Nests

Recently I've been enjoying the sight of birds rushing in and out of gaps in rooves and walls in our street. I think some starlings are nesting 4 doors down and across from our garden there are definitely some sparrow nests under gutters. It's amazing when you stop and look at how many birds  are flying around, busily preparing for new arrivals or tending to young already hatched.

Before I moved to Preston I'd enjoyed years of watching sparrows nest on the wall opposite my bedroom window. Seeing how they carried dry grass into the same hole each year and then hearing tiny, chirping when the eggs hatched. In Prston the sparrows are still loving the new feeder and are in our garden hourly picking out seeds or sipping from the small dish of water we've put on the table; but this year I had no nest hopes for our garden.

That was until last night when we found two tiny blue eggshells speckled with brown on the floor by the back wall of the house. Since sparrows are the only visitors to the garden I checked what their eggs look like and the description matches ours perfectly. I don't know where the nest might be, whether the eggshells have been pushed out after a sucessful brood or an unsucessful attempt but it's very exciting to see them.

I will have a good look round when I get home today and hopefully have a sparrow nest update later in the week!



Mystery Solved

In a break in the rain yesterday I finally managed to get down to the canal for a walk, the first time in months. Last time there were a few buds on the trees but now everything is covered in green. There's lots of birdsong around but other than occasional flickers in the branches you can't catch sight of the birds.

As I walked along the bank I found that the mysterious shoots (see below) that I saw on my last visit are in fact bluebells! And now the bank is a sea of blue and after the rain the smell is fantastic. I'm glad I found out what they were and I'll recognise them next year for certain.

The canal and streams are full to the brim too after all the rain we've had. Judging from a weather forecast I saw last week Lancashire seems to be one of the few areas which hasn't had severe flood warnings or droughts this year, just predictably wet.

The canal looks lovely in its spring greenery, and hopefully I'll be back down  there again soon to see how the season progresses.

Cuckoo

Yesterday I heard my first cuckoo of the year, and according to old legend this heralds the start of spring. Well, I think the cuckoos are a bit late for the start of spring. Folk law normally gives the first week of April (often the 7th) as the date of the cuckoo's first call, so it was about a month late yesterday. Myths about this bird being the forbearer of storms however seemed more accurate as hours after hearing it I was stood on top of Coniston Old Man in horizontal sheet hail. But that might have had more to do with being high up in the clouds than this lovely bird further down the mountainside.

Cuckoos are only around in the UK for a few months, which is probably why they are so closely linked to the coming of spring. By July and August they'll be heading back to Africa for the rest of the year. Over the last twelve months there's been a very high profile research project by the BTO to find out a bit more about where cuckoos go when they're not in the UK. The project is important not just because cuckoos are one of the migrants we know least about but also because they are a Red Listed species, they've halved in numbers during my lifetime.

The project used radio trackers attached to five cuckoos to discover the migration route and stop of points from the UK down to Africa, and back again. So far two have returned and the project hopes to continue this year, spreading to Scottish and Welsh birds too.

To find out more about this amazing project have a look here,  and keep your ears open for that iconic sound. It might even be one of the very special BTO birds!

Anything About?

The title of this blog is an often heard phrase from bird watchers on encountering one another. The "anything" that they're seeking depends on whose asking though. When a visitor walks in and asks "anything about?" you need to decide what they're interested in, and do it fast! Are they hardened birders looking for rarities, or are they visiting the area and want to see the local speciality, maybe they're just discovering the wonders of nature and will love to be shown the coot's nest a few meters away. Whichever it is you can easily put people off by getting the wrong one. Telling one person that there was a great grey shrike earlier could be as off putting and confusing for a new birder as telling a veteran that there are some lovely ducklings would be insulting. It all depends on what you're looking for, but at least if you're asking what's about then you are looking.

