Summary May 2012
Garden
The start of May saw a little improvement in the weather as some of the heavy rain stopped. On 3rd May we saw a newly fledged Dunnock pecking around trying out various things to see if they were edible. By the end of our holiday mid-month we saw our first – and by the end of the month – only fledgling Goldfinch on the feeders and young Starlings started to appear only to disappear later in the month. In fact this summer has been very poor for Starlings altogether. Blackbirds are frantically collecting worms and any other food they can find and seem to spend at least as much time squawking to deter predators such as Magpies and cats which root around in the trees looking for easy food. If they catch any eggs or young then there is not a great deal that the Blackbirds can do about it, though I have seen a Blackbird get the better of a threatening Squirrel in the past. Hopefully we will see fledged Blackbirds in the garden soon. On the 19th we saw a male and female Greenfich looking in good shape – they have been rare this year. Continue reading