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Monday, 14 June 2021

Tree Following June Update

For Tree Following this year I'm following one of the several wonderful old silver birch trees on North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh. Crafty Green Boyfriend and I started walking round this cemetery (and the nearby Dalry Cemetery) every day for our #DailyExercise during the first UK lockdown last year. And we're still doing the same walk regularly. 

 I realise I'm a little late with this update! Part of the reason is that I've been very busy. 

The birch tree looks beautiful at the moment, fully in leaf and very green



But all is not well, which is another part of the reason this post is late, I was so upset to see that the blue tits' nest box has been damaged - the entrance hole which was so neat and round has been broken into and enlarged and the chicks are no longer in there

This is almost certainly the work of the great spotted woodpeckers, which are also nesting in the cemetery. Last year the great spotted woodpecker chick became a bit of a local celebrity 

and there is every sign that the woodpeckers are nesting in the same tree again this year (the youngsters haven't yet appeared but there is a lot of noise inside the tree trunk!).

So, I like great spotted woodpeckers and I know they need to eat, and I know that they sometimes eat blue tits, but why did they need to eat our blue tits?

For Tree Following. 

For 30 Days Wild




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7 comments:

  1. Andrew8:21 pm

    The tree is looking lovely and leafy now. Shame about the blue tits, but I guess that's the way of things...

    ReplyDelete
  2. RG10:18 pm

    Aw bummer. Ma Nature is not always sweet and kind as we like to think.

    I was given a book - "Language Making Nature" by David Lukas and am having a devil of a time ploughing through it. I guess the main theme is needing new words for nature writing and describing nature but I have not gotten far enough to fully understand. Maybe in time. Anyway, have you heard of/know the book and can you make any comments?

    Thanks...

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  3. Hollis10:53 pm

    I know what you mean ... sometimes the rawness of nature is hard to take from our perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Crafty Green Poet8:32 am

    Hi Andrew, yes it's just the way of things, the great spotted woodpeckers need to eat

    RG - that sounds like an interesting book, I've not heard of it before

    Hollis - very true

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  5. Flighty2:58 pm

    I think that trees often tend to look their best at this time of year when in full leaf.
    I'm sorry to read about the blue tits, it's always upsetting when that happens. xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lowcarb team member10:50 pm

    Isn't the tree looking nice and leafy, nice to see the photographs.
    It is a shame about the blue tits, but it is sometimes the way of nature.

    All the best Jan

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  7. Squirrelbasket11:56 am

    Lovely leaves but very sad about the blue tits!
    I tend to get excited when I see a young orange-topped woodpecker like the one you picture, but I hadn't realised they could be so nasty.
    All the best and thanks for joining in again :)

    ReplyDelete

Hi, thanks for leaving a comment! I try to visit everyone back!