Teddy Edward: Spring Round-up 2024

As the title suggests this is a round-up of what's been happening in our area and places we visited over the Spring months. It doesn't repeat things I have already covered in earlier blogs this year and concentrates mainly on the wildlife we encountered during April and May.

Let's start with our local area and in particular our garden. Early on in April the garden look much like it did in Winter, with only a few deciduous trees and bushes starting to bud:

The Garden in Early April

However the signs of Spring were starting to appear. Birds were exploring the garden and the surrounding scrubland looking for potential nest sites:

Magpie in the garden

Wren on the Fence Post

There were new lambs in the fields beyond the scrubland and the spring flowers were appearing in the garden:

Spring Daffodils

White Daffodils

Ewes and Lambs in Field

If you like watching Spring lambs here is a little video for you taken over our garden fence:

Very cute!

In early April Blue Tits started to show interest in our bird box:

As we moved through April the birds seemed to be getting very excited; this little Wren was dancing about on the garden fence:

Excited Wren on Fence

This Magpie was busily searching through the leaf litter looking for grubs to eat:

A pair of Magpies decided to nest in one of the Cherry Trees near to our back garden, but it was so high up and well camouflaged by branches, so I didn't get any photos if them.

By the end of April the garden was starting to look a bit more Spring-like as leaves were appearing on the shrubs and trees:

Spring in our Garden

Garden is Springing into life

Several Blue Tits seemed to be spending more time in our garden, either on the feeders and at the bird box:

Blue Tit on Feeder

At one point we had no less than three Blue Tits visiting the bird box at the same time:

We thought we were on a winner when we saw two of these Blue Tits collecting nesting material for lining the bird box:

However nesting did not happen; one Blue Tit took up residence in the box and he/she chased all others away. We called it Nibbler as they spent all their time nibbling the edges of the entrance hole and was very aggressive if another Blue Tit showed any interest in the nest box.

One unexpected thing that did happen in my garden was that a Sparrowhawk landed on our fence post, then flew off leaving a dead Starling behind. I didn't get a photo of the Sparrowhawk so I decided to set up my trail camera on a tree looking towards the Starling carcass. That way if the Sparrowhawk returned for it's dinner I would catch it on video.

Nothing happened for the rest of that day so I left the camera out all night; this is what I managed to capture:

No Sparrowhawk, only a Blue Tit in the morning.......................... but what about the Badger in the scrubland on the other side of the fence, just after one o'clock in the morning! Brilliant!!!

At the start of May I travelled down to East Ayrshire to carry out my annual Upland Breeding Bird Survey for the BTO. I camped at Loch Doon Caravan Park over night and carried out the survey in the hills to the North East of Loch Doon the next morning.

Here are some of the views from the caravan park area:

Loch Doon View

The Main Dam at Loch Doon

Here is just some of the wildlife I saw in the area near the caravan park, starting with a Formula 1 Beetle:

It really was that fast, I didn't speed up the video. I think it might be a type of Click Beetle, it was certainly an impressive metallic copper colour, and it was in a hurry.

There was also a striking Male Wheatear perching on a post in the caravan park:

Sorry about the wobbly camera, I had my old camcorder with me and it's image stabiliser isn't as good as my new camera (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it)

Early the next morning I got up, had some breakfast then headed to the other side of the loch to carry out my survey.

East Dam at Loch Doon

My survey starts at this East Dam then heads up the nearby hillside before returning to the shores of the loch:

Loch Doon from Survey mid-point

The Southern Uplands

I didn't take many photos during the survey as I am pretty busy recording what I hear and see on the hillside, but here are a few:

Tiny Anemone (I think)

Yellow Bog Plant?

Hairy Caterpillar

After the survey I managed to capture this little Whinchat on video:

Not the best of videos I'm afraid, but a good little upland bird to see.

Meanwhile back in our garden Spring was in full song; in particular this Song Thrush who sang from the crack of dawn through to late in the evening (even if it was dark):

Song Thrush singing in the morning

Song Thrush singing in the evening

If you don't know what a Song Thrush song is like then listen in:

It is quite repetitive, but it does interject with some other tunes occasionally. It not a bad song, but after about 16 hours of it you have had enough. It does this to compete with other Song Thrushes for territory and to attract the females. At one point it was having a sing-off with a Chaffinch, which didn't make sense.

Other birds visiting the garden included some Dunnocks, Magpies which were nesting in the Cherry Tree and some sleepy Greylag Geese in the nearby field:

Dunnock on the Fence

Magpie on the Grass

Sleepy Geese in the Field

Later on in May we headed North in the motorhome to spend a few days in Banchory on the banks of the River Dee. The weather was great the first couple of days we were there, but showery with occasional heavy rain the other days.

Here are some photos from the nicer days:

River Dee near Banchory

River Dee

There was a great riverside walk at the rear of the caravan park, where we saw this Heron on the opposite bank:

Heron on banks of River Dee

However the highlight was when we went down to the river's edge and were visited by this beautiful Grey Wagtail:

Pebble Beach on River Dee

Grey Wagtail Singing

Grey Wagtail Posing

It is not unusual to see Grey Wagtails on Scottish rivers, but they usually are on stones in the middle of the river and you see mostly grey with only a glimpse of the bright yellow underside. This one perched on a branch next to us and then proceeded to sing!

Marvellous! it almost looks tropical, a memory to savour. The weather towards the end of the week turned tropical as well, during monsoon season. We left a day early before the thunderstorms took hold and headed home.

Back home in late May the garden was looking very lush and colourful: