Sunday in the garden….

I was really hoping for a bright day today…. even a glimpse of the sun would have been nice, but it has been grey, dull and cold. I had loads I wanted to do in the garden though, so I wrapped up warm and went out anyway!

The first thing I wanted to do was a bit of planting. I have recently had some work done in the garden and it has created some lovely new beds, crying out to be planted up. A local bargain shop gave me the first excuse to part with some cash with their sale of all bulbs…. at 10 packs for a fiver, how could a girl resist…I got all sorts of dwarf daffs, irises, fritillaries, anenomes… all sorts!

I had also bought some Hosta corms from the market yesterday and  got some really cheap ferns and grasses from the ‘bargain bin’ at my local garden centre! They were all just a couple of pounds because they look a bit sad at this time of the year. Cut the old fronds back and wait for spring and they will be brill!

Last weekend, when I put the kestrel box up on the barn, I took the other nest box down that I had mounted on an old post. It was too close to the kestrel box.  Today, I mounted a remote camera in this nest box. It is designed to attract a selection of species… dove, jackdaw, little owl…. I think jackdaw is the most likely here.

I mounted the camera up inside the roof…

I then took it up to my neighbour, Doug, who kindly agreed to have it on the outside of his barn! There is a hole just above the box, so I was able to bring the cable inside, where there is power inside the barn. This is great as if anything looks like nesting in it, I will be able to power the DVR from there and make some recordings.

I also changed my mind about where I had mounted the robin box a month or so ago. I had placed it on the back of a small shed I had, but I was worried about the noise from the shed as I am always delving in there for something or other. I moved it up the garden near to my new patio area. There is a tree with the base covered in ivy. I tucked it in there and ensured the ivy wound all around it…

 Finally, I set up ‘hedge cam’. I have a small feeder on top of a thick blackthorn hedge outside my office window. To create a more intimate view of the visitors, I mounted a camera in a plastic tub and then placed it really close to the feeder… I had it on the live cam this afternoon and got some nice images of the first birds coming to visit.

That’s enough for one day…..