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Early
Spring definitely here with a vengeance; the cock birds are
all vying with each other for personal space and even ignoring
the seed feeder to go and have a fight with a rival. A pair
of Bull Finches were at the top of the Quince shrubs, busy
stripping the newly forming buds, which causes so much annoyance
to the gardeners if it is their prize shrubs that are getting
the treatment. Some years ago on Gardeners Question Time it
was stated by one of the panelists that a study had been made
of why Bullfinches did this but they did not come up with
any answers. Di was complaining that a hanging basket of newly
planted pansies had been nipped off at ground level as the
shoots emerged from the soil. The baskets hang by small chains
so it is unlikely that a snail or slug would have done it.
My feeling is that the damage is being done by pigeons; certainly,
something finds the new shoots attractive, moisture
perhaps or a mineral or vitamin.
March is the time to plan for the coming growing season and
a wildlife garden is no different. I have already purchased
a quantity of wild flower and grass seeds for the patch of
ground that I planned last year to make a wildflower meadow
patch.
All I need is someone to dig it now. I will weed, rake the
soil, and scatter the seeds. Hopefully it will flower this
summer but I suspect that it will take two years to really
get started.
We are planting it to attract bees, butterflies, hover flies
and other beneficial insects. We will report and tell you
know how it goes.
The garden birds are still being fed, the finches love sunflower
hearts and successfully compete with the more agile tits on
the seed feeder. We are still feeding peanuts at the moment
but will stop when the weather improves and the birds start
nesting; nuts are bad for baby birds. We love watching the
sleek, slate grey, yellow under carriaged nut hatches hammering
away at the nuts with their pointed beaks. A young male greater
spotted woodpecker has also been seen at the feeder doing
the same thing (only the male has a red splodge on the back
of the neck). We often hear them drumming on the trees especially
on a bright sunny day, declaring their territories and the
cock pheasants are very vocal now giving loud distinctive
calls and strutting around with much posturing.
One of our cats brought in a live wood mouse and put it down
as a present, it instantly ran to the darkest corner with
Di in hot pursuit which caused much amusement to our visitors
who had come from France to see us. Our cats rarely eat the
mice that they catch, as they are too well fed. The cat was
caught and put outside and, after much more searching the
mouse was also caught with the use of a dustpan. This is the
easiest way to catch them as they will instinctively run into
a dark corner. By covering the front of the pan it was successfully
relocated outside, safely under a hedge.
The wood mouse is becoming more common in our garden. It has
much larger back legs than other mice and hops away holding
its front paws up (much like a very small kangaroo).
Diana
and Richard Terry
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