Lesser Celandines

Spring is in full swing today. One of my favourite wildflowers , Lesser Celandine, was in full flower in Stubbs wood near Walton hall. I managed to get a few photos. 

For the first time I have this also flowering in my garden in the wildflower patch. 

Converting Eaves for Swifts

My house was built in 1993 by Ben Bailey Homes. They were built to the standard building regulations at the time which means an outer brick, followed by a insulated cavity (about 3 inches) then the internal brick. The houses were built with open eaves. 

This forms both a challenge and opportunity for converting these for Swifts. Firstly the cavity needs to be Bridged so the swift doesn’t fall down. There needs to be an entrances cut into the bird guard (a cheap plastic lip to stop birds getting in the roof). Swifts can also be helped by adding a nesting cup, and also they need to be boxes off in the roof. 

It had always been my intention to do this as my swift coming grew , so I had an idea to do it this year. 

I used 3mm ply cut to size and added a nesting cup made from interior filler with some fluff and feathers added. Secured with adhesive and cut a hole in the bird guard, using some cheap wood to box off the back. 

4 new nesting races were added this year. 

This was before

After the wood was added to bridge the cavity. 

Island Clearance & Sand Martin Box Repairs

Today we cleared the islands and repaired the sand martin box in preparation for this years nesting season at Anglers a country Park

Also one of the Tern rafts which was built last year had lost its anchor during a recent storm so it had to be brought back to the shallows from the North bank.