Spring resides

So spring has sprung and summer is supposedly here. The bluebells and the blossom have all done their thing, the trees are wearing their summer best and all those little chicks are going, going...gone.
Spring moved in with us this year. The roof is due for repair which means all the nesting birds took full advantage. I think there were four different families reared in the front roof and fascia boards. I could see their tails poking out from above my bedroom window and I could certainly hear them when the chicks hatched. Some moved into the back as well. One family managed to get into the walls via the roof. At one stage the Starling chicks started dropping down into our boiler cupboard. Fortunately each one was rescued and relocated in the garden where the parents continued to feed them. They were all fine. Starlings aren't really my favourite birds. They scoff all the fat balls before any of the smaller birds get a look in.

I'm pleased at all the different birds coming to the feeders and the garden this year. Blue tits, coal tits and great tits. Thrushes and blackbirds. Sparrows and dunnocks. Wood pigeons and collared doves. Nuthatches and chaffinches. Lovely robins and wrens by the dozen. That elusive greater spotted woodpecker. The sparrow hawk hasn't shown his beak yet; avian sighs of relief must abound. Our tawny owls seem to be absent at the moment. The bats are back this year. They are great at twilight if you can catch a glimpse. There are ducks in the back field (yay) and pheasants who haven't discovered Bjorn's beans yet. I always like seeing the horses too. Here is a gratuitous picture of a duck and my dad. This blog should always have a surplus of ducks.
The mice haven't returned yet and the rabbits have stayed in the back field. A rabbit dropped into our garden a couple of years ago. We couldn't catch it. It scoffed half the garden before it decided to go home. Phil hasn't had to wrestle any sheep out of Debbie's garden this year yet. The squirrels seem much reduced after last winter's chainsaw massacre of the trees and the orchard at the farmhouse across the road. The huge sycamore that dominates the neighborhood was also quite heavily cut back and probably was only saved because it is a protected tree.

Lots of folk are saying we are going to have a glorious summer this year. I hope they are right.