Bed and board

Our elderly and decrepit buddleja has now had its annual prune, which always opens up the views down the garden (it may be elderly but it's big when in full growth).  While I was working away at it I heard a dull banging noise, which turned out to be coming from the summerhouse.  The summerhouse is equally elderly and decrepit and has several holes in the woodwork (it's due for a complete rebuild this year); a bird had got in through one of the holes and was ricocheting from one window to another trying to find a way out.  When I unlocked the door, the panicky ball of feathers stopped pinballing around for long enough for me to see that it was a nuthatch (which promptly made a quick exit).  Last year they nested in the nestbox on the side of the summerhouse, so they're apparently considering a return; today one of them was speculatively trying to stick mud to the nestbox wall, as they did last year, so with any luck we'll have them with us again this spring.  Time to put up defences against the local cats; one of them tried to climb the summerhouse wall last time.

The relatively mild winter meant that we had fewer bird species in the garden - presumably enough food elsewhere - but now the need for nesting sites and some fast food to keep them going through the busy times ahead seems to be bringing them back into the garden.  The latest bird to find the suet feeder is a long-tailed tit, which has now brought along its mate and they've been coming daily; a coal tit and goldfinch have also appeared at the seed feeder, and a collared dove (haven't seen one of those in the garden all winter, most unusually).  Another new development is that a buzzard has been hunting overhead on several days; they appear over the field behind us from time to time, but not usually right over the house.  I wonder if it's nesting nearby?

Signs of spring: the blackbirds are starting to sing, quietly, the sparrows are collecting nesting material

Honeysuckle flowers (if you look closely ....)

and the first bumblebees have turned up, enjoying the winter honeysuckle and the rosemary flowers in particular.  The daffodils are continuing to open, and other flowers are waking up from their winter dormancy; the honeysuckle by the compost corner has some flowers just waiting to open.  The weather is still on the chilly side, especially as the wind is mostly from the northeast, but dry, and when the sun came out today it started to feel quite pleasant (if you were wrapped up!).