Male Blackcap

SEASONAL ACTIVITIES IN NATURE

| gaiainaction
Look at this most beautiful Blackcap which has been visiting our bird feeder for the last few weeks and finally I got a good shot of it. This is the male Blackcap, we also had the female feeding for a while, see: https://gaiainaction.blog/2020/01/19/blackcap-female-bird/ but one day it fell off the feeder, I picked it up and brought it inside and after less than a minute it started to move again and I let it fly off, we never saw it again! The male visits every day. I so hope that the female is still around, maybe the male is feeding the female if she is sitting on eggs? No, I just read that their nesting season is April to mid-June, so it would be too early for that.
And here also are our residential Dunnock and Robin, they are always available to pose for photos 🙂
I saw my first hoverfly yesterday on a dandelion, a few days ago I also saw my first bee of the season on the grape hyacinths.
And spring has definitely sprung all over the place here in West Cork, even the sun has joint in the magnificent display of fresh new growth.
Inside our canary birds are showing nesting behaviour. At the moment the female is filling the nest with bits of paper that she tears off the newspaper at the bottom of the cage, or she uses bits of tissue that we give her, but the male often takes all the nesting material out of the nest again, not sure what this means as I am new to canary care. We do think that they are very funny in their behaviour. The past week the male has stopped trying to sing as well. He is trying to get her attention and trying to mate, she won’t have any of it, although I cannot be sure of that. I would love to see some eggs and young ones.
These are some foraged vegetables from the garden, and some that I grew. They will be incorporated into some of our dinners. There is plenty of three cornered leeks, fine young nettles, some delicate sorrel leaves, some sprouting broccoli, and tender young spinach, it is all for the taking and so fresh, a delight to the palate.
And last but not least, I have started to seriously work on one of our sheds. It was so full of stuff that I could not even walk into it. Well yesterday I just started and after a few hours I was very pleased with the outcome. There’s nothing like a good day’s work in the open air and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I think spring is in the air, the birds know it, the flowers show it, and we certainly feel it! I am excited and really happy at the start of another season.

I hope that everyone stays clear of the Covid-19. Take care dear friends and followers.