First egg of 2014

After days of indecision a duck has decided to lay an egg in one of the riverside nest boxes. We don't know yet which of the three females is most likely to have laid the egg but no doubt time will tell. The other nest box also has the appearance of a new nest.

 First duck egg this year

This morning I heard the sound of ducks investigating the nest box at around 5.00am  Later in the morning the partner of the hybrid male spent quite some time on our top deck again and at one point we thought she might be interested in nesting on the garden deck but she didn't go into either of the boxes while we were observing her. We're not sure whether she is the one that has laid the egg in the riverside box but she has been around for most of the day.

Magnolia in its first flush

The magnolia is in full bloom all of a sudden and it seems to have benefited from the floods.  Once again the weather has been good today although there was thick fog to start the day. The garden smells lovely, filled with the scent from the 'montana' and also from the 'odorata' and the 'mimosa".  The hyacinths also have a sweet and pungent scent.

The blue tits have been investigating all three boxes again today but we still don't know which nest they'll choose.

Meanwhile the blackbird has been foraging for nesting material over the last two days and flies off with her beak full of material to line her nest in a shrub in our neighbour's garden. I hope all is well this year and that no one decides to 'prune' the shrubs and trees close by.  Last year someone radically cut back all the hedgerows and shrubs at nesting time!  I was very upset to see the nesting birds loose their protection.

The pair of mandarin ducks visit every evening now and this evening arrived with a 'spare' male.  He doesn't have all his fine plumage in place but he did his best to raise a rather lacklustre crest this evening in an attempt to attract the female.  She didn't appear to be impressed!