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.

Return of the Blue tits

 We are currently in the middle of a heatwave, it's going to reach about 26 degrees again today. Personally, I struggle with this weather....I hate the heat. I'm definitely more of an autumn/winter person. We're putting out bowls of water for all the wildlife in the garden, which the sparrows seem to enjoy, and making sure the bird bath is always full. I'm trying to water all the plants and trees every day, but everything is drying out very quickly. However, in the last couple of days, the thistles and the teasels have started flowering.

A few days ago, I briefly saw a blue tit in the garden. I was so pleased to see it! We haven't seen any in the garden for months, not since the incident with a local cat (see earlier post). Then yesterday morning, there were two little blue tits on the bird feeder. Obviously, it's quite unlikely that these are the same blue tits that were nesting here before, but it's still really lovely to see some visiting the garden again. My neighbours probably think I'm insane....I think they heard me yelling, 'There's TWO blue tits!' while I was in the kitchen, making some tea.

I hope it cools down a bit soon, not sure all my trees will survive....the leaves are starting to look a bit crispy. Actually, I really hope we get a decent amount of rain soon. I think all the wildlife in the garden is struggling a bit.

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.