More Activity in the Garden – A Tiny Piece of Dorset

Well, it has been another lovely weekend and I was able to spend some of it in my garden, which I always enjoy 🙂 ! With the nesting blackbirds beside the patio area (If you missed that story, you can find it here), I sat on my bench in the top part of the garden to avoid disturbing them. It is great anyway to have a number of different places to sit, even in a small garden, because it gives you a different viewpoint, and I always enjoy sitting and reading whilst surrounded by my little bit of ‘countryside’!

Whilst I was sat there, the little chap below came over to say hello! We had a little mouse last year and we called him Michael for obvious reasons 🙂 ! In truth it may not always have been the same mouse but, whether it was or not, it was still Michael to us. This one was very small so we reckon it could be son of Michael, now known as Michael Jnr 🙂 ! He was surprisingly friendly and happily sat there whilst I took pictures of him.

A little later, a butterfly came to visit me! She happily sat on my finger and didn’t seem to want to leave. I say ‘she’ because it is a female Large White butterfly, or Cabbage White. Now I don’t have any brassicas in my veg plot so she was a welcome visitor 🙂 !

All the while, mother blackbird came and went. I grabbed a shot of the nest before she had lined it with moss that she has been pinching from my neighbours’ gutters…..making a mess on their patio in the process. I have a couple of ornamental grasses that I cut back in spring and I scatter the cuttings on the lawn for the birds to use – it looks like she has been making use of these clippings in her nest building 🙂 !

I’m sure this nest will look very different now that it has been lined, but I am unable to get a picture of it for fear of disturbing the nesting birds. It is hard to tell whether she has laid all her eggs because they lay one each day and don’t start to incubate them until all eggs have been laid. However, she has been sat on the nest as you can see below……if you look carefully 🙂 ! As for dad, well, we never get to see much of him as mum seems to do all the work!

In terms of photographs, this picture is the best I can do because the nest is well hidden – the shot was taken from my dining room window using a long lens.

We are not seeing much activity from our Tree Bumblebees at the moment but they will become more active as flowers come into bloom. Hopefully, I will be able to get some better pictures of them then.

I think it is such a privilege when wildlife visits your garden and I feel quite honoured really because I feel they are my guests. I am not an expert in natural history at all but it is a real blessing when you get involved with these little creatures even when they are not especially exotic. There is no such thing as ‘common or garden’ in my book and I am just as happy watching robins and blue tits…..or blackbirds, as I am some amazing ‘lesser-spotted-hardly-ever-seen-rarebird’ 🙂 !

Isn’t wildlife, and life, fantastic!

Thanks for visiting.

Until next time,

Your friend
The Dorset Rambler

If you would like to contact me, my email address is terry.yarrow@gmail.com – comments and feedback are always welcomed.

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