A Nursery Garden

On the wall outside our lounge there's a round light, that is beginning to disappear behind a mass of Ivy growing up the wall.

It is or was due for a trim, but to day as I was emptying my moth trap I was soon aware that I was being severely scolded by the loud voice of the diminutive Wren.

I didn't manage to photograph it then, I was worried that it might get to agitated, so I retreated and returned later at a safer distance.

The Wren was still in the area and I watched it taking pieces of nesting material up to the Ivy right nest to the light. From inside the house the nest isn't visible from the window, but the Wren does occasionally come onto a climbing Hydrangea just by the window.

I'm hoping that they will nest here, it should be a safe pace and hopefully I'll be able to watch them and get some pictures. However that fact that the male is building a nest doesn't necessarily mean that it will be used. The male often presents the female with a choice of nests and she then decides where the brood will be raised (sounds familiar)?

This is one of a pair of Collared Doves that I think are nesting in a mass of Russian Vine at the bottom of he garden. They have near neighbours here in the form of a family of Robins, that I think have got as far as the young being fed at the moment. One of this pair of Robins is without tail, I don't know how it lost it, I suspect it was either one of the local cats or a narrow escape from the Sparrowhawk. I've seen a Song Thrush carrying nest material in this area as well but I haven't found out where they have a nest yet. There's also at least one pair of Blackbirds nesting, one in the front garden hedge and possibly a second pair in the small pond garden. In a couple of weeks it will be a mass of fledglings, including the Dunnocks I'd forgotten about and the roof tenants, a couple of pairs of Starling and House Sparrows! Other birds that are singing in the garden at the moment include Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Goldfinch, all of which nest either in the garden of very near by. All we need now is a reasonable period of weather so that parents can find food and the young successfully fledge.