European Gardening: BIRDS IN THE GARDEN, 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
Patt such a shame if the cats are getting the birds, we have a stray the neighbour adopted the same time we adopted another, he is a nice cat but sometimes comes back here to try and secure his second food source! If you have a hose pipe and spray it with that it's a bit more scary for them.

We have had flurries of snow, days of 5C but chill winds, todays 8C so must soon get out and do something! We had -4 Wed, -7C Thurs, -4 Fri, -2 last night. Thats in the neighbours greenhouse, it's now getting a lot of sun and getting up to 30C, but that is likely less air temp. My 8 year old Mandora from a seed looks like the leaves are drying and curling a bit from the extremes, but it has never been anywhere but in a greenhouse over winter and is big, nearly hitting the roof, so should be OK. A bit of shade might have been better, but it got too big for my greenhouses.

I saw 3 Mallards in our beck the other day, they were 'ducking' their heads for acorns on the bottom. The extra male I have not seen before, we always get a pair. I wonder if it has lost it's mate, like swans maybe, pair for life? I think I saw a dead female on the road last year.

I got a picture from the upstairs window! Got 3 actually, this one the other male you can see in the dead iris leaves behind the others.