If you have recently been enjoying the BBC Springwatch programme on the TV, then you might well like my own version in this blog posting. It features the wildlife in and around our garden this springtime and wildlife recorded on my trips to Loch Doon in East Ayrshire to carry out Upland Breeding Bird Surveys.
Let's start at Home, mainly our garden and what we can see from our house. First up a common bird in gardens, the Blackbird:
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| Male Blackbird on Hawthorn Bush |
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| Male Blackbird |
The Blackbird was on a Hawthorn bush just over our garden fence in the scrubland behind the house, this is a popular perch for birds who want to be seen and heard.
Another common garden bird is the Blue Tit and over the Spring months we have had several visiting our garden. In the early Spring the most regular visitor was a Blue Tit we have named Nibbler:
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| Nibbler at the feeder |
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| Nibbler landing on the birdbox perch |
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| Nibbler doing some nibbling |
If you wonder why we called him Nibbler it is because he is always nibbling the sides of the birdbox hole to make it bigger. It is big enough already, unless he is seeking to attract a larger bird than himself?
He sits on the perch as if he is trying to attract some female Blue Tit to come and see his lovely birdbox.
When another Blue Tit (male or female) comes anywhere near the box Nibbler chases it away; what's the point of that?
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| You are NOT getting in my box! |
When Nibbler wasn't at the box another Blue Tit came and checked the box out, sneaking in when he was away.
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| Blue Tit checks out birdbox |
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| Blue Tit goes inside |
When Nibbler returned he chased the other Blue Tit away.
A pair of Blue Tits did eventually nest in the box (don't think it was Nibbler) and they laid eggs, most hatched and went on to fledge. I have a camera inside the box so may be able to pull together a video of these successful Blue Tits.
We do have other types of tit visiting the garden, occasionally we get Coal Tits (usually in the Winter) and we also get Long-tailed Tits:
You may have noticed other birds in this video, namely the Tree Sparrows, which have been visiting our garden over the Winter months and have stayed in to Spring.
I have put up extra bird boxes for the Tree Sparrows but despite checking the out early in the Spring they haven't used them. I wonder if they are nesting elsewhere because there are at least four Tree Sparrows still visiting our garden.
A Tree Sparrow even checked out Nibbler's box on one occasion:
Guess what? Nibbler returned and soon chased them off.
Probably the largest birds we have in our garden are Pheasants, some may not consider them to be native wildlife, but they have been around for a long time now. There are usually two or three Pheasants that visit the garden in Spring, normally a male and one or two females.
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| Male Pheasant |
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| Male and Female Pheasant |
Usually the Male and Female Pheasants in our garden spend their time feeding on the seed the other birds drop from the feeder.
Sometimes however the Male Pheasant's mind is on other matters:
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| Female Pheasant |
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| Full Speed Ahead |
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| A Breeding Pair |
All that seed must make him a bit frisky!
When another (younger) female appeared in the garden the male Pheasant was spoilt for choice, much to the disapproval of the older female:
Can a bird ever look as guilty as that male Pheasant?
We have several species of mammal that visit our garden, including Wood Mouse, Hedgehog and even a Badger (admittedly on the other side of the fence) but I only managed to capture one on film; the Grey Squirrel.
It usually climbs up the pole of the bird table to access the peanut feeder, however this route was blocked by the Pheasants. The Squirrel didn't fancy tackling the sharp-clawed Pheasants so it tried to distract them by acting crazy, in the hope that the Pheasants would investigate or just go away:
The Pheasants didn't move, much to the displeasure of the Squirrel:
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| Grey Squirrel not happy |
We get some birds that come into our garden and others that are happy to perch in the trees and bushes in the scrubland on the other side of our garden fence:
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| Female chaffinch on Hawthorn Bush |
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| Male Chaffinch on Hawthorn Bush |
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| Song Thrush hiding in tree |
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| Song Thrush |
Some birds can make a lot of noise but are very difficult to see, the little Wren is one such bird, but I did manage to capture one visiting our plant pots looking for insects:
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| Wren on plant pot |
Cheeky little bird, very cute.
Now a somewhat bigger (and not quite so cute) bird that visits our garden when there is bread on the bird table....................... the Rook:
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| Rook at Bird Table |
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| Rook grabs all the bread |
This Rook was grabbing all the bread before the others arrived:
Some times all the crows arrive at once, not just the Rooks but Jackdaws and Magpies as well; now we have a feeding frenzy:
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| The Crows are starting to arrive |
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| Get ready for a Feeding Frenzy |
That Pigeon looked a bit bemused.
On a more peaceful not we will finish the Home part of this blog with some Spring Lambs in the fields beyond the scrubland at the back of our house:
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| Sheep in the field behind our house |
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| Spring Lambs |
For the 'Away' section we go to East Ayrshire and in particular the area around Loch Doon. This is where I carry out my Upland Breeding Bird Surveys on behalf of the BTO. The area is predominately upland moorland surround a medium sized fresh water loch and quite different from habitats in and around our garden.
