Tuesday, 9 July 2019

In the Garden

There's lots of activity in the garden at the moment, it's like Piccadilly Circus for birds! We're still getting newly fledged Starlings and Sparrows, a family of Magpies with 6 youngsters have taken a shine to the feeders. We've had young Blue, Great, Long-tailed Tits and even had one young Coal Tit, which is a first. Young Robins, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Woodpigeon too.

The local Feral Pigeon's have finally discovered the garden, there's been three different ones so far and they're very good at cleaning up the food under the feeder!

At least one Squirrel is in every day and we have up to three Hedgehogs in the garden on a night and a couple of bats overhead too.

The weather has been good so the garden is blooming, i've sowed several lots of wild flowers in the front garden and a few have sprouted. The garden has been full of bees and after one filled a hole in the wall we put up a couple of bee houses and are hoping to make a couple more to add to them. Already two of the tubes have been filled and they've also filled another hole in the wall too. Butterflies have been a bit scarce in the garden despite a fair bit of sun, we've had Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Orange-tip and Small White. Hopefully that will improve.



One of the Squirrels struggling in the 27 degree heat a couple of weeks back



Great Tit


Blue Tit




Long-tailed Tit


House Sparrow






Magpie




Feral Pigeon




Starling


Blackbird


Collared Dove


Bullfinch


Woodpigeon


Robin


One of the local Black-headed Gulls, we've also had several Swifts and a few House Martins over the house too






Hairy Shieldbug






Orange-tip Butterfly



Speckled Wood













 







12 comments:

  1. Your backyard sounds like a wildlife reserve. I think you could charge admission and do well!

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    1. It doesn't do bad considering it's only about 16 x 20ft and the front garden is even smaller! It's my little oasis!

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  2. Your garden is chock full of activity and the hedgehog what a cute critter! Lovely flowers also!!

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    1. Thanks Sondra, we're quite lucky I think!

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  3. So much happening in your garden :)

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    1. There is, it's a joy to sit and watch!

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  4. A lovely set of photos and so much wildlife in your garden :) Am particularly envious of the hedgehogs! I've not seen many butterflies here either which is worrying also bee numbers seem down. Glad to hear your bee boxes are being used. We get leaf cutter bees here and last year mason bees :)

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    1. Thanks Caroline :) After the Hedgehog behaviour in recent weeks i'm hoping we get hoglets too!! So far we seem to have plenty of bees, I wished i'd got the bee houses on the wall years ago!

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  5. Lovely post Pam, you do have a good range of small birds coming to your feeders. We now can have up to 8 feral pigeons coming in the garden, the original two are quite happy to feed out of my hand and often try to land on me when I go in the garden , and they come in the house! looking for food, which can be a bit of a disaster trying to get them out !!!
    Loving all your photos especially the one of the squirrel you shared. Great selection of flowers too.
    Amanda xx

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    1. Thank you :) Oh gosh that sounds a bit hectic! The two that are in the most often are still quite wary, it's taken them about 5 years to make it in to the garden though so I think by the time they pluck up courage to make it near the house i'll be well prepared........ x

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  6. You have some great visitors to your garden its lovely to see them. We get the ferel pigeons or rock doves as well as wood pigeons and collard doves. Poor squirrel it looks exhausted in the heat. How wonderful to have hedgehogs, we haven't seen any for ages. Not so many butterflies this year but many bees. We get the fox family visit and last night we were woken by strange noises outside - four badgers were running around the garden, they have dug up a couple of potatoes!:)

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    1. The Squirrel was struggling a bit, it made use of the water dishes we have dotted around though! Brilliant news on the Badgers, i've never seen one.

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