The Wilder Garden

What the hedge lacks now is wrens, which makes something of a change. While the wren parents were feeding their brood in the garage the hedge was their stopping-off point.

Much of the time one of the birds was hidden in among the new leaves waiting for the a moment when the coast was clear. But over the last few days the chicks have fledged and gone.

I'd been expecting problems as we've got cats, but it all went off very smoothly. One day they were there, the next they'd gone.

Photo: Martien Brand

I've spent much of the day tidying up the bit of garden around the pond. A useful way to pass the time you'd think, but it has earned me a near-constant scolding from our resident wrens.

The wren pair now have chicks to feed in their converted swallow nest in our garage roof and have been coming and going all day. But whenever a perceived threat appears they start up with their click-click-click alarm call and keep it up until the danger has passed.

Today's 'threat' has mostly been me because I've been coming and going close to the garage door. The wrens also seem to have a problem with the pair of swallows that are using another of last year's nests, a couple of feet from theirs.

Most of the time they ignore the swallows as they come and go, but from time to time a swallow arrives as a wren leaves (or vice versa) and the alarm call sounds. I've been keeping out of the garage as much as I can to try to keep things as calm as possible.

By the pond some of the lawn has been taken over by speedwell. It's a plant that usually rates as a weed, but I rather like its pale blue flowers and so cut the grass around it rather than strim it to oblivion.

I'm not sure which speedwell it is. Based on my field guide I think I'd plump for germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys), or bird's eye speedwell.

No cuckoos, sadly. I haven't heard one calling here on the Cych for as long as I can remember. But it's cuckoo time elsewhere and I can hope.

Thanks to the BTO's tracking project we know that returning cuckoos are arriving now in eastern England. Since the beginning of the week Chris is now in Essex and Lyster is in Norfolk.

Photo: vogelart.info

Lyster  was in Algeria on April 25. That means he covered the 1,200 miles to Norfolk in just five days - at around 240 miles a day.

We might not have cuckoos, but we do have 'our' swallows. Over the last couple of days a pair of swallows have been performing high-speed chasing manoeuvres around the house and into the garage, presumably to check out last year's nest.

Are they last year's parents back to raise more young?  I like to think so. There is still the problem of the sitting tenants though; a pair of wrens have taken over last year's swallow nest and are now incubating eggs.

What will the swallows do? There are a couple of part-built nests from earlier summers that they could make use of - or will they evict the smaller birds?

The first swallows have been spotted here in the valley. Not by me, sadly. I've been stuck in front of a computer all day, but I trust this particular pair of eyes.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the pair of swallows that use the old nests in our garage drop in. There are three old nests up in the roof beams, but the best of them has now been converted into a wren nest.

The nest-builder, who we've decided to call Christopher, is spending much of his time in the hedge close to the garage door singing at top volume. And, I think I can just make out the tip of a bill in the nest entrance - his mate sitting on eggs?

Of course, the timing of his moult is proving very convenient to the neighbourhood's birds, which are collecting beakfuls of the fine hair. This morning I've spent half and hour watching and seen a wren, a great tit and a female chaffinch all come to gather what must be top quality nest liner.

Just a hint of movement in my peripheral vision suggest something had flown into the garage. Swallows nested in the roof beams last summer, so could it be the first swallow of the summer? On the first day of April?

Who am I fooling? When I went in to take a closer look the bird in question was up there among the beams, but of course it wasn't a swallow. It was a wren.

For wrens nest-building is a male chore and this particular cock wren has discovered last year's swallow nest and added his own touch, a roof of moss with a neat little entry hole. It  dawned on me that I had noticed bits of dry moss on the floor over the last few days, but hadn't thought to look up.

Now as far as I understand a male wren builds a number of nests around his territory and it's then down to the female to decide which one to use. Will she pick this customised swallow nest? 

And if she does, what happens when the swallows do turn up. It could be interesting.