Tag: birds

Wildlife Watch in the Garden

One of the highlights of the summer has been watching all the wildlife in our garden, particularly the front garden since we’ve added the pond.

I’d read worrying reports of a lack of insects across the UK leading to chicks starving, but I was so relieved to see our blue tit and sparrow fledglings in the garden in June. In previous years, the blue tits nested in a disused pipe on the side of our house and invariably at least one chick would either shuffle or be pushed off the edge, last year we lost three chicks from either the fall or dehydration before we could return them to the nest, so the birdbox has been a huge success in that regard.

It made my day when I spotted a pair of goldfinches bathing in our pond because we’ve never been able to coax them into our garden before. While chatting with a neighbour, I also spotted a bullfinch in her garden and I’m wondering if I can lure it to our garden just a couple of houses further up.

Many of our most interesting wildlife finds have been in the front garden, my husband spotted a lacewing for the first time and I spent half an hour watching a red damselfly flit around the pond. My husband was beside himself with excitement when he found grasshoppers in our fairly wild front garden, giving him the perfect excuse not to mow the grass for a while longer.

The Kilmarnock Willow was covered in aphids in early summer providing a feast for ladybird larvae, and we also spotted a very hungry and very fat green caterpillar crawling around. None of these insects are particularly rare or unusual but it’s wonderful to see our garden becoming a thriving habitat in an urban environment.

I know one little garden is not enough to stop the rapid decline of so many species across the UK, and I feel so out of sync with my friends and neighbours who are replacing their lawns with artificial grass or paving over front gardens to create driveways, yet I have to try, and I’ll keep trying to create a little safe haven for everything that finds its way here (especially if it eat slugs!). Have a lovely week. X

An Urban Wildlife Garden

Comma Butterfly

There’s a definite sense of slow down in the garden as the daylight wanes and temperatures drop. We’ve harvested the potatoes, carrots and kale from the veg beds though we’re still waiting for the sprouts and squashes. Most of the annuals have died back and in the next few weeks, we’ll plant snow drop, iris, daffodil and tulip bulbs to give us some spring colour until the summer flowering perennials like hardy geraniums and scabiosa start filling the border.

The scabiosa has been one of my favourites this year as it’s low maintenace with a long flowering period (prolonged by dead heading) and it’s a magnet for the bees and butterflies. This summer seems to have been a good one for our fluttering visitors as I’ve spotted Comma, Small Tortoiseshell and Painted Lady butterflies in the garden, as well as cabbage whites nibbling the brassicas in the veg beds.

We feed the birds all year round, and in addition to the sparrows, blue tits, starlings, magpies, pigeons and the odd grey squirrel that visit regularly, we’ve also seen long-tailed tits visiting our feeding station for the first time this year. Apparently, long tailed tits are very vulnerable to cold winters and I suspect the population has only just recovered from the Beast from the East last year, but I hope they’ll become regular visitors to our garden.

Given that we live in an urban environment, I’m always delighted by the diversity of wildlife that inhabit and visit our garden. Have a lovely week! X

Feeding Frenzy in the Garden

 

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Just tapping out a quick post before settling down for the evening as I’ve been working from home today because soft, powdery snow has been falling almost constantly since early this morning bringing widespread disruption to our part of the country. Yet while I’ve been safe and warm inside, our feathered friends in the garden have been out and about foraging for food, and it’s been lovely to look up from my laptop every so often to watch the birds visiting the feeding station and snowflakes swirling in the wind. Have a lovely week. X

Oh, the weather outside is frightful…

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but the fire is so delightful!

We woke up this morning to a thick frost on the ground, a deep mist in the air and a temperature of -4. It’s dark when we leave for work in the morning and it’s dark again by the time we arrive home in the evening, and with the exception of walks around the park during my lunch break to get some fresh air and absorb some much needed Vitamin D from the sunlight, life seems to move indoors at this time of year. Over the last few weeks, time in the garden has been reduced to crunching across the frozen grass to deposit kitchen waste and wood ash in the compost bins, and refilling the bird feeder, but we’ve been enjoying lots of cosy evenings in front of the wood burning stove with our cat stretched out across one of our laps or in front of the hearth.

It was just under a year ago that my husband and I moved into our little house, since then we’ve been gradually transforming it into our dream house, and I thought I’d share a few before and after photos of our living room.

I think it’s fair to say that the house wasn’t exactly a blank canvas when we moved in, and I suspect that the bold colour schemes, imposing floor-to-ceiling furniture and odd DIY features probably put other prospective buyers off as it made the rooms looks cramped and dark.

The previous owners had bricked up and plastered over the old fireplace, but we’d always dreamed of having a wood-burning stove, and although the stove we chose is small it really packs out the heat. Opening up the alcoves on either side of the fireplace gave us plenty of space for our books and a shelf for the TV, and I even re-purposed some of the toadstool decorations we made for our wedding as cupboard door handles. I’m a late convert to white paint, but I can’t deny that it makes the room look much brighter and more spacious.

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We knew it would be a bit of a project, but it’s been wonderful to see our ideas come together, and we feel very lucky to call this little house our home. We still have a long list of DIY projects to complete, but for now we’re savouring the warmth and cosy glow of the fire on these long, dark winter evenings. Have a lovely week!