Of Birds & Cake the Blog of Paul: The Garden Wild and Free!!

Now our Garden ain’t very big about 14 paces wide by 16 paces long, it is however quite wild, this a mixture of our love of nature and my basic laziness, to be honest Margie does most of the heavy lifting gardening wise ,with the pruning, planting stuff, strimming etc especially out the front where she likes it to look nice, the back garden is slightly scruffy, we have a lawn although it’s mainly a mixture of Forget-me-nots, Daisies and Dandelions ‘it’s cut in various patches a couple of times a year. Not really sure why people are so fussed about keeping their gardens so tidy ,there are no straight lines in nature ,wasting water just to keep a lawn green also baffles me and be aware if you are the type of person who has fake plastic grass, I have nothing but contempt for you!!

The Rowan

The Garden Fence at the rear is covered in a healthy mix of Ivy, Honeysuckle and winter Jasmine which, not only provides a nectar banquet for insects in the summer, fruit for the birds in the winter it also provides cover for the small birds to dive into either when the local Sprawk turns up or I pick my Camera up!! ☹ We have also, earlier in the year attached a Bug Hotel to this fence, which the insects seem to be steadfastly ignoring, hopefully they will move in before the winter.

In front of this is, my pride and joy, the Rowan, now this was planted as a two foot high whip from Tesco with the intention that it would grow into a magnificent Tree laden with berries ready for the next Waxwing invasion! Some years later and it’s well on the way to becoming that tree 20 feet high with a good crop of berries. There are only two problems 1) The Blackbirds and Starlings eat all the berries within in two weeks of them appearing, long before the Waxwings have even thought about crossing the North Sea and 2) I think there have only been two Waxwings reported in Sussex since we planted it!! To the left of the Rowan is the Buddleia, non-native I know but a good insect attractor, it was transplanted from the other side of the Garden when it was trashed by fence repairs where it used to attract Hummingbird Hawkmoths ,hopefully now it is getting back to its former glory it will again and I will once again be spotted, with the camera, running around the garden after them swearing a lot.!

The Pond

To the right of the Rowan is the pond, we created this last year, hours of back breaking digging by yours truly, which only took me a week in traction to recover from, with a view to attracting Frogs, Newts, Fish Eagles, etc, Spring came and went as others reported ponds full of spawn and Tadpoles ours stayed free of such things although there seems to be quite a few bugs in it and most of the plants have regrown, it is however much appreciated by the local birdlife many of whom drink from it and bathe in it regularly, hopefully next year it will become an amphibian fest!

At the join of the rear fence and the left-hand fence we planted a Hawthorn at the same time as the Rowan this has also grown magnificently providing the Sparrows with a favourite bolt hole , although it hasn’t really delivered on the Blossom/Berry side of things, a few last year and this year is encouraging so hopefully it will explode into action next year!! It is also interfering a bit with the washing line so will need a prune next year.

The Hawthorn and Bug Hotel

Between the hawthorn and the Shed (we don’t talk about the Shed) is the wildlife patch, this is an area about 10 feet long by 3 feet wide that we sowed with a wildflower mix , it produces various flowers and grasses that I don’t know the names of but seem to attract various bugs ,notably White Butterflies and various Bees and some weird looking things I also don’t know the name of. The Wildlife patch for that’s the name it is known by also has Teasel ,now I ,the Bees and the Birds are big fans of Teasel ,me because I want to take pictures of the Goldfinches on it in the winter, the Bees because it is Nectar rich and the Birds for the seeds it produces in the winter. Margie however is not a fan, it spreads into the lawn where it lays in wait for her bare feet with it’s spikey leaves and “takes over everything else” Also on the occasions when the Goldfinch have landed on it to feed I have completely failed to get a picture.

