BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch Survey 7-13 May

Unsurprisingly, it's been another quiet week in the garden. We have dropped right down to only eleven bird species recorded over the past seven days. My Blue Tits are still AWOL and Great Tit, Wren and Robin are just three of the no-shows. Obviously, now that the garden is so much quieter than the busy winter months I don't 'garden watch' as much.

A new shrub addition to the garden this week: Ceanothus impressus 'Blue Puget'. It's an upright variety and should grow to 6ft x 5ft. I don't know why I like Ceanothus (Californian Lilac) so much, but this is the third one we now have!

I have been growing trailing lobelia from seedlings for the hanging baskets which we have under the front windows. We don't have a greenhouse so they have been grown in the living room on the windowsill. However, they have be getting on my nerves for the past two weeks and then they decided to flower so I've taken a risk and planted them outside in the baskets. I can quite easily bring them in if there's a chance of frost. Hopefully any frosts won't catch us out!

This week's list:

1. Chaffinch (7)
2. Goldfinch (3)
3. 
   
4. Greenfinch (13)
5. Siskin (2)
6. Woodpigeon (6)
7. House Sparrow (2)
8. Coal Tit (1)
9. Starling (1)
10. Sparrowhawk (1, at least 2 visits)
11. Pheasant (1)
12. Blackbird (2)

In addition to the Swallows and House Martins now above the house and garden, I saw three Swifts on 9th May, but haven't seen them since.

Our full and up-to-date garden bird list can be found here.

One-legged Greenfinch, Stumpy

Pure evil from a week ago (above) turns out to be something quite pretty: