Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Sad news re: Blue Tits

The nextbox camera revealed this morning that sadly two of the blue tit nestlings had died. I've been worried for several days that the adults do not seem to be providing much food - the mother still spends a lot of the time brooding the young. Perhaps they have mistimed their nesting attempt and there are not a lot of caterpillars around. Or perhaps the male is a poor provider? I have been watching the activities more than usual this morning and have only just seen the male visiting with food - to be honest I was beginning to think he had died!

Brian, my husband, has been putting out mealworms which the adults have been taking to the young and I have just put out some more. I have also seen the parents taking in food from the feeders (don't worry no whole peanuts, in fact I stopped providing peanuts a year or so back as they were never eaten) suggesting that natural food is scarce.

Hopefully, the two remaining nestlings will now get more food and will survive.

The female wren is still feeding young - she works tirelessly at her task! and yesterday I saw a young robin being fed on the lawn by the adults.

I have had a bit of a "bug" for the last few days and haven't been able to get out and take any photos so here's a few flower photos from the garden I took earlier in the month.

Oxeye daisies are now flowering in the wildflower meadow although there don't seem to be as many as last year. The composition of the plants in the meadow seems to vary from year to year with the dominant species changing yearly.



Tufted Vetch (just starting to flower) and Ribwort Plaintain



Red campion is now flowering profusely and there are a few flowers of white campion



I am not sure what this plant is called (I've just spent some time looking at gardening books trying to find it without success!) but I love the blue spidery flowers


Edit - Many thanks to Dean, for coming to the rescue yet again!, and identifying the plant as Perennial Cornflower.



And, finally, the rhodendrons are starting to flower

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous25 May 2011 at 13:29

    Hi Caroline. Your plant is Perennial Cornflower.

    Interesting to hear about the Blue Tits. The ones in one of my nest boxes fledged successfully.

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  2. Ragged Robin25 May 2011 at 13:38

    Hi Dean - Thanks so much for identifying the flower for me. I'll edit the post a bit later.

    So glad your blue tits fledged successfully.

    The way things are looking we will be lucky if one survives as one of the two remaining young (the smallest) doesn't look very well. The female has been trying to remove one of the dead youngsters possibly because a lot of flies are starting to appear in the box. I have a feeling it will prove to big for her to get out.

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