European Gardening: BIRDS IN THE GARDEN, 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
Patbarr, I bet you wish you had your camera on hand when the sparrowhawk landed on your wall! You must be in it's hunting path, what a treat. I had our squirrel on the ledge of our front window once, he was going back and forth as if trying to look in, his front legs up on the window, no time to get the camera. It is quite low to the ground, and large. We had been giving it some left over nuts, walnuts and hazels, leaving them at the bottom of the oak not far away, he would take them up the tree and sit on the blue tit nesting box, nibbling them.
I felt so sorry for the song thrush, so beautiful to have it singing, it would stand guard and chase the magpye, but I found 2 babies under the conker tree with no heads, they do just take off the head, horrid!
I had lots of different butterflies this year, as I grow more flowers it is attracting them, also getting good established shrubs for them to hide in. Saw a small tortoiseshell only once, but had a female speckled wood, the male I think I saw him darting around bushes. A pair of peacocks on my seed grown dahlia collarette 'Dandy', a pair of Red Admirals regularly visited the seed grown species dahlias, I think i saw 3 different commas, like the dahlias but mostly sedum 'Frosty Morn'. Also a pair of brimstones, they liked the species dahlias, and actually are the only central European butterfly to hibernate as a buttefly in evergreen shrubs, wihtout seeking a more protected site. I saw one lurking in and out of my ceanothus. They have the longest life span of 10-11 months, emerging Feb or March, mate and lay eggs in April in one brood. The caterpillars feed on buckthorn species.
The gatekeeper caterpillar feeds at night on common lawn grasses, perennial rye grass, bents, fescues etc, so it is a good idea to have some rough patches. The adults feed on flowers found mostly around bramble thickets.

The Speckled Wood hang around shady shrubs, and rest on the leaves of other shrubs and herbaceous plants. It hung around a large hebe under a red leaved cherry, also on the dahlias and other shrub nearby, fed on the hebe flowers but alsolikes well ripe juices from berries. i have boysenberries, raspberries and victoria plums. The bullfinch I saw last year on dried seed on the boysenberry. Speckled Wood caterpillars (2-3 broods) feed on species grasses, like Yorkshire fog, Bearded Couch, Cocksfoot, Wood Sedge, False Brome etc. I have been pushing leylandii hedge clippings around the roots of the trees to mulch, and some rough grasses grow there which I leave as not doing any harm, they possibly provide food, but the chickens from across the road are allowed to wander, and they have been scratching it all out and feeding, I think I managed to scare them back a litlle, the neighbours need to be scared back too, they started roaming all over my garden. I have never seen so many, and want to keep encouraging them, I had to buy a book, a Collins Butterflies and Moths of britain & Europe.

I've put in acouple of orders for tubers and bulbs, from jungleseeds and jacquesamand, i was going to order seeds, have a preliminary list for Chilterns sorted, also want some from plantworld-devon, and tradewindsfruit, oh the expense! No good waiting though, you can soon miss out. I have got it real bad when it comes to 'wanting' more plants over winter, as if there wasn't enough to do! It just breaks out in a spending rash.

A pic to share, the woodpecker I took on 9th June climbing the oak, from our small to window, I got him all the way up. The box below is a blue tit nesting box, each spring I hear the 'tap tap' when they think they have to peck out the hle, then you have to watch very carefully to see them, they dart in and out. I had a small nest of some sort in my passiflora caurulea on the south wall, found it when trimming it back, it runs along the electric cable and into the roof. It could have been a wrens, we always have some, and of course the robins.
Spring should be due soon, I think we have had winter!