It’s a glorious morning here in Lancashire with the most amazing clear blue sky. I’ve been making the most of the sunshine by finishing off few little jobs around the garden. It’s a complete joy to be outside when the day starts off like this. Garden birds are singing their little heads off and the air is still and warm with the faint scent of spring flowers.
Tidying up the herb beds has been on my TO DO list for a while now (along with 50 million other things!) A few weeks ago I left trays of home grown herbs ready to plant in front of a raised bed. Today I was just about to sort them out when a tiny bird shot out of the Foxglove next to them. In the photo below you can see the Chives and Golden Oregano edging the raised bed and the Foxglove on the left.
I lifted the lower leaves of the Foxglove and this is what I found. A beautifully woven nest with five tiny speckled eggs. I quickly rushed for my camera and took 3 shots before retreating so that the bird could return to incubate her eggs. I’m not sure if the bird was a Wren or a Robin as it darted away so quickly. To try and identify her I will be a little more observant when I’m close to the herb beds over the next couple of days. I’m hoping to weed and plant up the beds as quickly and quietly as I can without disturbing the nest.
I love having birds in the garden. They are fascinating to watch as they claim their territory and their songs are beautiful. Well most of them! We have a colony of Crows in the Bluebell wood which are sometimes quite raucously noisy but we have chosen to live in the countryside so we can’t grumble. We are living in their patch after all. I do object when they decide to nest on our chimney though! We lit a fire last night and the smoked filled the room instead of escaping up the chimney. This is what I found this morning…
No wonder the smoke can’t escape!
Have you had unwanted birds on your chimney?
I would be grateful for any suggestions you have to gently discourage them.
By the way… you may find this info about UK birds interesting on the RSPB website http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdwatch/results.aspx
Hope you are having a lovely day in your garden. Gillian 🙂
Before we had a top put on the chimney we had a Little Owl come down it into the kitchen; it wasn’t easy to rescue it and let it go outside!
I can imagine that scene Christina!
Similar story with a crow. It got down the chimney, flew around the house and set off the burglar alarm. I was called at work by the police and had to drive home to let it out. Easier said than done..
Aaaahhh! Tha joys of country life Jessica. I wouldn’t swop it though… would you?
How lucky to have the bird’s nest in your garden. You must be doing something right, for them to feel so at home. Being able to hear the birds sing is one of the joys of country life, without a doubt.
I’m looking forward to pictures of baby birdies in an upcoming post.
I haven’t got a chimney, so I’m no help with that, at all. Good luck!
Yes we are very luck Leah. We usually have several nests very close to my garden studio and ducks nest just a few feet from our front door too!
Do they make chimney toppers that discourage birds?
Yes they do Eliza. I think we’ll have to go down that route or next winter there will be no fires for us!
Our chimneys have little wire cone hats on since the time that the rooks (and nest) fell down one of the them when we were away on holiday. We came back to chaos. The birds were fine, but nothing else was.
Thanks for the warning Allison. Sounds like a nightmare! Chimney toppers are top of our shopping list!