We did our spring review of bird boxes and first indications are that it’s a better year for our smaller birds.

We looked in 128 boxes and of those we found:-

16 Occupied Blue tit nests

6 Occupied Great tit nests

2 Tree sparrow nests

12 unoccupied nests/starter nests

2 woodmice nests

All are welcome, if you know anyone that may be interested please lt them know.

I decided the Dunces Corner hide needed a bit of love and attention so we gave it a new lick of paint. Thanks to Rob and Phil for helping me with this.

I put a camera in the small willow plantation not expecting there to be too much action, but I was wrong. Below are clips from last night, including a large Hedgehog which I have not seen for a while, nice.

Our first chicks on Dunces Corner Pond have arrived and it is our pair of Moorhen that have been first to produce. I’m not sure exactly how many they have, the most I’ve seen together is 3 but I suspect there may be 5 or more. The parents tend to split the brood and look after a few each. I’m guessing these chicks are 1-2 days old.

Three chicks visible if you look closely

Hopefully I can get some better picture in the days to come.

Its that time of year again when our little black and white friends are traveling out from their homes and causing mayhem with my paths. I’m spending about half an hour a day filling in holes dug by the badgers. There must be a good supply of earthworms that they are tucking into.

I put the trail cameras out to try and catch the culprit and…..

For the last three days I have gone into Vera’s hide and found this little chap in my bird feed bucket.

Not sure how he/she is managing to get in as it has a lid and there are no holes in the bucket!

Yesterday, when I lifted the lid, it jumped out straight into my welly.

One well fed Woodmouse😁

The boys are out to impress the girls this time of year and I came across a couple who were fighting over a female friend.

The boardwalk down to Woggle Water Pond was in need of a refresh, so John K and myself have been working on this over the last few weeks.

So I think it now looks quite smart ( if I say so myself 😜), and hopefully more wheelchair friendly.

Thanks go to John for his help but also Phil for donating his old decking for the project.