Garden Diaries

Today it seems that finally we have a full day of sun and the birds are coming back. Well at least the bigger ones. The past few days I have noticed that the two jays are coming together now and they don't get to be scared by other birds, on the contrary they have got to the habit of chasing the jackdaws who unfortunately are back, at least not in the big numbers they used to...
Still no sign of any of the small birds, where all the finches and blue teats have gone? They can't just have vanished or decide to boycot our garden...
Although there are no small birds coming to our garden at least we've got a considerate amount o butterflies and bumble bees. As we come from London and we were not used to much of wildlife there, although we had quite a big number of foxes and squirrels (after 8 months living on the island still haven't seen a single squirrel...) who they used to visit gardens and walk bravely in the middle of the road despite the traffic, we normally wouldn't see a lot of insects, except from same strange reason a lot of ladybirds which I haven't seen here at all...So seeing all these different colour and shape butterflies it is a treat and it kind makes up for the lack of small birds I guess. Still I'm hoping that I will see the return of the finches and blue teats pretty soon, if only the weather behaves as a normal weather should be for this time of the year, a bit of sun and heat will do a lot of good.

Although the weather is still 'funny' for this time of the year at least it is a bit warmer and sunnier than it has been all summer. Something that other species seem also to have noticed. A small walk on the coast showed a bit more animal action than I have seen recently. There were quite a number of rabbits munching around not bothered too much by all the human tourists or locals, a considered number of small crickets on leaves and of course plenty of local birds. Even in our garden there seems to be quite a population of insects as well, mostly white buterflies, bubblebees and of course spiders who are extremely busy and they go back to work straight after the outside windows have been cleaned. It is amazing how fast they can spin and how deliquate their work is.

From the bird point of view we still missing all the small ones, particularly the finches (even the noise one) and blue teats. They have simply disappeared.
The ones that they keep coming are the blackbirds, the magpies, woodpigeons, a pair of jays and the occasional jackdaw (they seem to be all over the town but they have stopped coming to our garden in big numbers, something which we should thank the bad weather for). It is really strange that all the small birds have disappeared but I'm hoping that if the weather stays dry for a few days at least (yeah right...) then it is quite likely that they will appear again. I sincerely hope so as I have missed my noisy finch!

It still amazes me what a difference a sunny day can make into the lives of animals, birds and all the living creatures in general. I mean when it is raining and it is general cold and miserable there is hardly any bird traffic outside and even inside cats and humans feel irritable and we are rather sluggish with less motivated to do anything.
But when the sun is out and it is nice and warm (still not as warm as this time of the year suppose to be) there is a bird traffic outside and even the cats seem to be chattering to the birds they see outside.

So after a couple of days of sunshine we saw the familiar faces of greenfinches, blackbirds, etc and even the jay seemed to have become all of the sudden a bit braver. He seems to be coming more regularly now and to stay for longer periods while before he used to be really nervous and to fly off almost immediately. It is also such a beautiful bird despite his size and one of few that you like seeing quite often in your garden although at first the female blackbird seemed to chase him quite a lot for some reason.
The woodpigeons as well have now got used to the garden and they appear to be also less afraid and even to walk in the patio near the door while my cat has her back turned. Any moment now I expect the woodpigeon to start dancing and teasing the cat like Jerry the mouse normally would have done from those old Tom & Jerry cartoons. Still it is nice to see the birds not to mind the cats and to finally realise that they are not at any threat as the cats are and they are staying indoors with no access to the garden. They can watch but they can't harm any feathered visitor.

After a couple of semi-decent days with a bit of sunshine and not as warm as it should have been for the middle of the summer, the rain is back again, confusing everybody and in particular our bird visitors in our garden. With all this bad weather it seems that we have lost many of our regular birds, particularly the teats and finches, and the noisy one, which I haven't heard or seen for a few days now.
But at least we have some other regulars now, a bit bigger ones, with the young magpie taking residency more or less in our garden as she spends more of her time in our garden as there is food along with a few wood pigeons and in particularly a bully male one who seems to chase all the other ones and he seems particularly fond of a young female who doesn't leave in peace to eat. On the other hand the whole thing is rather entertaining particularly from our catspoint of view as they seem to find the whole pigeon chasing scenario rather entertaining (perhaps more entertaining than what is currently on normal TV channels).

Along with the wood pigeons the mother and young magpie another regular is the male blackbird and thank god for the less than regular now, the jackdaws who seem to finally got the message and to have stopped coming at least in hordes.

The one from our current regulars who proves to be quite a character and who for some reason I think it's a female is the young magpie who has become really bold and brave. This morning I spotted her walking on the window sill while she was trying to get to the seeds and the few bread crumbs I left for the smaller birds and at the same time she was pecking at the window under the strict observation from one of my cats who was sitting on the window sill inside. The young magpie simply didn't care and she didn't even mind the cat, on the contrary she looked like she was daring my cat to come and get her, knowing obviously that she was quite safe because of the double glazed window. She might be at times noisy but she is proving to be quite entertaining and a very brave young bird.

It's being a few days now since I've written anything but the weather hasn't being of much help or improvement. It seems that whoever god is in control of the seasons he/she decided to skip summer this year and move straight to autumn. I mean it is the 4th of July already and we didn't even have one decent sunny summer's day yet without raining, wind and not being cold. And if we humans are complaining imagine how the rest of nature feels like especially those species like birds who are dependent on good weather to find food...

I guess this is where humans can be for once helpful and not so destructive and provide at least some food for them. This is why I guess the last few days our local birds are queueing for the bird feeder and waiting for their turn to poke their heads in one of the feeding holes available. The blue teats are the cutest as they try to fit most of their head and as much of their body in those holes and one of these days one of them sooner or later will get stuck in one of the holes. But it is quite funny watching the other birds waiting patiently to get an opportunity to go to the feeder (we are planning to add another one now that they finely decided to use it) by standing on the fence next to it or on the metal hanger from which the feeder is hanging. Even the blackbirds which their number has increased the past few days have now figured out that there is food under the feeder since the little ones are messy eaters and they throw seeds that they don't like everywhere.
The bad weather had one good effect though, now it seems that less jackdaws are coming, let's hope that this is because they found somewhere else to go. The younng magpie though is still coming and demands to be fed but now his/her mum ignores him/her and she/he has to fed for him/herself. But the noise that this young bird makes for his size is quite unbelievable and very annoying.

This morning the weather seems a bit more promising with a quite a bit of sunshine but on the other hand it doesn't seem to be a lot of bird action with the only exception the blackbird who was first to go where I put some fresh food. Let's hope that the weather stays dry and that more birds will appear again.