One of my favourite parts of late Spring and early summer is the emergence of fledgeling birds. This year, in my new garden, I’ve been so fortunate to see mating behaviour, the gathering of fluff and sticks with which to build nests, the to and fro frenzy of parents feeding chicks and finally the weaning of baby birds in the days following their first forage out into the world.

Sadly, I missed the fledging of the Blue Tits which were nesting in my old water pump. It coincided with a wet and windy few days, when I wasn’t spending time in the garden, and by the time the sun came out all the chicks had gone. I do hope they were OK in the cold and the damp!

But I did spot some baby Sparrows being diligently fed by their Mum just behind the Centaurea Montana (Mountain Cornflower) in my flower border and managed to snap them while sitting having a brew on my swing seat 🙂

But very early this morning I was treated to an absolute gem whilst sitting in bed eating breakfast. I’m used to a pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers frequenting my bird feeders for their morning feed, but today only the female appeared. She was feasting on the peanuts as usual when I noticed she kept leaving, only to return seconds later. So I watched her next departure, to discover she was feeding her baby on the fence post to the meadow which backs onto my garden. How exciting 😲

I know from experience how flighty she is, so I had to very, very slowly slip out of bed, then race to get my camera, checking it contained a working battery and memory card and was set to capture moving wildlife, then carefully re-enter the bedroom without her seeing me! There was no way I could open the patio door without disturbing her, so unfortunately had to shoot through the dirty glass, but I was delighted I managed to capture a few shots (even if they won’t stand up to close scrutiny!). I’ve never even seen a baby Woodpecker before, let alone thought I’d ever get a picture of one – I’m tickled pink 😊

The adult female has been back to the peanut feeder several times today, in fact she’s here now at 8pm as I’m typing this, though the fledgeling is nowhere to be seen. Which makes me realise just how lucky I was to see it this morning while eating my toast and drinking my morning brew!

My new garden is delighting me in ways I could never have even imagined and I am truly thankful 🙏🏻