Blossom and wildflowers

 It's been ages since I've written anything here! I've been really caught up with working through the last essays for my degree (nearly done...just need to finish the final essay), and we've just had the bedroom re-plastered, so about to start decorating in there. We are sleeping downstairs while that is all being sorted. The other night, I heard a noise outside. Looked out of the window to see three badgers rummaging around under the bird feeder. They wandered off under the fence quite quickly, as I think I surprised them by appearing at the window.

We have a fair amount of blossom on some of the little fruit trees this year, so might actually get some fruit! Although, the trees are still quite small, so maybe I'm being a bit too optimistic. Even of we do get some fruit, the liklihood is the birds will get to it all before we do.

We scattered lots of wildflower seeds around the lawn earlier this year (and last year). It looks like a few are starting to grow. There are definitely some large thistles coming up in various places around the garden, which is quite nice, I think goldfinches like thistle seeds. Not planning on mowing the lawn any time soon, so hopefully some more wildflowers will appear in the next couple of months.

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!

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.

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.

The Cheerful Sight of Rabbits

 Woke up with a slight headache this morning. I'm not really getting out for our usual walks at the moment, we are slowly renovating our house and there seems to be a lot going on. Stuff needs to be moved and wallpaper needs to be scraped off the walls, deliveries turning up etc. It's tiring, but I appreciate that we are lucky enough to be in a position to do this (we are doing most of the work ourselves, rather than paying someone else).

The great thing about living where we do, is that we live next to a small field (which I'm hoping will remain a field and not end up being built on, as a lot of fields around here have been sold to developers. I won't get into a rant about that here). For the last couple of mornings, I've come downstairs & looked out of the window to see one or two rabbits hopping about in the field, or just sitting there munching on the grass. Occasionally, I get to see a baby/young rabbit. Such a cheerful sight first thing in the morning! In the evenings, we can sometimes see quite a few rabbits in the field at the back, they run around and chase each other. I don't think I'll ever get bored of seeing them. There are usually two or three horses in the field too, who occasionally wander over to the fence to say hello and peer into our garden.

Even though I am not getting out as much as I'd like, I'm so glad we can still see mice, birds etc. in the garden and wildlife (and horses) in the field. It never fails to cheer me up a bit.

My Love of Trees

 We are properly into summer now. The garden is full of flowers and very long grasses (we don't mow our lawn very often, we prefer to let it grow into a sort of meadow). Starlings and sparrows seem to be in the garden most of the time and we get occasional visits from a couple of goldfinches. I did see a few butterflies over the weekend. I think one was a Red Admiral, but I couldn't say for definite, they all flutter around quite quickly.

When we moved into this house, the garden was mostly lawn. Over the last two years, we have put in several raised beds for vegetables and quite a lot of trees. Planting a tree is one of my favourite things to do, especially if I'm feeling a bit miserable or stressed about anything! They are good for the environment and will eventually provide some shade in our garden. I know a lot of people don't want shady gardens, but I think it's good to have some shade, especially during heatwaves (which seem to be getting more frequent). So far, we have two rowan trees, a hawthorn, a spindle, two plum trees (one was already here when we moved in), a hazelnut, a pear and a cherry tree. We also planted a couple of holly bushes and a friend gave me a tiny oak tree he'd dug up from his garden (which I have planted, but I'm not sure it will survive, I think the roots were damaged when he dug it up). I'd like to get an apple tree at some point soon, not quite sure where we'd put it yet though.

All of the trees are still fairly small, but a few of them look like they may produce fruit and berries this year. Tiny berries have started to form on one of the rowan trees and a few cherries and plums have started to appear. I'm stupidly happy about this! Autumn is one of my favourite seasons (the other is winter), and I love seeing all the berries and fruit on trees. Plus, it provides food for all the wildlife.

Resident mouse

Last week, just as it was getting dark one evening, one of our cats was staring intently through the conservatory window on to the patio. I slowly walked over to have a look, and saw the (not so little now) mouse sitting out there. It stared at me for a few seconds, then I moved and it scampered off towards the greenhouse.

