It has been an exciting weekend here in my patch! I have three owl boxes up at home and have had a tawny looking on one in my pear tree at the end of my garden. This box does not have such a good set-up as at Yew View. It has a 700TVL camera inside it… the same as in my tit nest boxes. The box has some additional daytime lighting and some additional IR. The image is not too bad… good enough for me to get excited about watching a tawny nest at the end of my garden!
Over the last two nights, I have set a new Bushnell trail cam up to monitor the outside of the box. It is a difficult location in the day as there is so much light behind, making the box image very dark. I have lightened one clip with the tawny and the squirrel, so these two are visible. I was delighted to see lots of visits and even an attempted mating!
Over the last week, they have been visiting more frequently and I daren’t hope that they might choose this box this year. To have them nesting, almost in view from my kitchen window, would be pretty amazing!
On the 31st March she stayed in the box during the day…… at this point, I was getting excited as they tend to do this before laying. You can hear the birds alarming outside!
Then, last night, she laid her first egg! Just as with the Yew View Tawny, she left it during the day, returning tonight. She should lay another egg around Tuesday morning…
To have two tawnies on eggs this year is going to be incredible! I have set this camera up on my live stream. If it is not on the front page, then take a look at the live cameras page. If she is there, I will try to remember to pop it on the front page of my website at night.
The garden is really bursting into life, especially after this weekend’s sun!
Keep a look out for little piles of soil on your lawn….. these are made by the tawny mining bee… one of our many solitary bees, who nest in holes they dig within the soil. These bees are harmless so don’t worry about them being in your garden and encourage them by having areas of bare soil. The solitary bees are brilliant pollinators, so it is important that we encourage them into our gardens!
The Tawny Mining bee is easy to spot as it is bright orange and very furry! My dad, Ed Phillips who is a fantastic macro photographer, took these shots of this beautiful bee.
After months of my garden looking like a soggy, muddy mess, it is finally starting to look lovely again. Here are a few shots to finish off tonight’s blog!
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