Birds and Wildlife in your garden | Page 2 | Vital Football

Birds and Wildlife in your garden

Have quite a long but very thin garden. The Black Lab keeps the cats and squirrels away which has a big effect on the variety of small birds that visit. Although they are not fed, except in the winter, there is always water available, and that makes a huge difference.

See Blue, Great, Coal and Long Tailed Tits, Tree and Hedge Sparrows, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Goldfinch, Tree Creeper, Wren, Gold Crest, Robin and Blackbird. Very occasionally a Starling or Song Thrush. Magpies, Crows, Jackdaws and Pigeons are not encouraged but there seem to be more of them. Occasionally see a Sparrow Hawk or a Buzzard regularly have Red Kites wheeling above. Love it when a hedgehog visits.
 
We have a lot of birds visiting the garden, along with 6 nests of house martens under the front guttering. There are a large number of cats living in the area so we tend not to see much other wildlife although we often hear foxes and owls.

Along one of the nearby roads, there is a house that has been chosen by quite a large group of peacocks and peahens - we can often hear their calls from here.

In Flatt's Woods, close to the castle in Barnard Castle, we see many varieties of birds, including owls, rabbits galore and some red deer.

Oh...






And the occasional Cummings ...
 
To my surprise, in Backhouse Park, near to where we live, I saw two parakeets the other day.

Not wildlife per se, but in Mowbray Park today had an interesting chat with a chap exercising his Harris hawk. He has a contract with the council here to keep the pigeon numbers down. Does experience days, so will be booking one of those when things re-open.
 
To my surprise, in Backhouse Park, near to where we live, I saw two parakeets the other day.

Not wildlife per se, but in Mowbray Park today had an interesting chat with a chap exercising his Harris hawk. He has a contract with the council here to keep the pigeon numbers down. Does experience days, so will be booking one of those when things re-open.
My Mrs, bless her, got me one of those days a few years back. Not really my bag, but it was an interesting day.
 
blackbirds successfully rearing more than one brood this year, one in the climbing rose above the kitchen window, which has been a delight in watching the non-stop efforts to keep mouths fed.
Well, the second brood has fledged, and mother is now sitting on the third lot of eggs in the same nest, which is beginning to look well lived-in. Not as bedraggled as dad though who was feeling the pressure as the last lot grew and is still keeping an eye on them. Fingers crossed.
 
We've got some cherry trees overhanging the back of the garden, last 2 days they've been overrun with what look like newly fledged long-tailed and blue tits, so intent on feeding you can stand very close, lovely sight. Just hope the local cats don't agree!
 
Had a few of them as well. Beautiful red and black and out in daytime making them easier to identify
Before it started raining earlier this week we had 5 Spot Burnets which are also red and black day flying moths (they look a bit more like a beetle the way they use their wings when flying) so could also be those you see.
 
The Blue Tits have left their box about a week or so ago, always good to see and found this The Blue Tit Diary quite interesting.

Although this year we had a Red Kite dive bomb the box, luckily the birds escaped their clutches.

One time we actually sat in the garden and watched as 9 little Blue Tits left the box.

Played golf, with my two boys at Wycombe on Monday. None of us brilliant, but only the second time we had seen one another in 11 weeks. At one point we could see 16 Red Kites playing in the thermals.
 
Red in tooth and claw. Right racket under the bedroom window 6 o'clock this morning. Blackbirds tried and failed to stop a magpie taking the eggs the female has been sitting on. That will be the end of that nest for this year at least.
 
Went up to the North York Moors yesterday. Saw two pairs of Grouse very close, each with their chicks, half grown. Amazing how they can silently hide in the heather.

Also, near Dalby Forest came across a Green Woodpecker on the hot road, being savagely attacked by a Crow, pecking it in the head.. Guess it had been stunned by being hit by a car and the Crow was taking advantage. Went back and carried it to relative safety and shade. Hopefully it recovered but probably only a 10% chance.
 
Having been out in the garden the other day, I came inside to find a little round creature on my calf and thought it was a tick at first. Could do without that again, as I had a bite a few years ago that went full bullseye and I had to go on the vampire tablets (treatment makes you sensitive to sunlight).

Anyway, it wasn't a tick, thankfully. Think it might have been a juvenile shield bug.
 
We had a Red Admiral in the garden the other day. I christened it Lord Nelson.
We had a walk in Stapleford Woods recently and saw a couple of White Admirals, which are, confusingly, mostly black. I had never heard of them before either!