Springwatch - Who's nesting?

BBC Springwatch - 3 weeks of programmes tracking the progress of birds and animals through the spring - started today.  I thought that I would do a mini-springwatch of my own and see which birds were nesting and fledging nearby.

First out of the nest are - the starlings! The young birds have only been out of the nest for a day or two but they have already given me a terrific laugh.  This morning, a parent starling was clinging to a coconut hanging from the bird table pecking at the fat inside. Instead of the usual precise extraction of food, there was all sorts of flailing around, loss of balance and so on. Why? Because baby starling insisted on clinging to the adult's back. Kids!

Blue tit leaving box - taken in 1998.

Next up - still in the nest but I can hear the babies if I sit on the bench nearby - blue tits. These are really late this year. I had nearly given up expecting them. A pair did seem to start moving in at the beginning of April but the last cold snap sent them off again and we saw no real signs of birds going to the box until about the 12 of May.

Not quite sure but, I'm hoping, blackbirds. Or there had better be, the amount of abuse I get when I go to a certain part of the garden!