At the moment I support a flock of about twenty or so house sparrows. Some of the other regular feathered visitors include collared doves, wood pigeons, blue tits, great tits, dunnocks the occasional wren and recently a goldfinch. I bought some thistle seed and a special feeder so I am hoping to see more of these.
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| Sparrow hawk - waiting for tea! |
The robin and blackbirds are also visitors but mainly from autumn until early summer when they have reared their young. Other occasional visitors have been a flock of long tailed tits who drop in from time to time and clean the roses and honeysuckle of pests, a little garden warbler in the summer and finally, a pair of sparrow hawks. They must live around the area and on occasions the hen pops in, she has taken a couple of doves and the cock bird sits either on the fence or the top of the bird table waiting for his tea! I know they have to eat but I let them stay a short while before opening the door to scare them away as I would rather they caught their prey somewhere other than my garden!
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| Squidge |
When I first saw it, I thought it was an enormous rat because there was absolutely no hair on it's tail and it was only the way it was sitting on the bird table eating peanuts with it's tail in the usual 'S' shape that confirmed to me what it actually was! So we decided it was a 'he' and called him Squidge. It wasn't long before the hair on his tail grew and his coat looked more luxurious too, I suppose that was down to the peanuts. He soon brought along a friend so that one was called Squish (actually, I can't really tell them apart!).
I bought a special suirrel feeding box which means that he has to lift the lid to get the peanuts. It didn't take him long to work it out! The two squirrels come almost every day and the most I have seen at one time were five, which was in the spring.
Their antics and acrobatics are very amusing and I love to watch them especially when Squidge is burying peanuts. Squish sometimes sits on the fence watching him and a short while afterwards digs them up and eats them!
People often say 'they're just rats with fluffy tails', but I know which I would rather have in the garden! I can't see why people complain about the amount of nuts they eat or the damage they cause in a garden because I certainly haven't had any problems with either. The birds have their peanuts in a metal mesh feeder.
24th August 2010 : Sadly I have come to the conclusion that the squirrels have probably been shot by someone (probably youths) with an air rifle as they haven't been seen since around the 11th August. They used to live in a small park very close by and as they have no natural predators this is the most likely reason for their sudden departure. They have been coming for several years and I have had successive generations, also it is most unlikely that they would leave a constant source of their favourite food. I am absolutely gutted and the PCSO's will take action if they catch anyone as the park is also used by children.
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| Whizzy the woodmouse |
Meet Whizzy the woodmouse! For a couple of years I have seen a woodmouse in the garden but it was an adult because the colour was much lighter and more sandy. This spring when Eden and I were cooking in the kitchen, I noticed a very young woodmouse climbing up a dried stem of japanese anemone that I hadn't cut back in the autumn. Then we noticed a second one and both were only about an inch and a half long.
Well, I think there's only one living in the garden now so I call him Whizzy because he shoots around the garden at the most incredible speed for his size. If any of us moved at the speed he does in relation to size, we would break all world records for 100 metres!
I was very lucky to get a picture because he doesn't stay still for long and if I use the hosepipe to water the garden, I am very careful not to flood his home because I saw him disappear down his hole when I was watering one evening!
