Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[patsylabrador]

It's been a catastrophic year in some regions for some wildlife I know but for us (me and what I think of as my garden family) in London I think it has been mild enough to have been good for them. I don't remember so many birds. I've seen a couple of enormous bees, no rats or foxes which is peculiar but I can live with that.

I'm particularly pleased with the House Sparrows whose colony is getting quite large and noisy and they look fat and happy. I think I saw a bullfinch although that would be unexpected so I'm not sure. There are definitely some chaffinches. There is a happy pair of robins and one of blackbirds .

I think that although it's been very wet it has been warm enough to offset that.

My chickens still only allow one particular cat through the garden unchallenged which I think helps.

Absolutely tons of tits, of all varieties.

I do get plagued by townie pigeons but we've reached an accord and they know which feeders they are allowed to use.

I get a lot of pleasure from watching the garden wildlife.

[Daphne]

You and me both

 

In the last week I've watched blue tits and great tits nibbling on something on the cherry trees (I'm not sure whether to chase them off or not, as I don't know if they are getting rid of bugs or nibbling on the flower buds), and our colony of house sparrows has started up its usual galumphing across the tiles - I think they must be getting ready to mate and nest

 

I've had several close encounters with our resident Egyptian grasshopper (its so big it looks like a locust) and today I nearly squashed an intruder......a long legged centipede/millipede. A good inch and a half of long legged scariness I had to pour myself a coffee after taking it outside in a piece of kitchen roll

 

Much nicer - the bees are flying and gathering plenty of pollen and nectar

[Gertie]

Sounds like you have some lovely birds and bugs in your gardens. I've never seen an Egyptian grasshopper.

 

We are very lucky with masses of wildlife in our garden. I do stock the bird feeder well but they are not all birds. The lady who lived in our house was a passionate bird feeder & when we moved in in February 2011 I had to carry on as it was freezing weather. Now I'm addicted!

 

We regularly get bunches of different tits, sparrows, loads of robins, woodpecker, nuthatch occasional bullfinch pair & some others that turned up last weekend with a tufty hairdo. In the pine trees goldcrest and wren. On the ground we get fox, badger, deer, squirrels, the odd pheasant, the pond is teaming with frog spawn (never gets far as the newts eat it), a lovely array of snails on land including plaited door snails and one with a trapdoor that I haven't identified. I found a beetle called a devils coach horse last year. Looks pretty bitey with pincers but isn't!

 

I feel blessed to have such wonder on my doorstep. The bird feeder is constantly active.

 

I was very worried about the birds when we moved in because I have 3 hunting cats but they don't bother with the birds & I've only had one or two get caught, although they do catch the mice. Seeing as the mice keep trying to move into the house with us, I can forgive them for that!

 

We are lucky we've has no flooding & I haven't noticed much change in the wildlife since last year.