wildlife in the garden

We are having an unusually long and cold winter here in the so-called sub -tropics. It is 1 degree c at night and 21c at midday, so my paw paws are very slow to ripen. I had one yellow one though, and was going to pick it today, BUT a flying fox or a possum got it first. It was half eaten on the ground this morning, so my chickens got the left-overs.

Also, something ate all my cauliflowers at night - no idea what. So once again the chickens win, getting the cauli leaves.

Oh well, at least we don't get the snake problem in winter. Wish I had a peacock: apparently snakes don't like them and stay away. We've had some nice bright green lorikeets flying around, which is always a cheerful sight.

DH and GS dug a very small pond in a corner of the garden. The rain filled it and when I looked a little frog looked back at me! We have an overgrown pond just outside our sitting room window and we keep it overgrown - brambles and the like - so the GC don't go near it. A couple of frogs were poking their heads out of the algae. It's amazing what creatures will accept as 'home'.

Yes probably but wasn't sure of the spelling. Thank you. All is not well with the bat population as there are far fewer than when we moved here twelve years ago. Something to do with gentrification of a few properties perhaps.

Pippistrelles?

I live in a rather old and neglected small village in SW France and have a very small garden so not a great deal of wild-life there although I do love the humming-bird moths. The real wild-life is at dusk and if you have minimum lighting on and a window open because then the bats will venture in. And some of them are extra small. I don't know their names. They will hang on to the backs of paintings or large photos - you think one has flown there and you wonder at how small they are and that they can disappear behind a picture and when you go to look you find that there are three there.

watching the birds feeding this morning whilst drinking an early cuppa and whoosh! what I think was a hawk of some sort took a sparrow - not a very good start to the day really as I nurture my sparrows and starlings as they are decreasing so drastically in numbers. Poor little thing.

Tell the squirrel to keep away from here! The old git shoots them for sport!

We have a large toad who makes his/her way up the steps each night and squats in the same place in one corner. He was here last summer, then seemed to go away, but the cry went up a month ago "Farquarh is back" (excuse spelling, we named him after the silly prince in "Shrek"). It may of course be an entirely different toad each time, but we like to think he has returned to his usual sitting spot, and so do our granddaughters.
The squirrel has had two young ones this year, and they have absolutely no fear, chomping away on spilled bird seed beneath the feeder. I know they are a pest, destroying bark on trees, but they are so cheeky!
Young robins dotted about the garden now, and one older robin who stands at the door to the greenhouse, berating me until I provide some suet bits. He even knows when I'm in the polytunnel and stares through the polythene - once again, could be more than one with the same habits!

Years ago we saw a hummingbird moth when we were doing a Eurocamp holiday [I think we were somewhere in Italy]. We had no idea what it was but my kids [and me] were fascinated by it.

An eagle owl! How lucky you are granjura. Magnifcent birds. I have baby tawny owls in the wood behind my house. I hear them hissing whilst their parents are hooting late at night.

In garden lots of birds : redstarts, tree sparrows, Merlins, fieldfares, nuthatches, bats, butterflies, bees, newts, dragonflies and hummingbird moths and so many more. In back field hares, deer, chamois, badgers, foxes and wild boar, and in woods at the back, the occasional wolf and lynx, capercaillie, black woodpeckers and many types of owls, including the eagle owl.

We used to badgers and foxes and deer before I had my fence!

We have squirrels and the occassional fox. Also all the usual garden birds plus doves but mostly its the bluetits who enjoy the fat balls and seeds we put out on our balconies.

Just last week for the first time we found out why one of the fat ball feeders was emptying so quickly, we have a woodpecker who is so beautiful. We watch him for ages.

A couple of weeks ago we had a baby bluetit on the rail with a parent flying up and down to the feeder and feeding baby. It was old enough to fly but not old enough to feed itself. A lovely 20 minutes before they flew away.

We've been overtaken by starlings just recently. The fat balls and particularly a large fat cylinder seem to be the attractions. The funny thing is I took away the fat balls from the bird table originally because no bird seemed to enjoy them and then I thought I'd give them another go and just now we had 10 starlings jostling for position. The woodpecker has come too along with a variety of tits - never sure which ones are which type - and of course Sam and Samantha Squirrel who vie with the tits over the peanuts. Meal worms - another food that until now has been ignored - seem to be the favourite of blackbirds. The GC are fascinated by all this toing and froing.
The spiders are venturing indoors once again. I suppose they don't like the weather either but they get sucked up in the spider catcher and out they go!

I had a couple until a certain git murdered them

We don't really have them round here much. Trees not big enough in MK maybe.
Heard a funny noise at 11pm the other night - its 2 fox cubs and their mother, cavorting in the pouring rain. Then one of them sat and stared anxiously at the road, wondering perhaps if it was about to follow mum across a large river or a solid surface. I would not call them "urban" foxes as we are 5 minutes from open countryside. But it was bin night, as mum, no doubt, was aware.

We have a couple of squirrels that visit our garden. Recently one of them has been very busy burying the peanuts that fall from the bird feeder in various parts of our lawn! He's even planted a couple in the flowerpots on the patio - I watched him do it! (I wouldn't mind, but they never remember where they've left them come winter!)

The squirrels are having a banquet in my garden! Whilst I answered the front door, they have marauded through my strawberry patch and swiped all my ripe strawberries. Talk about hit and run - it took them all of two minutes. One cheeky squirrel has been sat on the fence eating them whilst my dog barks at it. They have left one for me! That'll teach me to remember to put the netting back.

I've got some of those.

spooky i just posted about the very same thing on the other thread. get over there nutmeg we are talking hard core gardening for insects. Thinks, did nutmeg lose her way a little?... nudge nudge, get over there to the thread Jane started woman

I have a few patches of Pulmonaria in my garden. They go on year after year without needing any care. The flowers ,( pink and blue on the same plant) and with green and silvery leaves are coming into bloom now. The bees haven't arrived yet , but it won't be too long before I will hear the constant buzzing every time I am near them. The bees seem to love them.

We have outside letterboxes at the top of our drives or garden paths here, and a little khaki-green frog lives in mine. He's really cute, and seems to live on flies and skinks.

Glad you haven't had any more snake visits, joan. Glad it doesn't visit my garden too as it would be impossible to get rid of all the gazillion hiding places it could use! Besides, there is other wildlife living in them, which I wouldn't want to disturb. I'm not sure which wood pile the hedgehog lives in. There are bank vole holes all over the place and holey old walls where wood mice live and where coal tits nest in the summer, and little holes in the steepest part of the hill where a willow warbler nests. And those are only the obvious ones. Yes, definitely glad we don't have visits from venomous snakes!

I recently noticed that my lilly pilly tree in the front garden is in flower, so now I've started watching for birds, and this morning a lovely multi-coloured Rosella came and had a good feed. Beautiful!

PS
I haven't seen the black snake again, but I've been busy making sure he's got no hiding places.

- the joy of gardening, eh?

Think Owls are great, and we had a couple in our barn this year. Then they disappeared, and now one is back again - but they certainly do make a mess!