Our ever expanding list of fauna and flora now includes our first wild black rabbit, Gold Crests, Kingfishers, Globeflowers, Wild yellow poppies and with so little rain in recent weeks, even the Mennock water is starting to sprout all sorts of interesting weed and aquatic life.
The woodland has now transformed from its winter rest into a magical oasis of wildflowers, insects and blossoms. After the daffodils came carpets of bluebells interspersed with swathes of wild garlic and emerging ferns. Wood anemones rubbed shoulders with lesser celandine, followed by water avens, Solomon’s seal and marsh marigolds in the boggy area where a small stream runs down to the river.
We built a new nesting box and we’re delighted to tell you that a pair of Blue-Tits took up residence spending many days collecting moss and other materials to line the nest. They laid seven eggs of which five have hatched. How do we know? We installed a nest box camera!
The parents are now spending all day collecting insects and feeding their ravenous offspring. We’ve also seen the return of our Swallow parents who are raising another clutch of eggs in last year’s nest and down in the wood, a Wrens have built a lovely nest in the Norway Spruce. Back in the garden and we’ve been blessed with watching so many different young birds being fed as well as young red squirrels visiting everyday.
Our other big news at Book Warren HQ is the weekly, sometimes daily visits of Roe deer on the other side of the river bank.
That’s it for this week’s update. Don’t forget you can always head to our Facebook site to catch up with book news and of course, there is our online bookshop where you can browse and buy new books and where every book purchased supports local, independent booksellers in a carbon neutral, socially conscious way!