The birds and the bees

It has now been five days since the girls moved into their new residence at 59a at the bottom of the garden and there's a sense of complete calm and all is well in the world when sitting and just watching them going about their daily business. Before going to work, I eagerly peer out of one of the back windows to see if any of them are up and about. I'll go downstairs, put the kettle on and sit at watch for any early risers in the hive. You can easily lose hours - honestly.

On Sunday morning I laid in bed looking out of the window. The whole view is taken up by the large chestnut tree with its vivid green leaves and abundance of flowers. I try to spot the birds inside like the blue tits with their acrobatics whilst looking for insects. Occasionally the lesser spotted woodpecker taps on the tree trunk but not this morning. Instead I could see bees flying to the white blossoms! Was I seeing things? Were the bees already up and at work?

Glancing at the time, it wasn't even 9 o'clock, but the day was already sunny and bright. Like a little school girl, I quickly got dressed and pressed my nose to a window looking out the back. I felt my smile widen as looking down at number 59a there were indeed bees already up and about. Chances are, some of them were gathering the pollen from the horse chestnut.

And to top off the morning, there sitting on the top of the beehive was this fledgling blackbird.

What a very nice start to the Sunday watching the birds and the bees in my garden.