Tuesday at the hide , 12th April 2022

After a few days off watching a couple of Magpies build a nest , it’s back to the hide on a rather damp but surprisingly warm spring like day. Todays star turn has to be the reappearance of the Rat pack and in particular one male rat , one eye . The Rat pack were one of my personal highlights last year and disappeared for some time. It looks like they are now back and once again causing mayhem around the paddling pool. Not everyone’s cup of tea for sure and I wouldn’t want them to move into my house but in the right environment these cheeky chaps are really very photogenic, in my opinion anyway !

The Wood pecker has been hanging around most of the day , together with a gang of Long Tailed Tits who have just about emptied a fat ball feeder on their own. You don’t even have to watch out for them , they are so noisy. We glued a fat ball ( with a little peanut butter , no glue used ) to the top of the bird feeder post and they even finished this off.

All the other usual suspects have also made appearances, including the Pheasant , Blackbirds , squabbling Blue tits , Great tits , Wren and Dunnocks. As well as the rats we also had Squirrels and the Bank vole in attendance but strangely no birds of prey. And I nearly forgot the return of the Backcap.