It’s been a busy week for me this week and, as well as work, it has been great to see signs of Spring in my garden. There have been lots of views by blue and great tits in the nest boxes and this blue tit has been roosting every night in one of these. It comes in about 5pm, when it is still light, hence the colour pictures and then stays until it gets light in the morning. It is fascinating watching them prepare for a cold night. As soon as it arrives, it starts settling down and preening. It then begins to flag itself up, creating pockets of air that can work like a duvet, keeping the bird warm. The final stage is tucking the head under the wing and transforming into a little blue tit lollipop!!
A lot of my tawny focus has been on Yew View as we have had a lot of exciting action there. I finally got around to checking my own cameras and was delighted to see an individual visit twice to my pear tree box, situated at the end of my garden. I have only had two visits so far, but keeping my fingers crossed.
Unlike the Yew View box, this box just has a 720TVL nest box camera with some additional lighting, so the image is not as crisp as that from the IP camera in the YewView box.
Another exciting view for me this week, was when a vixen appeared at my feeding station. She is most obviously pregnant and, but the look of her teats, she is very close to giving birth to this year’s cubs! She is looking healthy, so let’s hope we will see some new fox cubs here at the beginning of May !
All we need now is some sunshine… been severely lacking this winter!