UPDATE

Steve came over on Sunday to check the boxes and the Buzzard, good news on the Redstarts with four active nests the same as we had last year this one has seven eggs.

redstart nest

 You can always tell a Redstart nest in comparison to say a Piedflycatcher as the reds always use feathers in their nests, and as you can see by all the feathers this clearly is a Redstart.

Great tits are doing well with I think about eight boxes being occupied, two Blue tit and a Nuthatch made up the rest of the boxes being used.

Steve also showed me a Meadow pipit nest in a banking the chicks should be ready to ring by this weekend.

meadow pipit

 There was nothing in the boxes at the back of our house (think they're to near the feeders) and alas we think the Swallows have failed with the two eggs in the nest being stone cold there's evidence that they have been trying to build again but without much success. These pair of Pied wagtails are about the place but we haven't had much luck in finding their nest site.

male pied wagtail

and the female

Steve climbed the Buzzard nest which had three eggs so they're doing well.

buzzard nest

A good morning's monitoring with decent success especially with the Buzzard and Redstarts who knows what we might find in the coming weeks.

A PLEASANT SURPRISE!

Although it's great to see and photograph the more common birds of which we should never take for granted (look at the demise of the house sparrow) there's nothing better to get the blood pumping than something out of the ordinary.
I was chatting to my mate on the phone looking outside as the early evening light was fading then suddenly to my utter surprise a female Sparrowhawk landed on a post at the back of the garden. I threw my phone down grabbed my camera and managed to get this image not great just a record shot but not to bad considering how bad the light was.

sparrowhawk

After picking my phone back up and explaining to my mate what had happened I quickly reviewed my images and this one above was about the best of a very noisy and blurry bunch.

Redstarts have migrated back now from their winter quarters in Africa and are in good numbers, we had four different nesting pairs last year this one's been exploring the nest boxes in the garden.

male redstart

exploring the boxes

This male Green Woodpecker flew into a tree near the house, these are very shy and wary birds so I was pleased to get this record shot.

green woodpecker

Also managed to capture an image of this Jay, they were quite frequent at my feeders at one time but not so much now especially over the last couple of years.

jay

 It was nice to watch and photograph (well try anyway) something a bit different, just goes to show with birds you never know what when or where things are going to turn up.