Honey bee nest

After a morning of data crunching I took myself off for a lunchtime walk to refresh my tired brain - just a mile or so around the woods in the sunshine - just what was needed. Brimstones on the wing, birds singing and bees buzzing - spring definitely feels like it has arrived today. The bees in question were both bumble bees and honey bees and the honey bees had a nest! At the edge of the meadow just past the church is an old tree. It looks a bit past its best with numerous boughs missing, splits in the bark and woodpecker holes but on close inspection it is full of life. Today amongst the blue tits and great tits flew the bees. I heard them first, scanning the tree before seeing them congregate around an opening about half way up the tree. The photos are on my longest zoom, for obvious reasons, so not the best quality, but you can still make out some of the worker bees with their golden cache of pollen as they make their way into the nest.

How many sparrows?

Despite their recent decline in some areas, our garden sees lots of house sparrows. They flit in large groups from a tall hedge which borders our driveway and across the back gardens. Often they stop in our honeysuckle for a rest and to regroup. One or two may take up position first and then a few more will follow and gradually the numbers rise. There always seems to be one or two birds on the top tendrils on look out duty and then suddenly one will spook and they all depart back to the safety of the hedge. We also have them roosting and nesting in an old clematis at the front of the house and the neighbours over the other side of the road have put a communal nesting box up as the birds also roost in their ivy.

Generally ground feeders, the sparrows that visit our garden have learnt to take from the feeders hanging in the tree. They can hang on for quite a while feasting on the seeds, nuts and fat balls.

These little brown birds can get a bit overlooked sometimes in the hope that something slightly more exotic might land but when you watch how they interact with the others in their gang and how they chatter almost continuously I think they deserve a bit more attention.

Female House Sparrow

Male House Sparrow

Stop over on the honeysuckle

Blogger of the Week!

Well that was a surprise on logging on to Twitter! I have been given the accolade of Blogger of the Week by BBC Wildlife Magazine. Chuffed! Their Discover Wildlife website has a special area - Local Patch Reporters for people to blog about what wildlife and nature they see. There are some fabulous blogs there so why not follow a few, or maybe start one of your own.

Voles everywhere!

We've had voles nesting in the shed, under the neighbour's step, recently they've been in a hole in the wall where the cat flap is (we don't have one now but more on cats in a minute) and either a vole or mouse in the hay that is covering the hedgehog house! Today, however, I spotted two on the garage roof feasting on some bird seed I had chucked up there! The side of the garage is covered in ivy. I assume they are nesting in there, rather than just using it to climb, as there was bird seed on the ground also - an easier option I would have thought, but then maybe they hope they are out of reach of the neighbour's cat who may as well have the word 'killer' tattooed across his forehead!

Vole

Black squirrel

Wandering around The Wildlife Trust's nature reserve at Cambourne the other morning I spotted a black squirrel. It was hunting through the leaves for nuts alongside the more common greys. On posting the photos on a wildlife group later that day it appears many people didn't know black squirrels were even a thing! I know they are seen fairly often in Cambridgeshire, my friend had one in her garden a few years ago and one village has more blacks than greys.  They are actually the same species but with a mutant gene in their coat pigmentation.

Wicken Fen

We have taken a couple of walks at our nearby nature reserve Wicken Fen over the winter. It is the National Trust's oldest reserve and arguably one of the most important with over 9000 species. One of its winter visitors is the Short Eared Owl and they bring in lots of bird watchers and photographers as they hunt during the day across the fens. So far we have yet to see one but there is always something to spot at Wicken from the wild Konik ponies that graze there to kestrels and other birds of prey, deer are often spotted and on our last visit a barn owl in the distance.

Wild Konik ponies at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Wild Konik ponies at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Roe deer at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Fieldfare at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Barn owl at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Barn owl at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Barn owl at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Kestrel at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire

Vole re-visited

We did go back to see if the vole was there (still forgot the Nikon!) and so pleased to see it out and about around the hole. It posed quite nicely for us! The hole still looks like it's being used but so far this has been the last sighting.