Tidying

We are planning on moving house so are getting things tidy ready for putting ours on the market. This weekend was "attack the garden" weekend. We've cut quite a bit back and opened out a few areas. I have seen a few bits of different behaviour (well different to what I've seen in my limited amount of time birdwatching)
I'd put a fat candle and a fat cake down the bottom of the garden as well as outside the window and for the first time I saw a blackbird on them. They prefer to be on the ground near the house and so I never thought of them as being "tree feeders". My siskins are costing me a fortune in niger seeds. But my nut hatches have been seen a bit more than they had been recently. The collared dove has been eating off the seed feeder tray.
I have seen a few bits of "courting". A collared dove was doing a bit of cooing and dancing to another one. Very cute. Mind you, there's some aggressive behaviour about too. I saw the woodpecker have a right good go at a starling on the fat cake.
I did actually get a decent look at the tiny bird I'd wondered about previously and it is definitely a wren. What lovely "eyebrows" they have.
I often complain about my robins being the most nervous in the country. Well I was out the front yesterday and I could hear a noisy chirping. I looked at the wall the other side of the road and there was a robin sat there. He would chirp, then dip his head with his tail feathers up, then chirp, then dip. I got the feeling I was in his space and he wasn't happy about it.

We'd taken down our garage rather a few years ago and they'd just been propped up for years, so we decided to lay them along the gabions as a nicer edge to the garden. It's amazing how a neatly trimmed lawn makes a difference. Our bluebell field is about to start growing, so we've left that. I will take some pics as they come out.

Before:

After:


Looking the other way:
Before:

After:


And a lovely (only slightly enhanced) photo of the trees in the lovely blue sky


So no birdie pics this post. I shall make a bit of time soon and get clicking.

About My Garden

I don’t know whether to just start my garden blog with a round up of this weekend’s activity or do a bit of a history. I suppose if I don’t write about this weekend I shall forget, so here goes.

After getting home from work on Friday I spent a good half hour filling up my feeders. I have 2 small seed ones on the “big bush” (looks more like a tree but is apparently a bush gone mad) and a small nut feeder. I also have one of those cake feeders which is going down rather well. Because of the level difference of my garden, I need a step ladder to get to where I hang the feeders. Good for the birds as they are higher off the ground, bad for me as I the ground is damp and the feet just sing with each step I take. I have already lost 2 feet, so had to go and get some old broken tiles to put under the feet.





I also have a bird table on an old post. It has a roof that the squirrels fit under just nicely. To say my garden is a wild garden is an understatement. It’s totally overgrown and messy and the birds adore it.






Birds I have seen in the garden so far
Great tit
Blue tit
Coal tit
Long tailed tit
Black bird
Thrush
Crow
Chaffinch
Bullfinch
Gold finch
Goldcrest
Siskin
Treecreeper
Jay
Collared doves
Magpies
Starling
Sparrow
And next door, a Woodpecker
Not forgetting the squirrel family, at least 2, I’m sure there was a baby one this summer.

I usually put a curry carton of food onto the table each morning of last night’s left overs.
This weekend they had some kebab, they also often have bread soaked with fat from cooking meat like sausages or steaks. I had an old pack of almonds so crushed them and gave it to them. Biscuits, rice crispies, potatoes, potato and carrot peelings, broccoli and cauliflower too. The squirrels love grapes and strawberries, but not tomatoes.



I have no idea what this will be like, so will post it and maybe play with it a little. Posting photos on here has me going round in circles, so will post pics of the birds I have seen and managed to photograph some time soon.