Into June now, still in lockdown, Scotland a bit behind England, not sure if that is exerting power or because we started later than England, but at least we can get out a bit more, including fishing 🙂 .
But who wanted to go out these last couple of days, gale force winds , plenty of much needed rain a freezing cold, down to 5C most mornings. To think last week it was shorts weather, well for most, my legs do not really suit shorts, so just had some summer trousers on instead. But I did get out & about in the garden that fine week before this one, so of course the camera came with me. Hence the rather large chunk of photos I have put onto this blog. Lets get through them, shall we?
Good news the Mill is open for takeaways on Saturdays, all marked out for social distancing, only two allowed in the café at once, most bread has to be ordered, but some spare for those that forgot to order.
Rami with his son David, plus all the ordered bread laid out ready for you to pick up, plus the all important, you can get coffee & Hot Chocolate to take away. Becoming a little ritual now on a Saturday morning, into Pitlochry to the Boating Café to pick up the weeks supply of scones, then onto Rami’s for bread & drink, could get used to this.
Back home we are having mixed responses to our nesting birds. The first shot of the Blue Tit I am afraid did not succeed in raising their young, they were the first nesters in the garden & I just do not think there was enough food about for them.
The Great Tit was struggling to find food, but feeding increased & I think they are doing well.
Only just found this other Blue Tit nest, not been occupied for 2 years so never really looked, but out of the corner of my eye one day I saw some movement around it & discovered a very active pair of adults feeding young, unfortunately the nest is well in the hedgerow & so very dark, but did manage to snatch these two shots, though seeing the backside is not the most glamourous of shots.
The Greater Spotted Woodpecker definitely has young as it spends most of the day on the feeders or taking mouthfuls of peanut butter away, eventually the parents will bring the young to the feeders, so maybe next blog I will have some shots of the youngsters.
The time it is not on the feeders the pair are ripping apart the old Ash tree stump looking for food, doing a fair old job of it they are as well. That is all ripped out by them, we have not touched it.
On a walk I noticed this wild Cherry with a cobweb stitched onto it & if you look middle left you can see a few remaining caterpillars within it.
Across the glen from us a field was treated with a weed killer & now has been ploughed & seeded, it looks so neat & a credit to the lonely driver in the cab, though the gulls following must keep him amused.
Because those first Blue Tit babes perished through lack of food, I have decided to start breeding Mealworms to subsidise their diet. Never successfully done this before so it is very much experimental & with the help of You Tube videos I hope I can succeed & keep an endless supply throughout the year. You buy them in this stage & then they turn into beetles, which you have to separate off as they will eat the remaining mates, then the beetles lay eggs, which again you have to separate. You keep them in any form of meal, oatmeal, cornmeal etc., these are in oatmeal, plus they need cover, hence the egg box & then moisture to drink which comes from banana skin, apple & potato. The last shot is all that is left of a slice of potato when they are finished with it. Really fascinating for children to grow on & learn lifecycles, plus the added advantage that my birds & pond fish enjoy them. Though it has taken the only birds to eat them so far, the Robins, 3 days to find them.
