30 Days Wild - Day 3 - Mini Bio Blitz

I had decided on a mini bio blitz of the garden for Day 3 of 30 Days Wild. It’s a lovely day here with light cloud and sunny but with a gentle warm breeze. We only have a very small garden, but I am cramming it with as many plants as I can. We have a raised pond and a tree. Maybe later in the month I will do a full blitz, lifting stones and dipping in the pond but today I thought I would just take an hour to sit in the garden and see what came to visit.

Hover Fly

Since our new neighbourhood cat came to live next door there has been a definite decline in the birds and rodents in the garden. I haven’t seen a mouse or vole for ages and I’m pretty certain there aren’t any birds nesting actually in the garden, although they are around on the feeders. I always know when the cat is out and about as the Blackbirds make their discontentment known with a high-pitch shrill warning.

Wood pigeon

Thankfully for the time I was outside today my feline foe was absent and I was thrilled to have two young Great Tits perch above me in the tree. Although I could hear a parent protesting behind me, they were young enough not to be too bothered that I was sitting underneath. They hovered first out of sight on the top branches before flitting down to the peanut feeder. A few near misses later and a bit of wing flapping and they had figured out how to cling on and feed at the same time!

Juvenile Great Tit

I also had a pair of Dunnocks on the grass cloaca-pecking. I hadn’t seen this before so had to look it up! The male pecks the female’s rear end before mating to remove any competitor’s sperm that may be present.  This behaviour by Dunnocks is apparently unique in our garden birds.

Dunnocks

So my mini bio blitz produced:

Dunnock

Great tit

Sparrow

Blackbird

Wood pigeon

Jackdaw

Buff-tailed bumble bee

Early bumblebee

Honey bee

Garden ant

Robin

Starling

Collared dove

Hover fly

Wood louse

House fly
A spider that moved too quick to be identified

Garden Ant