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| Loch Doon Shoreline |
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| Burn near Loch Doon Caravan Park |
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| Upland Moorland and Loch Doon |
With these different habitats comes different wildlife, in particular the birds. You do get some of the normal garden/woodland birds like Chaffinch, Robin etc. but you also get an influx of birds you would normally see on the seashore in the winter months and some who leave this country in winter and return here to breed in the spring.
We will start with one of my favourite upland birds, the Wheatear:
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| Female Wheatear at Loch Doon Caravan Park |
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| Male Wheatear at Loch Doon |
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| Male Wheatear at Loch Doon Caravan Park |
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| Male Wheatear |
The male Wheatear is a stunning bird and the female is not too shabby either. You don't have to climb up hills and across moorland to see these beautiful birds that have travelled all the way from Central Africa, just visit the caravan park at Loch Doon.
Another bird that migrates to here to breed (albeit a short migration from our own coast) is the Common Gull. Despite its name it is not that common and looks like a smaller and sleeker version of the more common Herring Gull.
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| Common Gull at Loch Doon Caravan Park |
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| Common Gull |
If you like your birds to have a bit more colour in them, then look no further than the Grey Wagtail. Despite the name this is a very brightly coloured bird that spends most of its time near water searching for invertebrates to eat. At Loch Doon they can be found on the shoreline, but more commonly on the many small burns and streams that feed into the loch:
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| Grey Wagtail looking for dinner |
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| Searching amongst the rocks for food |
Quite a flighty bird when it's searching for food, but caught this one on video, slowed down for your viewing:
Even the more common birds are bright and bold in their breeding plumage this time of year, such as this male Chaffinch:
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| Male Chaffinch in Breeding Plumage |
Down by the loch's edge is the best place to see the next upland breeding bird, the Common Sandpiper. It again is a migrant, mainly from Africa but some do winter in Southern Europe, a small wader with a big character:
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| Common Sandpiper on shores of Loch Doon |
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| Common Sandpiper on the rocks |
They do not like to stand still, they are either bobbing up and down, scurrying over the rocks or flying off with stiff, bowed wings and a swee-swee-swee high pitched call:
The next bird is definitely a bird of the upland moorlands, a small bird that flies all the way from Africa to breed in our cold, damp, upland moors; can be very difficult to see and even harder to catch on camera:
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| Whinchat on moors above Loch Doon |
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| Whinchat Loch Doon |
Flew off shortly after this photo, but did manage to get a brief video, slo-mo or you'd miss it:
They seem to like perching on rocks or in this case concrete foundations from a long-gone industrial past.
Probably the most common bird you will see in this upland moorland habitat is the ubiquitous Meadow Pipit. A resident bird seen all-year-round throughout the UK but in really large numbers in the upland moors in Springtime:
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| Meadow Pipit at Caravan Park |
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| Meadow Pipit |
Up on the moors the bird you are most likely to hear (other than the meadow pipit) is the Skylark. Beautiful flight song but so difficult to photograph or video, hence why I didn't get any this year.
Another very famous migrant from Africa which visits this area to breed is the Osprey. There is a breeding pair that nests in the forest on the other side of the loch from the caravan park and I have seen the adults flying overhead when I'm conducting my survey up on the hill. I have also seen them going into the nest to feed the young but it is along way from the caravan site and difficult to film.
However here is a slowed down video of one of the adult Ospreys flying over the nest area and landing in a tree (put your specs on you might need them):
Just so you don't think it is only birds that are found in this upland area, I can confirm that I have also seen hares, deer, voles, (lots of sheep) and adders during my surveys. I usually come across a few smaller creatures as well, like this Drinker Moth Caterpillar:
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| Drinker Moth Caterpillar |
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| Drinker Moth Caterpillar |
Mind look cute and furry but some of these caterpillars can give you a bit of a rash if you touch them.
Back to the birds, here is a nice combo of three birds that breed in this area:
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| Black-headed Gull |
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| Pair of Common Gulls |
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| Common Sandpiper |
And here is the video of them all enjoying the shores of Loch Doon:
When I returned to Loch Doon in early June to do my second Upland Breeding Bird Survey I was pleased to see even more migrants around the caravan park area, such as these Swallows and House Martins:
Also the Wheatears at the caravan park seem to have had a successful breeding season, evident by the appearance of these cute fledglings:
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| Pair of Wheatear Fledglings |
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| Young Wheatear |
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| Wheatear Fledgling |
Of course there's a video:
I think that's enough for this blog posting, hope you enjoyed my attempt at Springwatch and liked the variety of wildlife on show.
Time to enjoy the summer now
Take Care
Teddyedward