I spent yesterday at Witton Country Park and over 6 hours standing in one spot under the (mostly) blue skies I managed to find 12 species of bird, 4 insects and 1 mammal without trying very hard and without binoculars or a telescope. I wonder how many people who walked past me noticed them too. Many families were passing on the way to the animal cages at the visitor centre, where you can see chipmunks and parakeets. I heard one little girl pass by saying "lets go look at the birds!" as she rushed past a chaffinch meters from her feeding on a wall at eye level.

On World Dawn Chorus Day the air was suitably full of birdsong, although I was there much later than dawn. I can't pick out many bird calls but it was great to hear the sounds of so much wildlife in the nearby trees. When I spoke to families they seemed surprised at how much wildlife was around them, and I hope they looked and listened a littler harder once they moved on. If we don't notice the wildlife around us that we all take for granted, who knows if we'll notice when it starts to disappear and if we'll be able to act in time to save it. Birds like the sky lark, house sparrow and cuckoo are all species which were common in the past but now need our help to come back from a steep decline.

I guess the point is that we should always be asking if there's "anything about" and the answer will almost always be yes. It might not be colourful or rare, but we should enjoy it and value it now. Because if we don't the answer in the future might be no.

Rise and Shine

When I think of 4.30am I think of silence and darkness. But that's not what I found when I woke up and couldn't sleep a few nights ago. It was just getting light and the air was filled with bird song. It's amazing how noisy it can be when almost everyone's sleeping. I couldn't really identify any particular species but it was lovely to hear so many birds around. Since we only normally see sparrows it's good to know that there are others out there.

I've met lots of people who have been out on dawn chorus walks this week. They all said how good it was. I haven't been on one yet this year, but my sleepless night is tempting to me. Maybe I'll get out early in the next few weeks to be up with the lark and listening to the birds wake up, that is if I can resist the warmth of my own bed.

Habits

Putting a glass bottle in a rubbish bin would never occur to me. In fact I don't think I could bring myself to unless someone's life was at risk (what a weird situation that would be...). But then I am the girl who took a  university term's worth of plastic bottles home on the train to recycle at Christmas; because there were no plastic recycling facilities at the time and sometimes I forgot to refuse the water bottle in my lunch pack.

I accept I am probably not an average example of the populations recycling habits but I am curious what is. I would be surprised to meet anyone who doesn't recycle glass bottles because it is so much part of our culture now. But I know lots of people don't recycle their food waste in our area, even though bins, bags and collections are organised by the council. Yesterday morning there were five food waste bins outside waiting for collection, on a street of maybe 15 houses. 

It's all about habits. We all know how hard it is to break a bad habit, but it's just as hard to break a good one. So we need to start making good, green habits. After a week of consciously recycling food waste I bet you'll start doing it without thinking, and soon you'll start getting grumpy when you're somewhere without food recycling.

I've tried to find out how much waste is recycled in Preston, but the only figures I can find are a few years old; they were about 32% if you're interested. I would be really interested in what other peoples habits are. I'm really bad at recycling some things; like batteries. I don't bin them, but I rarely get round to finding out where I can recycle them, resulting in large battery collections being found around the house. I'm sure some people have battery recycling habits and don't even think about it anymore. 

What do you always recycle, and what do you wish you did?

Hungry Sparrows Update

I spent most of yesterday anxiously watching the new bird table to see if anything would land on it. But nothing did, almost certainly because it takes a little while for wildlife to get used to new things. This I know well but it didn't stop me peering out every five minutes!

This morning I'd almost forgotten about it but when I looked up while washing the dishes I found three sparrows hopping around and eating the seeds I'd put out onto the table. Just lovely to watch, and watch I did for about 5 minutes. They got bored of their new toy quite soon and returned to hopping around the ground (and my flower bed) pecking at everything looking for food. But they seemed to be picking things off the plants rather than eating them so I'm pleased I'm getting some natural pest control. 

As the days pass I hope the birds will get more comfortable on the new feeder, and stay for longer. I counted five sparrows today, three female and two males but hopefully I'll be able to reveal more species soon!