Early Autumn?

The blackberries are out, the leaves are starting to change colour, acorns are starting to fall, which all suggests that autumn is beginning! I love autumn. I've seen various things on social media and news articles recently saying that autumn has started early, or that we are seeing a 'false autumn' as a result of the recent heatwaves and generally due to climate change. Obviously, any effects of climate change (or climate breakdown) are very worrying, and I am in no way denying that this is a major issue of our time and is a result of our careless distruction of the planet (I won't go into a rant about this here).

But, isn't it nearly autumn anyway? And if it is starting a little earlier, maybe that's because all the other seasons are starting at different times now too (still as a result of climate change)? Saying it's a 'false autumn' suggests that there may be another, true autumn later in the year. But we are coming towards the end of what is traditionally considered summer, and it has been a very hot summer. So, isn't it just the beginning of autumn, maybe a couple of weeks earlier than ususal? These are just my thoughts on the matter, and may well be completely wrong. Also, autumn is my favourite season, so maybe I'm being overly optimistic.

It's still a bit too hot (for me), and I realise that some people love the summer and enjoy the heat, longer daylight hours etc. And some people find the autumn and winter difficult - changes is amount of daylight, it gets a bit colder etc. But I love that! I hope it is that autumn is starting a little earlier this year, and I hope it gets a bit cooler soon. (I also hope that it's not too late to fix the damage we have done to the world.)

The Rat is Back

 We're finally at the end of the heatwave. It's cooler today, but very humid, and we have warnings for thunderstorms over the next few days. The birds are a bit more active in the garden today, I think they've managed to throw some of their food from the feeder across the lawn (which is all yellow/brown). The rat (who occasionally visits the garden, usually when the grass is longer) has come back today and is eating all the seeds off of the ground.

I know I should be ok with it, and I'm really trying to be. I have a bit of an issue with rats...I'm really not keen on having one in the garden! The poor creature is probably just hungry (as most fruit and vegetables etc. haven't really grown very well because of the heat and lack of rain). If I just ignore it, maybe it will just go away once it has finished eating the seeds that the birds have spilled. As my husband keeps telling me...if we're going to live somewhere rural and insist having a wildlife-friendly garden, I'm probably going to have to accept all wildlife....including the rat.

 

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.