Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Garden Visitors

I love walking around our garden, but I have to admit I'm not the one who does the work out there. It's my husband who mows the lawn, trims the hedges and trees and does all the other things like digging ponds—because he loves it. Come rain or shine, he is out in the garden at the weekend and on most of his days off. (The rest of the time he's at the golf course!)

We met at college where we both studied Botany and Zoology and we've always been interested in wildlife and nature. During the early years we were together, before the kids came along, we'd spend many hours out bird watching. I only knew the names of the most common birds before I met my husband, but I soon learned to recognize most British birds.

We both still love seeing the wildlife in our garden and my husband has done all he can to make the garden wildlife friendly. He's created a woodland in one corner where we often hear the cawing of Jays, and we have an owl box that is regularly used by Tawny Owls.



There are lots of bushes with berries and plants with seed heads around the garden for Goldfinches and Bullfinches.








He built a pond with a little island and duck house that is used every year by Mallard Ducks, so we're treated to the sight of fluffy ducklings trailing around after their mother.


We have two bird feeling stations offering peanuts, sunflower seeds, fat balls, grain and sometimes appropriate leftovers. Here we see many different small birds including Robins, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Great Tits, Green Finches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Sparrows . My favorite is the cute Long Tailed Tit.


Unfortunately for the small birds, the bird feeders also attract Sparrowhawks, although they aren't interested in the grain or peanuts. They want to eat the birds! They swoop through the garden like jet fighters and snatch Sparrows or Blue Tits or other small birds out of the air. I hate it when this happens, but I guess this is the way of nature and the Sparrowhawk has to eat too.



We also have Pheasants in the garden, although these aren't wild birds. They are bred and released on a nearby shooting estate. We love when they find our garden and take refuge from the guns! Unfortunately, Pheasants are really bad at raising their babies and although they often have large broods of chicks, the poor babies last only a few days before a fox finds them.



We also have badgers, foxes and rabbits that regularly pass through our garden, but we don't often see them as they are nocturnal.

What sort of wildlife do you have in your back yard or garden?


Helen lives in South West England near Plymouth in Devon between the windswept expanse of Dartmoor and the rocky Atlantic coast. As well as her wonderful, long-suffering husband, she shares her home with a Westie and a burmilla cat. Helen has one of her Army Doctor stories in the Hearts & Kisses boxed set. (This set includes both sweet and steamy books.) Find Helen on FaceBook and Twitter, or visit her website.

18 comments:

  1. Our property backs up to an orchard, so we have quite the cast of wildlife visitors - possums, gophers, rats, mice, birds! Woodpeckers, hawks, blue jays, magpies, wrens...

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    1. Sounds as though you have a fascinating collection of wildlife. Other country's wildlife always seems more interesting than the home grown sort!

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  2. Since I live in the Sonoran Desert, I don't have all the lovely, colorful birds you have, although we frequently have finches and once in a while we get a cardinal. Found a family of javelinas in the front yard once, though. We stayed inside until they moved on.

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    1. Patti, what are javelinas? I've never heard of them before.

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  3. We're stil in deep winter. Imagine my surprise this week when I heard a red wing blackbird, a harbinger of spring???!!!

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    1. Lyn, I notice the first tiny green leaves budding on the trees this morning on my walk around the garden!

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  4. I loved reading about your birds and seeing the lovely photos! I have a bird feeding station on our desk with four or five seed feeders, a suet ball, and several other suet-type cakes, and love watching the birds. We don't have near the variety you do, though!

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    1. They are fascinating to watch. I love the interaction between them.

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  5. We have wild turkeys in our area, plus a lot of eagles, pileated woodpeckers and cardinals. Just this morning I saw a huge red fox trotting through my old horse pen at the edge of my yard. He was huge! And so beautiful in his fluffy winter coat.

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    1. Sounds as though you have a wonderful collection of wildlife. I always worry about big dog foxes in our garden. I don't think my little dog would come off too well if she met one!

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  6. I miss living far enough in the country to have visitors other than the stray cats. We did have a pair of doves that returned each year to nest in one of my potted plants.

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    1. Do you have urban foxes, Aileen? There are lots in the cities in the UK.

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  7. I love the peek at your wonderful haven for birds, Helen. We get stray dogs and cats, possums and skunks wandering through our backyard.

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    1. Possums and skunks sound interesting to me as we don't have them. I don't ever see stray cats and dogs. I don't think we have many here. If there are any they are picked up very quickly and put in a pound.

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  8. I love this post! What gorgeous photos of your garden and the birds! You're very lucky to have a husband with a green thumb. I've got one too, and equally enjoy the spoils. If it were up to me I'm afraid all our plants would turn brown...lol. He likes to plant flowers that attract certain kinds of butterflies and hummingbirds, delightful creatures to enjoy--but we don't see these here in winter.

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    1. Oh, you're lucky to have hummingbirds. I'd love to have those. The only time I've seen a hummingbird was when my husband and I visited California in 2008. We were sitting in our rental car in the parking lot at Pebble Beach Golf Course and there were lots of humming birds on the flowering shrubs in front of the car. One of my favorite memories of my time there.

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  9. I don't garden either but I love a beautiful garden.Fortunately my husband likes to garden. Your birds are gorgeous. We get cardinals who I love to watch, a few snow geese and hummingbirds in the spring and summer. I have several butterfly bushes that draw beautiful butterflies through the spring to fall.

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