On the advice of the Wealth of Wildlife project, we cut back part of an old conker tree and cleared some of the undergrowth around our big old pond (made about 14 years ago) as it was in too much shade. We also re-lined the pond this year as it seemed to be losing water and, now that it’s much more open, the goldfinches, greenfinches and blue tits are regularly seen drinking and bathing around the edges. We also have a new pond at the bottom of the garden.
We have put up windfall apples on wires for the birds and we have peanut feeders in both front and back gardens. Spotted woodpeckers often seen at the feeders, sometimes bringing their young and feeding them the peanuts. Sparrows are also still to be seen feeding their young on the nearby pergola. Blackbirds and thrushes have eaten all the wild cherries and have started on the rowan berries.
Swallows nested for the first time in our front porch; a delight to see! There are five or six young birds, which first left the nest about 6 days ago, but come back during the day and overnight.
Some large sections of tree trunk donated by a friendly farmer are crumbling away and something has been pecking or scratching at them. One had very large toadstools growing out of the side, as big as a man’s hand. Also found a pile of hollowed out cherry stones (perhaps 200) under a step – a vole or a mouse, perhaps?
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21 August - 2 September 2006
21 August - 25 August
We’ve been away for a few days to the Orkney islands, watching seals, sea birds and a white-headed eagle.
26 August – 2 September
Home again. The swallows seem to have gone on to warmer climes, but there are still some swifts on the telephone wires. They will be away soon.
Found another dead, headless shrew on the front path – cats at it again.
Managed to get the two hedgehog boxes in place with a few dry leaves inside and few peanuts in the doorway to tempt them in. Hope they like the idea!
I think the bats are using the little, round folly we have in the garden – droppings on the indoor window sills.
Parts of the garden are more overgrown now and the wildlife seems to like it – we have more butterflies than ever before. The dappled shade on part of the old pond with sunlight getting through to the rest seems to work well.
There seems to be some activity around the hedgehog boxes, but not sure if it is hedgehogs or something else. Got the tree creeper box up in the big conker tree; it’s a peculiar box with a big opening at the bottom as well as at the top corners – we hope the nest doesn’t fall out! I guess it is designed to mimic the way they would nest in a natural habitat (behind loose bark) so it should be OK.
11-15 September 2006
We put straw in the legs of some old tights and sank them in the pond at the bottom of the garden to reduce the green algae on the surface. It’s been there about a month and seems to be working.
On the old pond we are going to plant some suitable grasses around the margins to provide cover for the wildlife approaching the water’s edge. The damselflies and occasional dragonflies have now disappeared from the pond areas and also the goldfinches seem to have gone, despite there being plenty of seeds and thistle heads around the garden for them.
Another dead creature found (a greenfinch this time) – the dreaded cats again. We ordered some cat scarers, which have arrived at last, so we hope they will keep next door’s cats away.
The hedgehog boxes seem to be still attracting some activity and there were a couple of bats up near the new bat boxes last night.
The blue tits keep examining the new bee box, so the insects will need to be tucked well inside to escape their attention – at least as far as the length of a bird’s beak!.
We have a weasel around what used to be the hen run. The young swallows are still using the nest at night.
We saw bats flying around the garden last night; one seemed to be bigger than the others – a different species? We now have three rustic bat boxes to put up.
A tiny dead shrew in the garden –cats again!
Peacock and red admiral butterflies on the buddleia Transferred some plants from the new pond to the old, re-lined pond, which is benefiting from allowing more light in. Frogs are back at the edges and in the water and there is much more activity from water beetles.
Got the three bat boxes fixed up in the giant conker tree, facing north, south east and south west, as per the instructions. We cleared away some branches to allow them a clear flight line in. They look good and we wait to see if we get any inhabitants. We also bought two oak hedgehog boxes and hope we can attract some tenants later in the autumn, plus we bought a tree creeper box, a new peanut feeder and two small rowan trees. We hope that good berries for the birds will appear in time.
3-10 September 2006
Some of the wood piles we made in the garden are now rotting down quite well and are being colonised by wild flowers, grasses and lots of moss.
The birds have almost stripped all the berries from the big rowan trees.
We keep looking for the toads around the pond, but no sign of them yet. There are newts in and around the lower pond, but they are quite shy and we don’t see them very often.
We bought a hanging bee box that is also for ladybirds and lacewing flies. It’s a strange construction, like a cross-section of a Crunchie bar!
We also bought some marsh marigolds for the edges of the re-lined pond and a big nettle patch has been left for the butterflies.
A kestrel tried to snatch one of the birds from the front garden peanut feeder, but missed this time – it was all over in a flash. The birds all came back three or four minutes later; there is plenty of cover for them in the buddleia and the rosa rugosa bushes.
16-23 September 2006
Saw a large red dragonfly type of insect with a red body flying around the pond – could it be a common darter? It only stayed for a short while, flying above the pond weed and grasses, resting briefly on the grass stalks before disappearing.
Some ladybirds are about, the usual red ones with six spots and sometimes two spots, plus a comparatively small yellow one with 14 black spots.
The blackbirds are now eating the berries from the three whitebeam trees quite quickly.
We seem to be seeing less of next door’s cat, so perhaps the scarers are beginning to work.
The sparrows come in family groups to the peanut feeders, sometimes eight or ten or more, and they squabble a lot! The robin is singing his autumn song in the apple tree as I write this. He comes every morning to the kitchen window for breakfast scraps and is quite aggressive towards other birds.