Birds, bees and caterpillars

I was very pleased to spot Angela Sharp’s interesting comments (Gazette, June 5) on my earlier observations about our missing wild birds in Ickenham.

To add some more recent bird news, I did hear the lovely song of the first mistle thrush at Swakeleys Tennis club on May 29, rather later than in previous years.

During the same week two flights of blue tits fledged in my garden, one of five from a nesting box in front and another of six fledglings in the back garden. Sadly, several were immediately lost to the crows and magpies.

On June 2 I watched a green woodpecker attacking a nesting box at my summerhouse where it was busy enlarging the hole until it could extract loads of bumble bees that were nesting in the box.

Next, the medium spotted woodpecker spent ages in the middle of my back lawn, seemingly digging for worms, however upon closer inspection I found that it had been feeding from a nest of little red ants.

A serious disappointment came when my 12 nice box bushes were ruined by the dreaded Asian box tree caterpillar.

Amazingly, the jackdaws nesting at Harefield Place, were quick to spot a welcome tasty treat and have been feeding on caterpillars for the last few days.

Guten appetit!

As to the swifts and swallows, none have yet been seen or heard in this location, neither did my little wrens returned to their usual nesting site. Hans Rader Ickenham