I have Great Tits….
… and Blue Tits and Coal Tits. I have Bullfinches and Chaffinches and Goldfinches. I have Blackbirds and Thrushes. And they all nest in the garden. We also have Doves in abundance and they nest in our shrubs too.
Tame Dove Fledgeling
I have Bertie Aheron too, who is a [too] regular visitor. Unfortunately I don’t have that much in the way of animal life. There is a very shy and elusive squirrel that nests in one of my trees, but I only see him [her?] very rarely.
Cyril the Squirrel going home
I have a fair sized garden, and I love it. There is a lot of lawn, with a pond and a few flowerbeds. But the main attraction for the wildlife is that I have two small areas of woodland, and a lot of hedging.
I love this time of year. The garden has been full of promise for a while, and it is delivering in abundance. The snowdrops are all gone, and the witch-hazel is no longer in bloom, but everywhere else is budding and blooming like mad. The trees are all budding except for the weeping birch – that will happen shortly. The daffodils are all in full bloom along with a spectacular camellia.
We planted a mimosa, or acacia which provided a spectacular display of yellow flowers last year. Unfortunately, the snows earlier in the year broke off a huge branch, an it was the branch that carried all the flower buds. So no display this year. But maybe the tree will be stronger for its natural pruning?
Acacia in bloom
One thing that has delighted me is that the snakes-head fritillaries, which I thought had been accidentally dug up a couple of years ago, are back and in bud. They are rare enough so I am chuffed.
Fritillaries [and a daisy]
But then, just as I wax lyrical about the joys of spring, it goes and does this…..
Wow Grandad… beautiful! Snowing here too… WTF? I think it’s my fault too… I posted something a few days ago saying “at least it’s not snowing” and well whaddaya know? *SIGH*
We had a blizzard yesterday – a complete whiteout. It’s mostly gone now but there are still a few snow flurries. We are quite high in the mountains here, so snow is common enough. It’s the wildlife I feel sorry for.
Does Aheron at least refrain from eating the other birds?
Yup. He just goes after the fish and the odd frog. Bastard.
It’s the other Bertie you are thinking of. He’s the one that’s for the birds.
Our garden is quite plain I’m afraid but there are nice daffodils around the estate. Must post a pic of them soon! We used to get all sorts of birds feeding in the garden too but after Oscar the dog moved in only crows come in now unfortunately.
I do have a picture of a nice tit too. Oh how we laughed!
I’m jealous. I use to live way out in the woods and from time to time I miss it. I had a family of turkey that roosted in my front yard, went deer and small game hunting in my backyard. Every once and awhile I’d find bear scat on my lane. It was about 2 miles on the dirt road I lived on to the hard road or a 1/3 mile across the fields.
Boy, I miss living in the country.
@Donncha – One thing I forgot to mention is the Rooks. Right through winter, we have the most spectacular displays at twilight. Especially if the weather is not the best. The sky literally fills with them. I must see if I have some photos [as the season is more or less over now].
@Brianf – One thing I can’t brag about is bears! The area is crawling with deer though. You never know when you are going to drive around a bend and find a stag blocking the road.
We have a load of birds visiting our garden, and there was a robin chick that has lived in the garden since last summer. It’s tame enough to take food from the hand now.
Nice garden.
Thanks! But you are only seeing tiny bits of it….
Seeing as the summer is [supposed] to be coming, I’ll be posting a bit more about it from time to time.