Category Archives: wildlife

Poor old clematis…

12/05/2018flowers, plants, wildlifeJackie Elwin

has had to go. I loved my Clematis montana alba, especially when it was over-grown and would hang down over the door in the back wall where it made it look like there was a secret garden behind the wall. Trouble was that nobody could get through the doorway easily so I had to keep it a little clipped. Sadly, it succumbed to some bacterial or fungal infection and died. Possibly clematis slime flux? no idea but it didn’t look good so I whipped it out, added some new soil and planted a pink climbing rose (Generous gardener) which I hope will be able to cope with the conditions. It will get some sunshine for a few hours per day, but it is in dry shade so I will have to keep it well fed and watered.
My cherry tree (Prunus Shirotae Mount Fugi) is in a half barrel on the patio and it has had gorgeous blooms over the years but has started to die back and is therefore shrinking in size so this autumn it will have to come out and have it’s roots trimmed, then get re-potted into a slightly bigger half barrel and hopefully recover to bloom for a few more years.

Clematis montana alba

Clematis slime flux?

Prunus Shirotae Mount Fugi

Prunus and bee

Sparrowhawk woohoo…

07/03/2018birds, wildlifeJackie Elwin

So I haven’t been out much in the garden for a few weeks due to the snow. It only snowed for a few days and lay for a few days but is has been pretty darn cold. It looked almost the same as it did in the winter of 2010/2011 so I didn’t take any more photos of the snow. Today though I spotted the sparrowhawk and this time is sat on the fence for a good 10-15 minutes – enough for me to race through and grab my camera. It was too far away for a good closeup, and it was through the mucky window, and the sun was creating glare on the window too but I took the shot anyway. It had it’s left leg tucked into it’s breast feathers and only put it down to fly away. Now the garden is just soggy so I will wait for a while yet before doing much. The frogs should be making an appearance about now and a few more bulbs too. Bring on some decent sunshine and warmth.

Sparrowhawk

Wildlife in my garden…

17/12/2017frog, wildlifeJackie Elwin

My garden is my sanctuary where I can just sit and just be. I don’t need to think about anything in particular but instead just watch, feel and listen to what is going on in the
garden. The sounds are mostly the birds different songs and swishing of the leaves in the wind or maybe splashing of birds having a bath. The squirrels bark at each other and you can hear them leaping through the branches. Birds can be heard rustling through the dried leaves in autumn looking for creepy crawlies, frogs can be heard croaking in the spring looking for a mate. High above are the calls of the sparrow hawk and in summer when the swifts arrive they scream over the gardens catching a meal on the way. I love to hear the
constant chatter of the sparrows congregating in the Cotoneaster over next door’s garage roof. I used to hear crickets and had fun trying to find them but sadly I haven’t seen or heard them for a few years now. I plant lots of flowers for bees and love the differences in the deep, low buzz of the huge bumble bees to the fast , ever busy, buzz of the smaller bees and wasps. The buzz changes as they enter the big flowers of the foxglove. Then there is that strange scraping noise some wasps make when scraping the wood for their
hive. The pigeons make a strange almost whistle noise with their wings when they take off. The magpies and jackdaws can be very noisy creatures cackling away to each other as can the starlings. The colours I choose are not jarring or too bright but are the more gentle pinks and mauves with a few splashes of white or even yellow for highlights. You will see dark purples and burgundy running through too but mostly it is green. I am drawn towards plants with texture like ferns and grasses to run your hands over of soft plants like the feathery fennel to brush over your face. I have made areas with different habitats: logs, grasses, sun, shade, pond, shrubs, and ground cover to entice the wildlife in and I do try not to use chemicals and if I do use any at all I make sure it is at a time that won’t harm the wildlife. I get such a buzz of excitement when I spot some new visitor in the garden with the exception of things like New Zealand flatworms and Spanish slugs. I do go on early morning patrols to get rid of these as I haven’t heard of any native predator that will help out. Please excuse the photos – I have a new camera and will hopefully do better in the future.

