Blackbirds and Woodpeckers rule - news from Marks Mansion gardens over the last four days

I've been staying at Mum's house the last few nights. Her treatment has side effects which are now making trying to sleep, and stay asleep, very uncomfortable. So as well as being fatigued anyway during the day, now she's even more tired and still having to cope with the rest of the side effects on top of that. I'm not much help really, I pop to the shops, wash up and do general household chores. Occasionally Mum even lets me boil an egg, but cooking is still primarily her 'baby' and luckily, despite all the other side effects, losing her appetite hasn't been one of them. She's back in hospital next week for her last session of intense 24/7 chemo so at least she'll have nurses on hand should her uncomfortable nights continue.

 

Whilst she's been resting or sleeping in, I've either been in the conservatory at the top of the garden, or in my hide at the bottom. The garden is still very much a hive of activity. So here are loads of photos and the continuing saga of the soap opera goings on in Marks Mansion gardens.

 

Juvenile birds are appearing everywhere.

The House Sparrows look like they've had a very successful breeding year.....

 

 

Collared Dove adults and juveniles have been visiting.....

 

Our first juvenile Goldfinch of the year was spotted in one of the shrubs......

 

The next door neighbours have always had a large population of Greenfinches, but Mum's garden rarely gets them. However this lovely little juvenile Greenfinch stayed for an hour.......

 

and of course juvenile Starlings are plentiful....

 

 

Adult birds visiting include this regular Great Tit with it's ringed leg....

 

 

Goldfinches.....

 

A pair of Jays have started visiting the garden too. One has a leg ring, which I've been unable to read yet. This is him/her below during a particularly heavy rain fall.......

 

A pair of Dunnocks are also regular visitors and normally skulk under the shrubs.....

 

The feeder by one of the conservatory doors has been very popular with a pair of Blue Tits, even when I've had the doors open.....

 

 

One of the stars of the garden are Mr and Mrs BB, who have built a nest within an unused wicker wall hanging basket just feet away from the conservatory. On Monday they hatched all five of their eggs, and Mr BB has been incredibly busy ever since. He really is 'Super Dad'. Come rain or shine, he has been busy collecting great beak fulls of food for his nestlings, and seeing off any large predators. Mrs BB has also been doing her bit, but her beak fulls of food are quite tiny in comparison, and the only birds she sees off are the occasional nosey (and noisy) juvenile Starling that gets a bit too close to the nest.  

 

 

 

 

Mr BB has taken an intense dislike to the visiting Jays, even though the Jays mainly visit the bottom of the garden nicking the Woodpeckers nuts. Below I just managed to grab an action shot of Mr BB as he whizzed threateningly past a Jay.

 

 

and this is what Mr BB is protecting. His nestlings. Here are two of them (beak shots only I'm afraid) who were just visible after both Mr and Mrs BB had left the nest.

 

 

The second stars of the garden are the Great Spotted Woodpeckers. If you follow my blog, you'll know we have two males (Bill and Ben) and a female (Jen) who have been visiting the nut feeder at the bottom of the garden. Well we may have a fourth bird visiting too, but both times when I became aware of it, I was too late with both my bins and my camera, to get a better look. It's definitely an adult bird, and not a juvenile, and I think it's another male. Ben and Jen are the most prolific visitors. In the last four days I've seen both of them regularly during the day, and they are a couple. Bill, the male with the deformed beak, has only visited a couple of times, both of which were when it was raining and I didn't have my camera to hand. So all of the photos below are of Ben and Jen.

 

I finally managed a close up photo of Jen. She is still very wary of us human beans, and I got the shot whilst in my hide. She somehow sensed there was something a miss though and these were the only two close up pics I managed. 

 

However if I stay in the conservatory she is happy to come down, take a nut from the feeder, carry it round to the back of the trunk and deposit it into the little nook that all three Woodpeckers have been using (much to the delight of the juvenile House Sparrows who have discovered this stash).

 

She is not at all tolerant of any other birds when she's on the trunk and feeder. Woe betide any Starling that tries to land whilst she's busy........

 

 

Ben, on the other hand, is very tolerant.........

 

And usually as Ben lands, Jen takes off......

 

 

If a Jackdaw landed on the trunk while Jen was feeding, she'd soon be off, but Ben is much more laid back and just sits it out quietly.........

 

 

All three birds (Bill, Ben and Jen) use the pergola to perch on before flying to their nut feeder. Whether I'm at the top or bottom of the garden, I can see them do this. Ben was so laid back early this morning that even though I was having my morning coffee and a fag out in the open (not within my hide), he still perched on the pergola, had a look round and proceeded to the feeder to continue his business of putting nuts in the nook. I was no more than seven feet away from the trunk, and it wasn't until I lifted my coffee mug did Ben see me and fly off.

 

Jen is so much more secretive. She'll even hide behind the feeder if Mr BB is making his usual dash up the centre of the garden to feed his chicks......

 

I'm really looking forward to the day Ben and Jen bring their juveniles to the garden for a visit.

 

Elsewhere the Starling youngsters are growing up fast and squabbling not only with their siblings, but also with the adults too.....

 

 

The teenage Starling below has discovered the Woodpeckers nut nook.....

 

 

Last but not least, Mum and I thought the rats had gone. There'd been no sightings for two days, then yesterday evening as I was getting ready to close up the conservatory and join Mum in the front room, I spotted this cheeky little bugger climbing up the nut feeder tree....