The Dreaded Teasel

The right-hand fence is less interesting though we have planted various shrubs along it which will hopefully grow up to provide for the wildlife, the Cotoneaster seems to be the best bet as it produces large amounts of berries every year which seem to last longer than the Rowans so hopefully will lure them Waxwings in during the next irruption

The Wildlife Patch

The birds in the Garden are dominated by the Sparrows, They nest in several places in the building opposite and elsewhere close by, a workmate put up a 3 hole nest box on our wall and although I have seen individuals going in and out of it not entirely sure it has produced young, I love these little guys with their constant chirping and amusing antics, they are always up to something whether it’s fighting ,squabbling, mating ,diving on mass into the ivy at the slightest threat real or imagined ,we had a high count last year of 62 and the way they are producing offspring this spring I imagine we are well on the way to beating that. It’s very therapeutic watching their comings and goings and some of the fights can be quite brutal, usually it’s a couple of Males kicking off but occasionally they will gang up on one individual and give em a right kicking ,presumably an interloper from a neighbouring colony. Not all the threats are imagined we have had visits from two Sparrowhawks in recent weeks, on one occasion a gorgeous Male near fully adult and more regularly from a duller but larger Female I got a few pics of her a few weeks ago but the Male has remained elusive, fortunately for my guys have not seen either since the Sparrow’s youngsters have arrived on site, as they would be sitting targets for the Sprawks and although I love my Spuggies cameras at the ready just in case!!

Proud dad

We are also visited by Starlings, less now since we stopped feeding Fatballs, it wasn’t the expense or the mess it was the fact they were attracting a Magpie which was showing an unhealthy interest in several of the Sparrow nest holes, now I’m a fan of corvids and like Magpies which are extremely intelligent and enigmatic birds ,but you’re not having my Spuggies ya murdering Barstard!! The Starlings are still visiting the pond for regular baths and I will probably put a few Fatballs out when the youngsters appear.

Hungry Young uns

Where's all them tasty Spuggies (Pic taken a few weeks ago)

youngster with egg tooth hasn't quite mastered feeders yet!!

Gimme Food

Thank You!!

Other birds that visit regularly a Robin ,Dunnocks, a pair of Blackbirds, the female has lost her tail, Goldfinch, now these are buggers, they don’t really use the feeders much despite in the winter there being quite a large flock around the area (possibly intimidated by the Sparrows) but recently a pair has come into the garden and started pick Forget-me -not flowers!! I presume to use in their nest ,do they have antiseptic properties?, I believe some birds line their nests with aromatic herbs to keep their nest pest free but not sure if that applies to Forget-me-nots ,maybe he is just the ultimate romantic, As mentioned before they also come in the winter to feed on the Teasel but I always miss the shot!! We also get a couple of Woodies, some Collared Doves, and recently some Feral Pigeons, with no trip to the Hebrides this year there is one of these guys that if it had a white rump I would be stringing as a Rock Dove!! Last winter we had some visits from a Greenfinch and I often hear them calling further up the road, so fingers crossed they are recovering from their recent decline and will start visiting regularly next winter! I can’t remember the last time we had a Chaffinch. Tits, we get regular visits from two of the scruffiest Blue Tits you ever saw, occasional visits from a Great Tit, there are Long-tailed Tits around but they haven’t visited the feeders for a couple of years although no doubt will if we get another cold winter, and this winter we had regular visits from a couple of Coal Tits although they seemed to have stopped for now. He didn’t show up last winter but for several years we have had a wintering Blackcap visit. We also get Jackdaws, a Rook and the aforementioned Magpie although less so now with the removal of their food source!! That’s about it really birdwise although best sighting ever was a Hobby that came like a bullet between the two buildings opposite and disappeared equally quickly between our house and next door yes I didn’t believe it either but was a definite Hobby not a Sprawk. We often have Gulls, Buzzards the occasional Red Kite, Swifts at the right time of year, flying over and have seen Peregrine from the settee but not recently.

So that’s about it for our little patch a bit scruffy, but full of life and hopefully will develop more over the next few years. And get ready you never know one day, maybe not today but one day I might get a picture of a Waxwing gorging on Rowan berries, why if it wasn’t for those pesky Blackbirds it may have already happened!!

So even with only a small patch you can attract wildlife we have even had a Hedgehog a couple of times!!

A few more pics of our regular cast of Characters below.