Early autumn?

 We're just coming to the end of (I think) the 4th heatwave of the summer. The grass is completely dry, and some of the plants and small trees are struggling. However, some of the leaves on the bigger trees are starting to go yellow, the pumpkins on the allotment are getting big and a few have turned orange, and the garden is full of blackberries. Are these indications of early autumn, or just the result of multiple heatwaves and very little rain? Either way, really hoping this is the last heatwave of the year. 

We have had frequent badger visits recently. I think it may be a young badger, it looks quite small and is quite keen on climbing into things to find peanuts. We also had a deer wander through the garden one night, and appear in the field next to our house during the day. It's always nice to see deer wandering around.

Hopefully, now the weather is getting slightly cooler, we might actually get some rain soon. The ground is so dry at the moment, even though I've been watering everything every day, it doesn't seem to make much difference. I hope we do get an early autumn, I think myself and the garden really need some nice, cool, rainy days!

 

Little update

 Haven't written on here for so long! To be honest, I forgot all about this blog...is blogging even still relevant? Who knows. Basically, life and general chaos got in the way. Other things have taken up my time. 

Anyway, I might try to do this again, a bit more regularly. 

It's currently very warm and humid, pollen levels are very high and my allergies are being very annoying. We're basically in summer now, the Summer Solstice is actually still a few days away, but nevermind. The garden is full and probably a bit over-grown, but all the trees are doing well.

We've started to get some gooseberries, blackcurrents and raspberries ripening, also a few strawberries. Apples and pears are still tiny, but will hopefully continue to grow. All the roses seem to be doing very well this year, and the herb garden I planted recently is working out well. (I've started using the rosemary to make a sort of potion to thicken my hair a bit....it's really just rosemary and boiled water, but it seems to be helping a bit.) Actually, I should probably make some more soon, haven't got much left now.

The badgers are still visiting, occasionally. There are still lots of birds in the garden, generally being quite noisy. The rooks, jackdaws and magpies are slowly getting used to us, they will actually come down to the feeder while I am in the garden, as long as I don't get too close.

Busy night in the garden

 Despite the ice and heavy frost we've had for the last few days (no snow yet though), the wildlife has been very busy in our garden. Last night, I shone a torch out of our window, as I wanted to see if there was any sign of snow (there was not). However, I did see the little mouse running out from under the hedge and on to the lawn. It stopped for a couple of seconds and stood very still, the ran back under the hedge. Obviously, the icy ground was a bit too cold to stand around on for too long. 

About five minutes later, I looked out of the window again to see a fox, with a very bushy tail, go under our fence and run across the field. It was carrying a reasonably large, dead creature in it's mouth. It was too dark to see what the dead thing was, which I'm sort of glad about. I'm not sure I want to know what the fox had just killed. It's good to know that the fox is still around though, and that it still comes into our garden.

Shortly after that, two badgers arrived and snuffled around on the lawn for a while, just outside the window. I think it's the same two that come back to the garden quite often.

(Slightly blurry badger picture, as it was taken on the phone!)

The mouse made a few more brief appearances in various places around the garden, but I failed to get a photo of it. It's far to quick!

Two badgers and a mouse

 Despite the fact that it's freezing at the moment, and yesterday was quite foggy all day (still is this morning), the garden is still quite popular with the local wildlife. So many birds come to the bird feeder during the day now, mainly sparrows, starlings and robins. But we've also seen a wren hopping around, a thrush appears occasionally and the blue tit and great tit briefly stop for something to eat.

Last night, had a quick look out of the window (at about 9.30) to see a very fluffy badger snuffling around. It looked much bigger that it used to be, which is probably a good thing as it will help it survive through the winter (which seems likely to be very cold this year). As it was searching for a quick snack, another badger appeared, also looking quite large and fluffy. I'm glad they are still coming to our garden, I'm hoping it means they see it as a reliable source of food (and safety?). It worries me that people stll see them as distructive & a nuisance....seems they have a bad reputation. I mean, they dig up our lawn slightly, but it's not too bad, and grass always grows back. Poor creatures are just trying to survive, like everything else!

Not only were there two fluffy badgers wandering around, but also a tiny mouse came out from under the hedge and jumped around a bit in the grass. I think it was a field mouse, but I wasn't close enough to see properly (and I wasn't wearing my glasses). It's really nice to see that the garden is just as busy at night.

