Nature Diary: April 2011

April 30th 2011
The final day of April saw the unseasonably warm weather finally come to an end, with Easterly winds sweeping in to the South. The warm weather has done its work and there were invertebrates on a scale that I cannot remember before. The longtailed titmice pair nesting in the fence were busily supplying food to their young, mostly in the form of second instar moth caterpillars. The collard dove fledglings are still present near the nest and the blackbird young are bursting out of their nest, with the male doing much of the morning feeding. The blackcap is now sitting on five eggs in her her fourth or fifth day of incubation, as is the songthrush. The wren however had only two eggs when I last looked, two days ago, so has a long route to go. The indeterminate outcome of the chiffchaff nest is still a mystery - there was no nest, but a bunch of feathered lining set in grasses. Apparently the sight of the swift this morning was not my imagination!