It is recommended that nest boxes be cleaned out of old nest material. This is to prevent parasites breeding in them as these might infest new born chicks next time it is occupied. Another reason to empty the box is so a bird prospecting for a nest doesn’t think another bird is already nesting in it. I’d left it too late to empty my Blue Tit nest box last winter and it was occupied earlier than usual in the year so it never got cleaned out. I was determined to clean it out this time so, as I was bringing in a step ladder from the garden late one afternoon, I thought, now is as good a time as any so I went up the ladder and loosened the wire that secures the lid. Sure enough, a healthy white maggot was waving about on the top of the box so I evicted it then stretched up to look into the box. There’s always a bit of apprehension opening a nest box in case you find dead chicks in it but looking up at me was a very live Blue Tit, sitting on top of an old nest. It didn’t seem alarmed and didn’t attempt to fly away and I closed and secured the lid. Lucy had seen one flying out one morning so evidently they’re using the box for a winterBack at the end of October, on the first day of the clocks going back, I was consciously staying outside in the garden to make the most of the abruptly shortened daylight. The clock change tends to throw you into the winter overnight but that particular evening, as the light began to fade, I had a most unexpected surprise from the natural world. I heard a bird singing that I’d never expect to hear before late February at the earliest. A Blackbird was piping out a lovely soft melody, a song that’s ubiquitous during spring and early summer but here it was singing at the beginning of winter. I didn’t totally believe my ears so looked hard to spot it in the gloom and eventually saw it, singing from a neighbour’s cherry tree, his pitch black plumage surrounded by the amber and orange colours of the autumnal leaves. He came into my garden and continued singing for the next two weeks, singing at dusk. Why was a bird that should begin singing as spring starts be singing as we’re about to enter winter? Since so much of bird’s behaviour is determined by day length rather than weather it’s probable that a day in late October would be around the same length as a day in March which might have triggered it to declare his territory. Probably a total waste of time for him but it gave a lovely hint of spring time to come when the dark days have passed.
   It is recommended that nest boxes be cleaned out of old nest material. This is to prevent parasites breeding in them as these might infest new born chicks next time it is occupied. Another reason to empty the box is so a bird prospecting for a nest doesn’t think another bird is already nesting in it.
I’d left it too late to empty my Blue Tit nest box last winter and it was occupied earlier than usual in the year so it never got cleaned out. I was determined to clean it out this time so, as I was bringing in a step ladder from the garden late one afternoon, I thought, now is as good a time as any so I went up the ladder and loosened the wire that secures the lid. Sure enough, a healthy white maggot was waving about on the top of the box so I evicted it then stretched up to look into the box. There’s always a bit of apprehension opening a nest box in case you find dead chicks in it but looking up at me was a very live Blue Tit, sitting on top of an old nest. It didn’t seem alarmed and didn’t attempt to fly away and I closed and secured the lid.

   Another highlight of the year was when, coming out of the Lidl store car park in Bray one gloomy night, Lucy spotted, flying along the adjoining avenue, a Long-eared Owl. It was flitting along the street lights, perching on top of them and scanning the ground underneath for prey. Our low point on the hill was last year’s winter being the first we didn’t see any red squirrels. It’s almost 18 months since we’ve seen any in the park and, as far as I know, nobody else has seen any. It was almost inevitable that once the grey squirrel reached Dalkey and Killiney Hills in 2005 the reds would gradually die out but it’s still a very sad loss. Providing flowers, plants and trees for pollinating insects has became high on many agendas
which is very heartening.
   I discovered this year in my own garden that Bumblebee feeding on a Cotoneaster Horizontalis, the very common shrub with fishbone-shaped branches that produces masses of red berries in winter, is a magnet for honey bees and bumblebees when it flowers. Perhaps it was the year that was in it but in spring it was positively humming with bees and drew spectacular numbers of them for months.Cotoneaster can spread around gardens (a testament to its attraction to birds who have eaten the berries then pass them through their system) and can be a bit invasive, often seeding in walls and I’d intended to pull up a few in my garden last winter but subsequently when I witnessed all the insects on it,