Swift half news - 3rd May 2010

• Our swift got up very late today - maybe around 10am, and bad news - sparrows are moving nesting material into the swift roof space. Not much material granted, but there's certainly a little turf wars going on...
• Next door neighbours' vixen was out late this morning also - around 8:30am, and the girls (our hens - Couven and Cutlery) were a little twitchy. Cutlery is still having trouble producing decent eggs, but she managed a reasonable one this morning, and both girls took an extended dust bath this afternoon.
• Both (quite large) fox cubs seen in neighbours' garden at 9:15 tonight - quite bold they were...
• 5 potato plants above ground now.
• Hen blackbird still sitting on her (doomed) eggs in honeysuckle.
• Cold week ahead (northerly wind) - may put the breeding/hatching/growing back a bit.
• The mason bees in my post are really busy though - plenty of pollen brought back to the holes by the bees this morning. I think we'll have a full compliment of eggs in bricked-up holes by june at this rate - at present I have 5 holes all bricked up with pollen and egg in (to hatch next year) and twelve occupied holes (I can see the bee inside the hole) ready to be bricked up soon I hope). Wonderful stuff - my bee post is unbeelievably successful this year!

Swift half news - 25th April 2010

• Went for a long drive at dawn this morning to give my little car's battery a boost and as soon as I turned her over, the heavens opened for the first time in about a month. We desperately need the rain - I have a feeling April 2010 may go down as the second dryest for a long time (I'm pretty sure April 2007 was the record-breaker - if I remember correctly, we didn't see a cloud for 4 weeks here in central England and the daytime temperature was always around 21c).


• Pear blossom almost over.


• Damson blossom over.


• 11 mason bees in my bee post (including two blue mason bees - male and female).


• Blackbird determined to nest in our honeysuckle, despite both Yala and Malu (our kittens) watching her every move - I'm afraid that nest is almost certainly doomed.


• Damson trees with good leaf growth now.


• I haven't mentioned it yet I don't think, but our robins abandoned their shed nest some time ago (the cats put them off I think) and also their front garden nest I think -sensible robins - they'll find somewhere safer to nest I'm sure.


• I will try to get the video from the swift space in the roof connected to the computer (rather than our portable tv) so any interested parties can watch our swifts 24 hours a day if they so wish. This may take a little time for this technophobe, but please watch this space and be patient!

Swift half news - 11th April 2010

• Bee-flies appear in territorial flights above patio
• BLUE MASON BEES (my favourites!) return to bee post
• 7-spot and 14-spot ladybirds mating in garden undergrowth
• Early mining bees (Andrena hameorrhoa) mining nests in lawn
• Buzzards overhead on thermals

I do hope the swifts make it back to their nest (video camera still in place). If they do make it back, it will be between two and three weeks from now, thats all...