I'm watching tits on the telly!

One of the real highlights was standing on a glacier in Iceland and seeing how dirty it was and always making a noise.

Then there was the elephant that charged me in Kenya, which was thrilling although the outcome was touch and go for a while. Penguins waddling up a beach at night in Tasmania were memorable and so was the sea cliff from a boat under Stac an Armin on St Kilda with the sky full of gannets.

So it came as a shock to see something in my study for the last three days that I find as exhilarating and as absorbing as any of those past events. It involves a pair of blue tits in a nestbox. Normally I see them going in and out of various nestboxes in the one-acre paddock, if I am lucky, but this is different.

There is a camera inside one of the nestboxes in the paddock. In my study there is a small television and I have been watching the blue tits’ nesting antics unfurl. It is totally absorbing and thrilling and as riveting as anything I have ever seen. I have great difficulty in concentrating on anything else. I do wonder about my thoughts sometimes but this morning they laid their first egg.

The camera was from CJ Wildlife and by sheer coincidence their new and free Garden Wildlife Handbook covering spring/summer 2012 arrived in the post the day the blue tits started building their nest. The amount of activity in building that nest had to be seen to be believed as it slowly developed and then the final touches made when the cup was formed for the eggs.

I telephoned CJ Wildlife and they kindly supplied me with the photograph of an adult blue tit feeding its young in a nestbox, which should be a sign of what is to come – at least I sincerely hope so.

If you are interested in providing shelter and food for wildlife in general in your garden then this is the free handbook to send for. It is about the best in its field for ideas on a wide variety of subjects, such as feeding birds and their nestboxes, feeding hedgehogs and their nestboxes and a range of other wildlife.

Garden management for butterflies is covered in all its aspects. The butterfly section includes a range of plants to act as a nectar source, with more added in the latest handbook. They also do a free monthly newsletter that keeps everyone up to date with what is happening in the gardening/wildlife world, together with plenty of good offers across the board.

One aspect of the handbook I find fascinating is that it analyses the various food you can put out for birds and there is a surprisingly wide range. Peanuts, for example, come under premium peanuts, classic peanuts and kibbled peanuts. They are sold in different quantities but after each food there is an indication of how many calories each one contains per 100g, which is revealing when you compare peanuts with nyjer seed and sunflower seeds.

Incidentally, a reader emailed me last week and listed the different foods she puts out for the birds. They included black sunflower seeds. I emailed back and commented that she might consider sunflower seeds as opposed to black sunflower seeds as the black husks from the latter, discarded by the birds, make a mess in the garden even if you have a tray under the feeder.

The handbook covers all types of insect from ladybirds to bees and there is also a section on bats including bat detectors. Ponds and frogs have not been forgotten and there is even a range of binoculars plus cameras and a hide. A really wide ranging handbook full of ideas that are well worth following up.

To help over the current high cost of managing gardens for wildlife, this latest handbook has all the prices held or reduced. There is free delivery on orders over £50 and deliveries are prompt.

To get hold of the handbook and the monthly newsletter, go online at www.birdfood.co.uk or freephone 0800 731 28200.

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RECORD of the week must go to a female mallard, which may be a surprise as they are so common.

I had decided to check on the large nestbox on the larch on the island below my study window. It involves putting waders on and climbing a few branches.

On the way down from the frustratingly empty nestbox I put my right foot on the ground. Then there was that uncanny feeling of being watched and I looked down and there was a female mallard sat on her nest. She just did not move and the next morning I realised why as there she was with 15 ducklings on the pond. They were the first of the year but I feared the worst, as if it was cold overnight she would not be able to brood 15 ducklings, however small they might be.

That night there was snow with a slight covering on the ground and the temperature down to minus one degree. The next day she was down to nine ducklings that were scattered all over the pond, pattering away.

There she is on the pond this morning as I write and there are only six ducklings.