Spring? Yes...no...yes!

It's been a slow start to spring after an initially promising start. It's been cold lately with northerly winds holding up many of our summer visitors. We saw our first Swallow of the year quite early, on 4 April, then no more until 2 May! We're still longing to see our first Swifts of the year, and that will hopefully be soon now we've had some southerly winds. Some birds have made it, though, and it is always a joy to hear (and hopefully see) the Sedge Warblers and Reed Warblers, and have Cetti's Warblers shouting at us from inside a bush.

Spring is progressing in the garden, too. We've had a Song Thrush singing for several weeks, waking us up at silly o'clock in the morning. We've had a Song Thrush in previous years early in the year, but it has always moved on elsewhere to breed. This year, however, he's stuck around and must have found himself a lady Song Thrush, because a few days ago I found an empty Song Thrush egg on the lawn.

We also have the occasional visit from a Mistle Thrush. The other day we spotted the Mistle Thrush having a bath in our bird bath. As we were watching it, we were amazed to see a male Blackcap darting around it trying to get into the water, too! The Mistle Thrush was not keen on sharing and shooed the Blackcap away. He did get his bath eventually, though. We have seen Blackcaps in the garden before, but only very briefly as they have passed through. We'd heard one singing a couple of times recently and I also spotted a female, and then, few days later, we noticed a bird coming and going in and out of the pyracantha on our patio - it was the Blackcap! They are nesting right outside our window!

Earlier in the year we had to stop feeding the birds in the garden due to some rather persistent rats, which thankfully, in the absence of unlimited supplies of free food, have gone elsewhere. We haven't put the feeders back up yet, so it begs the question: are we getting different birds nesting in the garden this year because we've changed the ecology of the garden by not putting the food out? Is it because there is less competition? We still have the Robins nesting and probably Dunnocks and Pigeons, too, but the garden is generally quieter. It's an interesting thought.