Dawn's Weblog

And the story goes on....

I should have said that I live just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Spring is certainly in the air. Before the builders arrived there were a pair of song thrushes in the front garden as well as a pair of wrens. I've seen the song thrushes a few gardens away, but have only seen 1 wren at a time. In the back garden there are a pair of blackbirds, a pair of robins, and a pair of collared doves. The only ones that seem to be nesting in the garden are the collared doves. I've seen them flying into the tall pine tree with nesting material. Strange to say they have been picking up the bits of roots that have been broken up by the digger - the only birds I've seen on the ground in the front garden since the builders came. A pair of sparrows were hunting, and finding nesting material amongst the garden rubbish at the end of the garden.

I have a couple of nesting boxes to put up, but unfortunately I can't climb yet. They may have to wait to next year.

In my last garden I would sometimes put out apples, but they were never touched. It is a different story here. They are mainly eaten by the blackbirds, but I've also seen the song thrush and the robin at them. They eat the fleshy bit first, then the seed bit in the middle, and finally the skin. Today there was just skin left. The male birdbird picked up the skin and flew behind the tall pine tree on the ground. Every so often he looked around it with a bit of the skin in his mouth. Did he know I could see him? The female blackbird flew around the garden a few times calling loudly, but the male remained hidden. He did not come out from behind the tree until the female had gone next door.