Gardens and wildlife

The weather still isn’t good here, more torrential rain this morning which finally stopped but it’s very windy & cold, I thought I’d better go & open the cold frame just in case the bees are waking up very much doubting they would & much to my surprise the first little bee buzzed out!
 
elusive said:
The weather still isn’t good here, more torrential rain this morning which finally stopped but it’s very windy & cold, I thought I’d better go & open the cold frame just in case the bees are waking up very much doubting they would & much to my surprise the first little bee buzzed out!
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Lovely to see a bee :) It's not raining here but still very windy and cloudy. Not exactly warm!
 
It was lovely to see but I wish it hadn’t woken just yet tbh, I just popped out again for a minute & it’s raining again & the wind is really cold.
If they get cold & wet they can get stranded & not able to get back to the dry & relative warmth of the cold frame, fingers crossed it makes it 🤞 Caring for wild life is so hard now.
 
We’ve got heavy hail showers now, little piles of ice, very spring like!
 
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Not exactly wildlife but quite nice clouds :) The view from the side door Ring doorbell (I'm in bed at the moment with the bug).

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Weather can’t make up its mind here. The high winds of yesterday have gradually eased off. The sun pops out and then grey clouds spit rain in large drops for a few moments and stop.
I am on almost permanent feeding duty for my pair of robins. It is almost non stop. Since both of them are coming and demanding much more than usual, I can only assume that there are youngsters in a nearby nest. They fly off with beaks stuffed and return almost at once. We have done a little gardening and they follow our activity and scoop up any insects unearthed. Since the youngsters fledge at 14 days, I expect there will be a sudden easing off.
 
That sky is beautiful Maz!

Good to hear the robins are feeding well Coco, definitely sounds as though they have young in the nest, they do keep feeding them for a while after fledging though so you may be busy for a while yet.
Hope we get to see some babies.

We’ve finally got some sunshine today, it had me fooled early this morning when I thought , the sun’s shining I’d better go & check on the bees, opened the door & got a face full of wind & rain!
The rain has stopped though (until tomorrow) still very windy & a bit chilly.
 
Maz said:
I have this image of Robins following you round the garden :)
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Exactly! That is what happens as we have moved around the garden and they hop along to see what turns up- literally!

The female used to be a little more circumspect when asking for food but now is as bold as her mate. She flies up to the window fluttering at the pane for attention or sitting on the windowsill. When I put the spoonful on the ground, they both fly down are only a hands width away while I tip it out.
 
Cuckoos are here! I thought I might have heard one yesterday but wasn’t sure, definitely heard one quite clearly just now.
They probably wish they were back in Africa! 🌧️ 💨
 
Beautiful blooms at my favourite local gardens this morning 🌼 It was lovely and warm sitting on a bench in the sun too ☀️ I had a good chat with the gardener today, and he gave me loads of really good planting ideas for my woodland area in my own garden. I love the woodland area at these gardens!
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The adult robins continue feeding much more often and more food. After elusive said they would continue to feed their young even after they had fledged the nest, I have been watching carefully. At last I have just spotted an adult picking up a piece of food and instead of flying off with it, it fed another bird perched nearby but behind on one of the bonsai tree containers. That bird did not have the red breast feathers yet but brown feathers, so a juvenile robin. The first time I have ever seen one.
 
That’s lovely to hear Coco, they do usually keep the fledglings quite well hidden in or under shrubs but with yours being so tame they might well come out in the open soon, the babies are beautiful with their speckled brown feathers.
 
I will be keeping a careful look out from now on and hope to see this feeding again.
 
I have just been ladling out the bird food for the third time today. Now the robin parents are waiting when there is the first sign of curtains being drawn back at first cup of tea time.
Yesterday I thought there was only one juvenile and have been watching. I can now positively say there are two youngsters and both are the same size as the parents. Just now, one stayed back on the bonsai or nearby but one actually ventured onto the patio with a parent. It stayed by the food not trying to pick anything up but was fed by the parent. It was all over too quickly to grab my phone.
 
That must have been so nice to see them feeding Coco, it depends when they fledged but they can’t actually feed themselves for a while, mayb ea week or more, they learn by watching the parents I think so you may get to see the adults feeding them more often now the fledglings have started to venture onto the patio.
Great that you have two, they ssometimes look even bigger than the parents as. they are quite fluffy!

I didn’t see anything but I heard blue tit fledglings in the garden this morning & the adult shouted at me to get out of the way! How they’ve managed to raise them in the recent weather I don’t know, I hope to see more but there are so few birds left here now not sure if I will.
My robin is getting earlier & earlier now as the days get lighter & is singing for breakfast about 5am, bit of a rush to get it ready!

And finally the bees have woken up! We’ve had sunshine today & yesterday but night time temps have been around 2-4C for a while so I was quite surprised. It was still chilly when I opened up the cold frame but I went back about an hour later & walked into a veritable cloud of little bees!
 
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