It occurred to me this morning that it’s been a while since I’ve posted about all the birds we have visiting our garden, so I’m about to rectify that 🙂
I love this time of year, especially where we are in the Laois countryside, when all you hear when you step outside is the chirping of baby birds being fed (constantly) by their ever obliging parents.
We’re lucky this year, 3 pairs of House Sparrows are nesting on the house – 2 pairs in the nest boxes we’ve provided, and 1 pair in the partial nest that the Housemartins left last year!
The good news is that the Housemartins have returned and, after a few failed attempts at entering their old nest, they have started to rebuild a nest under the eaves at the front of our house, so it’s a win-win all round!
We also have a pair of Blue Tits nesting in the undergrowth at the bottom of our garden (over the wall, in what was the old pig-pen), and a pair of Great Tits nesting somewhere close by – I’m not sure where but I get verbal abuse each time I’m down the bottom of the garden!
The Blackbirds are doing really well this year, we’ve already had 5 fledglings in the garden – being fed by the male, so I assume the female is already sitting on their 2nd brood. All being well, they may get 3 or even 4 broods this summer 🙂
The noisiest of the breeding pairs that we have has to be the Starlings, and they’re not even nesting in our garden!
They are using an old wall in the farmyard at the back. The good thing about being noisy is the alarm call of the adults makes me run out each time I hear them… just in case the farmyard cat is close by. You can see the baby poking its head out of the wall on the left hand side of the (heavily cropped) photos below…
The other day there sounded like there was an orchestra of alarm calls, not just by the Starlings, but the Blackbirds, Robins and Wrens were joining in too. When I went out to investigate, the tailless Magpie that frequents our garden was strutting along the wall where the Starlings were. I don’t like to interfere when it comes to birds taking other chicks, as that’s nature. However if it is the cat then I will try to distract it away from the nest.
This time the Starlings managed to mob the Magpie so much that it gave up, but I wonder how long it will be before it tries again, after all it has it’s own chicks to feed as well…
How clever are your container bird houses! It looks like the birds do well there, despite the Magpie!
Thanks Pam – I have my other half to thank for those… he always finds a use for everything (I think it’s an excuse not to throw things away!)
Lovely to read about all your garden wildlife and so many nesting attempts. Like Pam I do like the container bird houses 🙂
Thanks Caroline, my other half has great vision… I was just seeing empty containers myself!
I love that idea for House Sparrow nest boxes, cheap, cheerful and effective. I bet the holes are the perfect size too.
You’re right Phil, they are the perfect size! The chicks in one of them are almost ready to fledge (or they sound like they are), so I think the containers are a success 🙂