Nest

Welcome Visitors

/ ponydreamer / 2 Comments

We have some new lodgers!

This is the third year we have had a nest in the stables – we have had wrens and swallows before but this year we have a much messier nest.

Visually this is the most boring video but the sound is what told me that we actually have some chicks.

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It took me a while to discover what kind of chicks as the parents always flew off too quickly for me to get a good look at them.  One of them very obligingly perched on the gate the other day though so I can definitely say they are sparrows.  I feel very honoured!

On a slightly related note, we also have a colony of snails in the gate post.  It is very interesting but I’m not sure they are quite so welcome!

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Stable Mates

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The ponies might be spending a couple of weeks away but their stables are not unoccupied.

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A couple of months ago a pair of wrens started trying to build on a failed swallows’ nest from last year – it kept falling down and had been abandoned.  The wrens were more persistent and kept doing their best to build.  Their efforts tended to fall down as well but that didn’t put them off and one evening we found them perched on an impossibly thin looking sliver of nest.  Sadly that fell down too after a few nights and they were obviously never going to be able to lay any eggs on it so my Dad put up some little shelves for them.  Almost overnight a proper nest had appeared and pretty soon the wrens were sitting on eggs.

Now we have chicks!

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I have seen four and the parents are constantly flying in and out with food.  It is lovely to see.

The swallows have also returned and are starting to build a nest on another shelf.  They haven’t finished yet but they are definitely still around so we are hopeful that they will stay.  They make wonderful house guests!

Spring, spring, spring!

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It is starting to feel very spring like here.  The birds are singing, the sun  is shining  (not all the time but quite a lot) and the flowers are starting to bloom.  I am very much enjoying the primroses in the hedgerows.

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I went into Galahad’s stable today and wondered why there was moss all over the floor.  Last year some birds started to build a nest on one of the beams.  They never finished it but someone is giving it a go now.  Hopefully they will have more luck than last year.

This week I have been practising mounting from a mounting block – or at any rate the wall which serves as a substitute.  We are going to another trec event soon and since we had so much trouble with this last time I thought we had better work on it.  Typically we had no difficulty all in the yard – if only we could do as well when we go out!  I even managed to get on from the wrong side a couple of times.  That didn’t go quite so well – Galahad moved a little each time – but that was entirely my fault.  I am just very bad at mounting from the off side.  Something for us both to work on.