Lazy day

Back garden

It's a bright Spring day and part of me has been insisting I take the opportunity to go out for a walk while most of me has said no, let's have a rest and let the crowds enjoy their day. It's been a busy week, I can afford to rest on my laurels for a day.

The dawn chorus has been a limited affair so far this Spring with the blackbirds kicking in at five and anything else following on a lot later. I haven't heard either the blackcap or the great tit any earlier than mid morning. The rooks are conspicuously absent having spent February singing down the chimney. The dunnocks have gone quiet, which usually means that they've settled down into nesting pairs, albeit with a lot of hopping about between the bedsheets. The paired-up collared doves are also quiet, only a couple of unpaired males doing any singing. The chiffchaff was a one day wonder, I suspect there's not enough tree cover here despite the sycamores on the railway embankment.

What I gained in visibility in the back garden by chopping back the rambling rose and hazel bushes I'm starting to lose now the other shrubs and trees are bursting into life. All the shrub roses are in full leaf and a couple already have flower buds. The damson's in full bloom and much-loved by bees and hoverflies, the cherry tree's just opening and they'll be followed by the pear tree and finally the rowan. Which means there's going to be nectar and insects for the birds and their young. I'll still be putting food out over Spring and Summer, though less often, in part to supplement the birds' diet and in part for the entirely selfish reason that I don't have to make any effort to control the aphids on the roses and soft fruit. The adults drop in, get something to eat and then pick up something to take home to the kids.

I struggle to work out what the local magpies are doing. The gang of unpaired birds has been doing the rounds, the other week there were thirty four birds on the school playing field, usually there's about a dozen. That big gang seems to have dispersed leaving eight birds behind to bounce between the school and the station. The usual pair seems to have returned to the nest in the pear tree across the road, a couple of pairs made half-hearted attempts at starting nests at the station and another pair has made two nests in the same tree round the corner and seem intent on using both. Down the line every other tree at Trafford Park Station has a half-made nest in it. I've no idea at all what the two pairs of carrion crows are doing, they're showing all the signs of breeding bar actually nesting. The old nests look to have been abandoned and none of the sticks the crows have been carrying about have gone into any nest building. In fact I think they've been stealing sticks out of magpies' nests out of spite.

I think this next couple of weeks I'll try to catch up with a few places I've been neglecting. We'll see how I do.