What have you seen

WN we have the local birds here and great to see, did a walk down the road and the sruprise was 2 Turtle Doves  calling to each other then 1 pooped out of a tree just in front of me so a good sighting not time for a photo though and then walked into a local field full of wildflowers and butterflies everywhere all colours a great sight to see just hop e the local farmer does not cut the grass to soon in the field it is my best spot for butterflies even spotted a couple of Chiffchaffs flying about and could hear young birds calling so think they were on feeding duties.  A lot warmer today after a very cool day yesterday and a very warm week to come, also seen some great moths and had another bat flying in front of our cameras the other night.

I wish we had similar, WN. All we've had on our fat balls,apart from the Wood/Field Mouse have been Jackdaws and young Starlings, who certainly have the knack of hanging on. The crumbs and being picked up by both the mouse and a pair of Dunnocks.

The Starlings are making short work of the fat balls, still, but at least the crumbs are being eaten by a male Blackbird. I just wish that he wouldn't start singing from the tree top at 4:30 in the morning, although I shouldn't really complain as it's great to hear. We have also seen a Blue Tit feeding on the balls, so progress there.

We heard our first Cuckoo when we were out on the fells last week, spotted a Wood Warbler, Wheatear and Stonechat, and today I stood watching a Blackcap singing while I was out on our afternoon walk.

We've noticed a significant increase in birdsong over the last 4-5 days and think the males are re-establishing their territories in anticipation of a second brood. We hadn't heard a Wren for ages but we can't shut him up and it's been the same on our walks.

As you said Nell, it's great to hear, even at 4.30 a.m.

Went to check the Caravan today and in the paddock behind the van were 2 x Yellow Wagtails, never seen them there before.  Afternoon stroll on Oulton marshes and watched a couple of Sedge Warblers and plenty of Dragonfly’s of which I could only identify the Broad body chasers

I forgot to mention that we saw a Cinnabar Moth too the other day. Have not seen one of those for a while.

The buzzards are back -  tracing circles in the sky as usual over my head - and now we have far fewer rabbits and grey squirrels in what I loosely call a garden . 

Lovely sight on our walk today. A family of Bullfinches, mum, dad and 3 little ones, feeding in the trees.

Well, one upside of this virus is that we're seeing lots of young birds on our feeders, which we wouldn't normally see, as we're normally away for about 7 weeks in May/June.

At one point there were 9 tits, blue, great and various young ones with them.  Goldfinches are also regular visitors, as are their young, who don't as yet have the red and black face markings.

And now we're getting a young great spotted woodpecker.  We've seen both parents for months and months, a few days ago Dad brought a young one with him and today the young one came on his/her own.  Can't tell what it is yet, as it's still got the red cap on it's head, but it does like the suet block.  We've got feeders, and also a cut-down log, about 1' long, with 4 round holes drilled into it, which we stuff with suet/mealworms.  That log is very popular with the woodpeckers, but also the tits and nuthatches.

It's really nice to watch it all, as we normally miss it.  So, this staying at home does have it's compensations

We're a lot like yourselves InaD. We usually miss most of Spring and breeding for local birds but it's been one of the enjoyable aspects of this whole nightmare. Feel quite protective towards our little fledglings.