Today I was over at Mum's, and I took my trail camera with me. After Friday nights attempt at capturing deer on the trail cam, and only getting a Hedgehog and a Wood Mouse, I thought I'd test the cam again in the comfort and security of Mum's garden.
Well the results are in and I still have a lot to learn. I thought I had positioned the cam to capture the garden birds bathing in the little stream. As you can see from the trail cam vid clip below, I didn't have the cam in the right position at all, and missed all the action which was happening bottom right just off the camera range.....
and as this is my first time posting a vid clip off the trail cam I'll be interested to know if my blog post readers can see it ok.....
As I said yesterday it is all trial and error, and I'm just the sort of person who documents her errors along with her triumphs.
The trail cam is back up and focused on a well used and loved Great Spotted Woodpeckers nut stash in the garden now. Regular blog followers will know that last spring and early summer Mum spent a couple of weeks in hospital and several weeks resting at home after having cancer treatment. During this time I set up my portable hide at the bottom of Mum's garden, and whilst she rested, I was in the hide taking photos of the garden birds. The Woodpeckers became quite used to my hide after a few days, and eventually after a few months, we were able to establish (with the help of my close up photos) that there were seven individual Great Spotted Woodpeckers visiting the garden. Four of them were juveniles that would happily feed anywhere in the garden, the other three were two adult males and an adult female. They all appeared to favour an old crack in the back of a trunk. A peanut feeder is always at the front, and the Woodpeckers would take a nut from the feeder and go round the back, wedge it in the crack and feed from it there. One of the adult males had a lower mandible longer than his top mandible, hence we called him Bill, and initially we thought it was just Bill who was doing this to help him feed, but photographic evidence showed that the other male, Ben, and the adult female, Jen, were also eating in the same style. So as a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers are again feeding in the garden again, on exactly the same trunk and nut feeder, my next experiment with the trail cam was to capture them stashing the nuts in the crack. Hopefully I will post photos and vid clips on tomorrows blog post.
Mum and I sat in the conservatory after setting up the trail cam and within minutes a female Great Spotted Woodpecker flew down on to the trunk and done exactly as I stated above. Nuts were taken from the feeder and taken round the back of the trunk.
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| Nut feeder at front of trunk with GSW perched at the back - photo taken from the conservatory |
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| the nut stash crack at the back of the trunk |
It's not only the Woodpeckers that have discovered the 'nut' trunk. The regularly visiting marmite Parakeets also have their eye on it...
But the GSW is happy to fight for it's nuts.....
The marmite Parakeet eventually flew off, but they are becoming more numerous in the garden and even the Jackdaws don't seem to spook them anymore....
Even the Starlings will try to stand their ground, but with the Parakeets sharp hooked beak aimed at a wing the Starlings often retreat first.....
There were several other birds around today but I was mainly taking photos through glass whilst Mum and I had a gossipy catch up in the conservatory...
The bug house that Mum bought late last year has no stems taken, so it looks as if we will move this to a better position soon...
Last autumn I sowed some Crimson Clover around the new path way at the bottom of the garden. Some of the clover perished in the winter, but I'm well chuffed to say today there are finally some flowers.....
All I need to do now is pull my finger out and prepare my little patch in Mum's garden for my meadow flowers. I'm behind. Seeds should have been sown this month but I've not even prepared the ground yet.
Elsewhere in the rest of Mum's garden, more spring flowers are emerging.
Muscari, aka Grape Hyacinth, can sometimes be a bit of a thug in an established garden, but at Mum's they are looking like little gems of blue. Years ago Mum bought some species Muscari and these are just taking hold too. So at the moment there are three varieties, but we've forgotten the species names.....
Fatsia Japonica is looking great as it starts flowering...
one of the species Hebe is also looking at its best at this time of year....
Bergenia, aka Elephants Ears, is another flowering plant that looks great during early April...
the Prunus Serrula tree is shedding it's bark again, and looks beautiful....
the brute that is species Euphorbia has self seeded around the garden. The young plants are already in flower even though they are only about 20-30cm high....
'Drumstick' primula are also doing well...
Mum's bought herself a new species Hellebore which is low growing and has marbled leaves. It's looking very pretty at the moment...
The House Leeks I replanted last year are spreading well...
and the Corydalis is looking very delicate...
The paper thin flowers of Anemone De Caen were looking stunning in the low light of today...
and my favourite flowering shrub, Dicentra Spectablis aka Bleeding Heart, is finally showing it's first few buds....
The Ribes, or flowering currant, is looking good after a harsh prune....
and the Snow Flakes are still flowering long after the Snowdrops have gone over...
Another Hellebore species is flowering well both in the front and back garden, with several self seeded plants found today...
You've got to admit, no matter whether your pleasure are plants, birds, mammals or nature in general, spring is a wonderful time of year.
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