Nuthatch

I had 10 minutes to spare, so watched one of our boxes that we originally erected in 2001 as part of the Nest Boxes in Schools project (NBIS). The box was intended for Great or Blue Tits, however the bandit bird has taken it over. I think Nuthatches are great, they are Kings and Queen of the bird table or feeders, that's if you are lucky enough to have them visit. Their songs begin as the last of cold of the winter fades, and as you can see from the pictures they can rearrange very professionally the front of Tit box you have painstakingly built. They are the comics and demons of the woodland or indeed semi wooded garden.

As you can see for the pictures above what is being brought back to the nest for the chicks inside is not nuts or seed material that most associate this species with, in fact its insects, flying insects at that, with may fly and black fly seemingly the most in this short time I was observing them. Also of note most of the may fly was concentrated on the Hawthorn that is left to grow wild around this nest.

And for my last pictures from today, as I was leaving my house this morning I happened to look back and saw a Mallard Duck on my roof?

This is silly, what is a Mallard Drake doing on my roof?

Handsome, yet very silly Mallard Duck