We've seen the mouse before, it was very tiny the first time we saw it run across the patio. I think it lives under our wood store. After a bit of research on the internet, I believe it's a field mouse/wood mouse. It's slightly bigger than a house mouse. In fact, this caused me a bit of drama, because it was bigger than any mice I'd previously seen (presented to us by our cat, in our old house). So I was worried it was a rat for a while. (I'm not a fan of rats, I know they shouldn't really bother me and as we live in a rural area, then the odd rat is quite likely to visit the garden and the bird-feeder, but they still make me a bit panicky.) Anyway, it has a furry tail and is much more timid than the rat who has also visited the garden and attempted to eat the bird food. Apparently, rats do not have furry tails and mice do, according to the internet. Also, it is still smaller than the rat who likes to occasionally come and pick up any food the birds drop.

I quite like having a little mouse who lives under the wood store. It has never attempted to come near the house (although, I'm sure the cats would be very excited if it did), just seems to go from the wood store, around the patio a bit and occaionally to the hedge behind the greenhouse. I'll try to get a photo of it at some point. (I'd like the rat to stay away from the garden though, ideally.)

Regular Visitors

It seems that summer has arrived here, it was quite sudden. The last few days have been very warm and pollen levels have been very high (I have been sneezing a lot).  The grass in the garden-meadow has reached waist-height. There are still plenty of birds visiting the garden, although they are not the same birds who visited us in the spring.

Back in the spring, we enjoyed watching all the regaular birds coming to the bird feeder. There were two long tailed tits who visited every day, along with the blue tits and great tit. A couple of blackbirds would hang around in the garden, as well as two (or sometimes four) robins. I assumed, wrongly, that these birds would be around for most of the year. I'd talk to them occasionally (don't judge me, I don't get out much!). I think I took it for granted that they'd always visit our garden, and come to our bird feeder.

Now we are in summer, I don't see those birds anymore, or at least not as much. Occasionally, the great tit still flits into the garden for a couple of minutes, then disappears again. However, we do see a lot of sparrows now, they are in the garden or on the bird-feeder for most of the day, and fly back and forth to the hedge. Also, there are a lot of noisy starlings around, who also like the bird-feeder. We've seen a lot of swifts flying over recently too, and occasionally a couple of goldfinches. I'm not complaining at all, I love seeing all the starlings and sparrows. The young ones are adorable, funny little creatures! The blackbirds still hang around the garden a bit, and I think two of the robins still visit regularly. I do kind of miss the other birds though. Maybe this is just what happens in summer, and this is the first year I've actually noticed? (And yes, I have started talking to the sparrows and starlings too. Would be rude not to!)

The sad tale of the Blue tits

 Earlier this year, we put up a nest box. We were quite excited when, in the early part of spring, we saw a couple of Blue tits going in and out of the nest box with all their nesting materials. I assume they laid eggs, which hatched into chicks, as later on we saw them taking food into the nest and if you stood in the garden, you would hear noises from the nest box.

Anyway, one evening last week, I saw the black and white cat (who is a regular visitor to our garden and likes to use one of the raised beds as a litter tray). The cat had managed to get on top of the workshop (which has the nest box on the side), then climb onto the top of the nest box & reach inside with a paw. At this point, I went out and shouted at the the cat to 'go away', which it did. I had a quick look around, but couldn't see any dead birds or feathers on the ground, so I'd hoped the Blue tits were ok.

The next morning, I saw one of the Blue tits leave the nest box, flap around in the garden for a while, and then fly off somwhere. It did not return. I haven't seen either of the adult Blue tits or any sign of the chicks since. I think the nest was abandoned. I'm really sad about this. A small part of me hopes that they fledged when I wasn't looking, but I am dreading the day in the autumn when we have to clean out the nest box.

Nature Writing/Blogging...maybe.

 I'm changing what I use this blog for, I think. I haven't actually used it at all for ages! Anyway, I want to start writing/blogging again. So, I think this may become more of a nature blog....so I can have a record of some kind of all the nature and wildlife we see now, mainly in our garden.

My son has become quite a keen birdwatcher, which is a lovely hobby to see and enjoy with him. We're seeing a lot of young/baby birds at the moment, along with the odd mouse and shrew, which is quite exciting! We're trying to keep the garden as wildlife-friendly as possible. One of the advantages of living somewhere slightly more rural, is that we get badgers and foxes visiting the garden sometimes. I don't think I will ever get over how amazing it is to see them (usually on a wildlife camera we put outside, but at one point I did actually wake up and watch the badger from my bedroom window).

Unfortunately, I'm not as good at identifying all the different birds and creatures as I'd like to be. I'm trying to learn as we go along. I don't know the names of all the wild flowers yet, and I can't identify birdsong. Hopefully I will be able to do these things, eventually.