I do love watching  the birds in the garden so I always have bird food out for them.  This of course can get a bit messy when they poop every where, especially the pigeons, so every day I hose down the patio and small wall, empty their water and clean their water dish.  I do wish they wouldn’t poop in their water dish! But sometimes I have a bit more than that to clean up.  After a lot of rain I sometimes go out and find they have pulled out the moss/lichen/liverworts up from in between the paving slabs to get at the worms and grubs lurking in there, or they have ripped out the moss from the top of my plants to add to their nests.  They may have even been tossing out the dead leaves from the guttering and dropped them over the patio.  Messy things birds.  I give them a wee hand with their nest building by putting the dog’s hair, that I have brushed out, into an old pudding basin holder.  I don’t often see them gathering it up but I did catch a glimpse of a coal tit stuffing some into it’s beak the other day.  I put a cloche over the patio trough so it wouldn’t get too wet over the winter with all of the rain we have had and my Saxifraga x urbium looks a bit odd.  A long time ago I miss-heard the name my mum used for this plant so I have always called it Nancy pretty.  My mum was actually saying none-so-pretty, but it is also known as London pride.

lichen and liverwort pulled up by the birds

Coal tit with beak full of dog hair.

Moss pulled out by the birds Strange Saxifraga