I am delighted to report that our two swifts have returned to their box this week, after a fourteen thousand mile round trip to Southern Africa and back:

Initially they were only returning to the box at the end of the day, and they had left again by the time we got up in the mornings. Now they are here for much longer.

This is the first time we have got the opportunity to properly observe nesting swifts and I have researched what might be expected over the next few weeks. Two or three white eggs should be laid soon and incubation will only begin after the final egg is laid. Nineteen to twenty-one days after that, in mid June, the eggs then hatch. The chicks fledge five to eight weeks later, which would be late July or early August. Then they will all head off to Africa.

But, for now, there are no eggs in the box:

It is such a privilege to observe these special and unusual birds and we are really looking forward to seeing how they get on.

It’s been quite a busy week and I haven’t had time to do much invertebrating. I have, however, carried out a dormouse monitoring tour in two different woods this week. The first one on Wednesday was in a Kent Wildlife Trust wood in a beautifully rural part of East Kent that seems to have been completely overlooked by the 21st century. Access to and around this wood is difficult and it is being managed by the Trust for the monitoring of dormice and reptiles rather than for public access.

Looking at the little hamlet across the valley, with its oast house and cottages and with wood smoke gently rising, felt like we had stepped back a hundred years:

An olde worlde windmill is very close to the wood as well:

We saw a common milkwort in the grass before entering the wood – this was a new plant for me:

Once in the wood, there were a lot of early purple orchids and common twayblades flowering.

This stinkhorn fungus lived up to its name and absolutely stank. It was also covered in flies:

We worked our way around the fifty dormouse boxes in the wood. Two of the boxes had a bee nest in them and two had a wren nest with mossy nest material completely filling the box. Many more had blue tit nests within, some still with eggs, but others now with chicks:

One box had a lovely leaf nest, but this was no dormouse:

We struck gold in box 14:

This is where we found a gorgeous torpid dormouse:

Dormice hibernate through the winter but, even after they have woken in the spring, they still have the ability to go into torpor which is a temporary hibernation-like state. This saves energy on chilly spring mornings or when food is in short supply, but it is very peculiar picking up a torpid dormouse because it is completely cold as if it is dead.

The second dormouse monitoring tour of the week was on Saturday when my trainer and I went round the fifty boxes at our own and our neighbour’s wood. The day was overcast and we hoped that the threatened rain would hold off whilst we got through the boxes.

In the event we had a most productive (and thankfully dry) morning, finding twelve torpid dormice:

Our morning’s haul of dormice included four pairs that were curled up together:

All the dormice were all in some sort of comfortable nest other than a lone female in box 45 who was torpid in an empty box:

Blue tits and wrens are small enough to get into these boxes. Although there were no wren nests in this wood, twenty-four of the fifty boxes had blue tit nests in them, mostly now with chicks. However, box 12 was very exciting – it had marsh tit chicks in it instead:

I worry that we have an unnaturally high population of blue tits in our wood because we have feeders and the dormouse boxes provide plenty of safe nest sites for them. These blue tits would then be taking all the insects to feed their chicks at the expense of other species of birds, such as tree creepers perhaps. A possibility would be to remove the feeders of course, but they do provide a real focus for the bird ringers. I’m not sure what the way forward is at the moment and am still considering the options..

Other photos from the wood this week:

Tawny owl at one of the ponds:

Green woodpeckers busy at their nest:

A long-legged sparrowhawk:

A badger skirmish near their sett:

And sweet little fox cubs are starting to be seen out and about now:

Across in the meadows, this photo was most unexpected and hilarious:

Somewhere, herring gulls are building their nest:

An orange tip butterfly settling down for a rest:

Common blue butterflies are now out and about in the meadows:

All of a sudden I am seeing these beetles everywhere:

A fox emerges up into the meadows from the cliff:

And the entire badger family eating the nightly peanut feast we lay on for them:

Lots of wonderful things happen in May; the swifts have returned, birds are nesting all around, the dormice are back in their boxes, and to top it off the peonies are coming into flower in the garden.

These peony flowers don’t last for long but, for a brief moment of time in mid May, they stop you in your tracks.