Brimstone moths

Lime-speck moth caterpillar

Larch ladybird

Long-horn beetle

Orange tip female

Spanish slug

Mouse

Small Red damselfly

Frogs

Baby frog

Our feathered friends…

15/12/2017birds, wildlifeJackie Elwin

I have always had the notion that I would befriend the wildlife in the garden and they would become tame enough feed by hand. Our dogs didn’t share that notion though especially our latest one. He does not want to share the garden with any of them.
The smaller birds he tolerates but he will see off pigeons, crows and the likes. At one point we did manage to get tame pigeons by keeping the dogs indoors at bird feeding times but that kind of back fired on us because every time I went out to the garden I was followed
around by a flock of pigeons. So we stopped feeding them from our hands and only put the food out in bird feeders and on a small tray. Well now, my photographs can look a bit grainy if I have taken them from behind a dirty window and they are all different sizes but hey ho I am not trying to win any photography prizes. We have most of the usual suspects visiting the garden: tits, sparrows, thrushes, blackbirds, crows, magpies, jackdaws, wrens, robins, haw finches, bullfinches, goldfinches, chaffinches, starlings, wood pigeons, feral pigeons, collared doves, chiff-chaffs, black caps, nuthatches, tree creepers, greater spotted woodpeckers, swifts or fly catchers, tawny owls (heard only and found pellets but have never seen one yet) and even a gold crest, a grey wagtail, siskin, sparrowhawk, herons and pheasants. Some of the birds go for the frogs and tadpoles. The magpies and crows flip out the tadpoles onto the slabs then pick them off. The robins come down to the pond when I am clearing the weeds from the surface and pick out any creepy crawlies and any unfortunate tadpoles. The herons sit on the garage roof where they get a great view of the pond and surrounding area and they can be seen have a wander all around the garden in search of frogs. One poor sparrow photographed had a deformed beak but managed to eat the bird seed ok. One or two blackbirds had partial loss of pigment (leucism) ie. a white tail feather. We even had a lost racing pigeon wander into the house but that was a missed photo opportunity.

Chirping bluetit.

Lots of sparrows.

Sparrow with strange beak.

Doves with youngster.

Wren hiding.

Pigeon bathing.

Robin in snow.

Feeding pigeon.

Cock pheasant.

Hen pheasant.

Blackbird bathing.

Nuthatch – a bit dazed after flying into window.

Woodpecker feeding youngster.

Heron.

Heron looking for frogs.

Heron on lookout.

Magpies fishing for tadpoles.

Let’s talk about squirrels…

14/12/2017squirrel, squirrels, wildlifeJackie Elwin

Squirrels – do you love then or hate them? I love seeing them but they can be quite
annoying when they dig up newly planted bulbs and plants, knock over plant
pots, eat the veg and raspberries and strawberries, and tease the dog. They used to try the strawberries before they were ripe so I would find them pulled off the plant and just nibbled (but maybe that was the mice). I do wish they were the red squirrels and not the big grey ones, but then I would have even more problems with them getting into the bird feeders. I have tried quit a few so called squirrel-proof bird feeders over the years but they don’t stop the baby squirrels getting into them. The gaps in the cages have to be big enough to let the birds in after all. I have to site the bird feeders low enough for me to fill them up daily and as I use a wheelchair that can’t be very high. The patio is the easiest area for me to access to enable me to feed and water them even in the frozen weather so I do have to compromise a bit where I site the feeder and how large a feeder I can use. The smaller ones come with plastic feeder ports where the birds sit on a small peg and feed
but the young squirrels can easily get into the cage and destroy these. Metal feeding ports would be much better but are only on the larger feeders. The squirrels also manage to
get the tops off and get into the bird seed that way. I even rammed a couple of bits of wood on top to try and prevent that but as you see below that didn’t quite work. I then tried a wooden bung but that swelled too much when wet that I couldn’t get it out until it dried off again. They even worked out that if they shoved the whole feeder up and over they could get it right off the hook and it would fall into the flower bed below scattering the seed. On a small peanut feeder I resorted to hooking a chain from one side right over the top and into the other side to keep the lid on. I have been told that if you mix chili powder with the bird seed the squirrels will leave it alone and it won’t harm the birds but I haven’t tried that. The next time I need a new feeder I might try the ones that shut the feeding ports when a heavy bird or squirrel lands on it. But they are kind of cute to watch.