Spring at last

Something like warmth has returned to Edinburgh although even as I type this at 10.13 on a May morning I am wearing a fleece. There is blossom emerging on my Katy apple tree and beginning to show on its neighbouring Cox's Orange Red. The former should have fruit to eat in September and the latter in October. Our climbing hydrangea seems to have turned green overnight and the lawn has had its first cut.

Bird life remains disappointingly scant although as ever I can hear it around. A couple of substantial trees have been cut down in the gardens behind us and one of those trees used to hold a lot of nests. We do have a raven come round - one of the zoo colony I think and ringed. Also we have jackdaws and a magpie that have learned to use feeders designed for small birds.

More concerningly, I don't know what has happened to the Corstorphine Hill buzzards. Even when I cant see them I can usually hear them and I haven't heard them for 4 to 6 weeks now.

All your life, you were only waiting

Plenty of activity at the feeder although by a relatively small number of individual birds. Because of where it is though I do have opportunity to photograph it from time to time.

I rather like this one - a juvenile blackbird getting stuck into suet and mealworms. Click to enlarge

Big softie

After my recent observations of the lonely robin I was pathetically pleased this morning to see a pair of robins flying around. Spring is in the air!

The half coconut with suet at the back has now had attention from

• Robin
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Coal Tit
• Longtailed Tit

Some more pics to follow soon

More Tits

I was delighted to see another occasional visitor back today. We sometimes get long-tailed tits flittering around the hedge at the back of the garden and I was pleased to see one hanging around today. Obligingly it stayed still long enough for some initial pics. and only flew away when a great tit came around and bullied it. Hopefully there are more visits to come.

Blue Tits

Word is obviously getting around the avian community that there is a chunk of fat in a coconut shell at the back of our garden. Coal Tits, Great Tits and Blue Tits were at it today. Of the three the great Tit was the most timid - a quick peck then a rapid getaway.

By contrast this blue tit was around for a while and seemed to feel fairly secure despite the neighbour's lawn mower being active for the first time this year.

It is nice to see some activity at last. Elsewhere there were several Dunnocks flittering around and the lonely robin was still singing its heart out looking for a mate.


Gulls and Jackdaws are still around as are magpies and blackbirds. I can't spend the whole day looking out the window of course but I didn't see anything else of interest flitting around.

Unfortunately we still have plenty of cats wandering around which doesn't help. 

Taking the Rough With the Smooth.

Mixed fortunes in the garden today. First the downside - a magpie in the apple tree chewing on something sinewy which was either a new chick or possibly the contents of an unhatched egg. Either way it was raw and fresh.

More positively, I was pleased to see coal tits around again, taking advantage of the free food on offer. One of them obligingly held still long enough for the pics below.

Spring?

The garden is a little odd at present - the snow has mostly gone, although it lingers on the Pentlands, but it remains chilly. Even so the climbing honeysuckle and the apple trees are all about to blossom.  I had hoped to be able to photograph some pink apple blossom in the snow but that looks unlikely now.

And the bird life, though still quiet, is picking up a little. Over breakfast this morning I watched a pair of coal tits whizzing around and took pleasure that it was a pair with the promise of a clutch of little coal tits later in the year. And throughout the day a bold robin was singing its heart out from the old telephone wires, obviously llooking for a mate.

Last night as I came in from the office quite late I'm fairly sure that I heard at least one and probably two owls but they weren't visible in the darkness.

Chattering Jenny

Although I have been bemoaning the absence of birds in the garden I also know that they are around. I work in a home-office in the garden and though I haven't see many birds lately I can hear them well enough, singing from the hedges.

Yesterday evening as I came out of the office door I heard a rustle and a chattering behind me and slowly turned to see a wren chittering around deep in the hedge, visible mainly in silhouette but audible enough. I was pleased to see it - despite their common-ness they only show themselves rarely in the garden and I haven't seen one here for a while.

Hopefully the wren will be first of many more. A garden behind us had a large leylandi cut down last week and I think that was where some of the local magpies had their nest. Perhaps fewer magpies will mean more garden birds will show themselves.

Tapping fingers

I'm starting to think the the general absence of birds from the garden is of more interest than those that are there. We are getting the occasional dunnock and blackbird and more pigeons, jackdaws, magpies and gulls, but in nothing like the numbers I would normally expect.

I know that they are around because I can hear them and the bird feeders are being visited because I can see peck marks on the new suet balls, but they are staying out of sight for most of the day. Whether the ongoing wintry weather is causing a problem or the number of predators I don't know. But it isn't what I expected to be writing about when I started up this blog and I'm wondering what has happened.

Back to reality

After three weeks in China I am now back home. Normal service will be resumed here as soon as possible...