Unexpected Owl

 The badgers are still visiting our garden every night. On saturday night, we were looking out of the bedroom window, watching a badger snuffle around. Then something flew passed the window, wings flapping but completely silent. It took me a few seconds to work out what it was, as it was moving quite fast, but I think it was an owl! It was quite big and looked fairly pale in colour (it was just getting dark, so I couldn't see that clearly).  My son, who was watching the badger with me, declared that it was a barn owl. He may well be right, he's much better at identifying birds than I am (and his eye sight is much better than mine).

I've never seen an owl in the wild before, so it was very exciting to see one just fly past my window. You can understand why people describe them as ghost-like, not only because of their colour but because of the weird silence. It was quite close to the window, which was open, and I couldn't hear any flapping noise from the (fairly large) wings or anything. It's really odd when you think about how big the owl is, my brain tells me that I should have heard some kind of noise as it flew past, but there was none. Obviously, it's well known that owls can fly silently, but it's strange and amazing to actually see, but not hear one in real life.

Every night now, when I look out for the badgers, I will also look out for the owl. The likelihood of seeing it again is probably minimal, but I can hope.

Buzzards....maybe?

 We actually had some rain yesterday....but not very much. It was just sort of drizzle on and off all afternoon. Unfortunately, not enough to make any real difference to the garden, everything is still very dry. I keep seeing warnings that August will be quite a dry month too, so we should be careful with the amount of water we are using. Still really hoping for a big storm or just some heavy rain! 

There are a lot of birds coming into the garden, and they are still enjoying the extra bowls of water we've been putting out. Temperatures continue to be above average for the time of year, but at least we're not in another heatwave (at the moment). The badger is making nightly visits to the garden too, and sometimes a second badger comes along.

The pheasants seem to be coming back into the field near our house, I've seen a big male pheasant strutting around a few times in the last week. Recently, we've seen a couple of birds of prey in the field too. They are around most days, either circling above the fields or resting on the fence posts. I think they are buzzards, but they are always slightly too far away to see clearly. We hear them quite often too. (I'm not that good at identifying birds of prey.) They are quite big, brownish coloured and make a screeching noise. Hopefully, I'll either get a clearer view at some point, or be able to get a photo of them. 

Hoping for rain (and foxes)

 The heatwave is over, but it has been fairly warm for the last few days and hardly any rain, just the odd shower which only lasts a few minutes. The garden is very dry. We let the grass grow quite long, but at the moment it looks like straw. Probably going to have to mow it soon, as I think it's basically just dead now. The onions I was growing really dried out too. I've pulled them all up and I think most of them will be ok to cook with, but they are all very small. Luckily, the squashes, courgettes and most of the flowers seem to have survived. We really need some rain though! Rain is one of those things that I don't really appreciate until there isn't any for a while, then I really miss it (as do all our plants). 

The badger seems to have become a regular visitor to our garden, we can look out of the window most nights at a round 10.00 and see at least one of them snuffling around. I'm really pleased, as it means that I get to watch it munching on the peanuts we leave out, and so does my son. I never saw badgers when I was a child, so I'm happy that he can. We're quite lucky, really.

Still no sign of the fox that used to visit. I'm hoping it's still around. My husband said that he could hear some foxes last night, so maybe we'll see one (or more) again at some point soon.

A visit from a badger

We are coming to the end of a heatwave. It's going to get to about 32 degrees today, but should start getting a bit cooler by the middle of this week. Windows are open, fans are on and we are trying to keep the house cool. Plenty of bowls of water have been put around the garden for any wildlife. Basically, it's far too hot and uncomfortable!

We have been putting the wildlife camera outside for the last few nights, and a bager has been visiting the garden! We used to get them in the garden several months ago, but I was a little concerned that they weren't around any more. However, it seems that at least one of them still comes into the garden and has a wander around.

I love seeing the badger so much! Before we lived here, I'd never seen a badger in the wild before. I'd seen one at a wildlife rescue place, but that was it. They are smaller than I'd imagined they were, and quieter. One morning last year, I managed to wake up at around five o'clock, had a look out of the window and saw the badger having a snuffle around the garden....it was lovely to see.

I'm still a little concerned that we haven't seen or heard the fox (who used to visit quite regularly) for quite a while, but hopefully he or she will be back again soon.