds quickly gathered to eat their fill before the foxes arrived.

Three long legged, skinny young magpies together with a balding, patchy parent, in obvious moult were the first to arrive. Next on the scene was a male blackbird who selected cheese from between the pieces of bread and building them up within his beak, flew off to feed his hungry youngsters, he was soon back and collecting more cheese when he suddenly stopped, looked up and spent several seconds scanning the sky. A sudden peal of thunder and then he resumed cheese collecting as the rain came rushing down.

Did the blackbird sense it was going to thunder? I wondered if he experienced a change in air pressure or have some other way of sensing when thunder was on the way.

The time was now eight minutes before nine and the evening sky was darkly grey and overcast, suddenly the whole feeling of the evening was changed as the sky was lit up by a glorious rainbow, the sky above it was a definite pink and below was a grey/blue. A beautiful sight to enjoy.

Another beautiful sight this month are the hardy garden plants like geraniums and lychnis coronaria bursting forth with colour. They give a wonderful show, are great ground cover and best of all reappear year after year.

Stag beetles

I was delighted to watch a stag beetle on a log,which was part of the woodpile, it is a long time since I have seen one of these in the garden, two or three years.

Many people are worried by stag beetles because they have huge jaws which resemble stag horns in shape and look quite fearsome. However these beetles are not at all ferocious, indeed they are quite gentle and will not hurt people or animals. They feed and breed on rotting wood and will do no harm even to plants or living wood.

They are an endangered species and need all the help we can give them, this is easily done by instead of burning or getting rid of wood from old trees, find a place in a corner of the garden to pile it, it is important that it is resting on the earth and then just leave it --- no further attention is needed. In time this heap of dead wood will rot down and if you are lucky will be used by stag beetles, they are fascinating creatures and need our help.

The great thing about a wood pile is that it brings other creatures in to the garden and provides a habitat for all sorts of insects as well as a nesting place for some birds and a home to a friendly toad or two who will enjoy dining on your slugs and other pests.

Help the stag beetle and you will indirectly help yourself, can't be bad, can it?

Nuthatch Youngster

A young nuthatch has been feeding on the fat balls by the lounge patio windows recently. I have also seen him bathing in the bird bath on the back kitchen lawn and climbing up the birch tree. It is pleasing to know nuthatches are breeding in this area.

It was a beautiful sunset this evening, with with shades of purple, orangey reds and lemons lighting up the evening sky.

Blackcaps

Spent almost twenty minutes this morning watching a family of blackcaps, and wondered if they were the family from the nest in the undergrowth on the bank.

They flew backward and forward across the lawn between different shrubs, they also spent time in the birch tree and around the pond, occasionally dropping down to drink from it.

It was good to see these birds successfully nesting and rearing young, and most enjoyable to watch a whole family.

Gutter Squirrel

This cheeky young squirrel has become quite adept at climbing to the guttering above the bird feeding station.

He knows if we spot him, we knock on the window to send him on his way and deter him from climbing down. Don't feel sorry for him though as he feeds very well from the bird table and also from the biscuits handed to him from the kitchen window.

Pineapple Shrub/Tree

Many years ago, we saw a beautiful shrub in an old gentleman's garden, he called it a pineapple tree --- and we fell in love with it. I was enchanted by its perfume and Mike loved everything about it.

Later I spotted one of these shrubs in a garden centre, I was told they were not hardy, they were also expensive, because of this I felt unable to justify buying it, and like the fox in the fable of "The Fox and the Grapes", I told myself that since it was expensive and was not hardy, it would soon die and therefore was a waste of money. Thus I convinced myself that I didn't really want one anyway!

A few years on I saw another one, marked right down, and in a very poorly state, this one I could justify. Taking it home I made a space in a border, dug a hole, enriched it with compost and planted this small half dead looking large twig.Its growth was very slight and each spring I expected it to have been finished by the cold, the rain and the bleak winds that sweep across the fields and through our garden. The first flowers were welcomed with much smelling and many visits just to admire them.

Since then it has grown prodigiously and now is enormous, it is multi-stemmed, therefore a shrub not a tree, and is twenty feet high and twenty feet across. Its Latin name is Cytisus Batandieri it is still a favourite and each year we delight in its profusion of bloom.

The flowers are brightest yellow and grow on upright spikes up to six inches long, with multiple blooms packed on to each spike, they are strongly scented and magically of pineapple. The leaves are grey green and a perfect foil for the bright yellow flowers.

However a word of warning to take care when smelling and not to sniff too deeply, because careful inspection of the tiny flower heads reveals many tiny black beetle like insects.

This shrub is a great draw to the birds, but especially wrens, blue tits and great tits, who have obviously found the secret hoard of food hidden in it's flowers. Even during the winter these birds are still present, though in lesser numbers and can be seen foraging among the leaves.

Green Woodpecker Fledgling and some New Fish

Spent a very enjoyable five minutes this evening watching a green woodpecker feeding her youngster. The fledgling was balanced on a tree stump and the mother was pecking the top of the next tree stump and then feeding him.

After two minutes she flew into the birch tree and then back to her youngster and fed him, she did this several times before they both flew away.

We recently restocked the pond with some new fish. I expect it won't be long before the heron discovers this...

Thirsty Green Woodpecker

Another first in the garden this morning.

I was looking out of the back kitchen window, when a movement on the lawn caught my eye, it was the green woodpecker, as I watched he flew to the pond, balanced on a silver birch branch in the water and proceeded to drink. We have never seen him drink from the pond before.

Later I noticed a green woodpecker drinking from a birdbath, but obviously couldn't tell if it was the same one.

Lesser spotted woodpecker

Watched a lesser spotted woodpecker on the acacia this morning, he was slowly climbing the trunk, going not just upward but across, back and forth from side to side as he slowly moved higher, his beak probing all of the cracks of which there were many.

Lesser spotted woodpeckers eat spiders, insects and larvae, in the winter they will also eat seeds and berries. They are much smaller than the other two woodpeckers --- the great spotted and the green woodpecker. Lesser spotted woodpeckers are barred black and white, the male has a red top to his head and the female has a whitish top, they are sometimes referred to as pied woodpeckers. Youngsters also have a red top to their head.

They roost at night in old holes in trees. Their nests are usually in self excavated holes thirty to forty feet high in trees, occasionally  they will not make a new hole but will use an old one, adapting it to fit their needs. The nesting chamber is about a foot below the entrance and has a layer of dust and wood chips on the bottom. During the last two weeks in May they lay between five and eight shiny, white eggs, which both parents incubate for eleven to twelve days. The nestlings then take between eighteen and thirty days to fledge, they are fed by both parents on soft insects like aphids and larvae.

Sadly these birds are now not as common as they used to be, maybe because of loss of habitat and also because they are predated on by great spotted woodpeckers, and possible other reasons also.