Wildlife in our Garden

Wildlife in our Garden

The pictures below were taken by either Jonathon or Shirley over the years - hope you enjoy them. I'll add the most recent ones at the top of the page on a reasonably regular basis.

dove

It's now May 2015 and I spent a few moments enjoying the wildlife in our garden (I was supposed to be catching up on paper work!)

feeding time

The dried mealworms are very popular.

starling

The baby starlings are lovely, if a bit noisy!

I didn't even know Jays could hang onto the feeders like this!

This pretty Long Tailed Tit was "helping" me as I wandered around the garden with my camera in January 2015. Thankfully he stayed still long enough to have his photo taken.

fox

Not sure what he was up to but almost definitely mischief of one sort or another.

bee

A bee from Summer 2014.

raven

Very handsome if somewhat scary!

fox

A very handsome visitor to our garden one frosty December morning in 2014.

heron

The Grey Heron is far too interesting in our goldfish.

pigeon

Always plenty of Pigeons around.

This little Squirrel on the left visited us for a while in 2014. We called him Stumpy. Hope he survived despite his lack of bushy tail.

goldfinch

Pretty birds one and all, enjoying our garden and the food we provide.

parakeets

On next door's chimney, the Parakeets are regular visitors to our garden.

frog spawn

The frogs seem to like our pond and we get quite a few visitors.

starling

We generally have a few starlings around.

duck

These ducks visited our pond in the summer of 2013. Not sure the fish appreciated their new pond visitors but they were only with us a few days before they flew off again.

fox

Foxes are usually around. They like the bird seed that we put out on a morning.

fox

We think these two were Mum & Cub.

November 2012 and we've seen a few more crows this year. They seem huge compared to some of our smaller visitors but they are great at seeing the heron off!

October 2012 and the weather's turning a bit chillier. Robin's obviously eaten well this summer!

Jays are behaving very strangely this year because of the unusually wet and cool summer we had. Don't very often see two of them together but there they were, ripping up the grass on our lawn!

It's a hard life being a fox in our garden. This year (2012) we have a vixen and two cubs around.

We had an amusing time watching these two (April 2012). They both seemed quite settled until the Fox realised the Cat was there. Not sure how he missed it before as they weren't far apart.

The cat shot up the Photinia tree and the fox prowled around the bottom for a while before he got bored and trotted off. He dug yet another hole in our grass then ran off when Jonathon opened the back door. The cat leapt out of the tree and scampered off down the garden.

Until this year we've not seen any redwings in our garden. They are are making up for it this year. They are beautiful birds and very welcome. We wondered what the birds were waiting for before eating the berries in the garden. This week it's been pretty chilly (Feb 2012) and they've stripped our pyracantha bushes so that's our answer!

The redwings jump about in the pyracantha munching the berries as they go but they really don't want to eat those that the knock off. Thankfully the thrushes come along and hoover up.

Not sure if these lovely creatures count as wildlife but they are a couple of the cats that visit us now and then. How undignified to fall over when someone's taking your photo.

August 2011 and a few more photos. We don't get nuthatch visitors very often so a treat when we spot one.

sparrow

I'm not sure whether these two had just had a bath or been caught in the rain!

The feeder is very popular with the little birds. Delighted to see such a wide range of tits visiting us this year.

We often get foxes visiting so there are quite a few photos of them on this page.

It was lovely to see this moth. he stayed on our back door for ages and was very patient as we were trying to work out how best to take his photo.

Lovely to see the Green Woodpecker bringing their young to see us.

The long tailed tits have brought their family to our feeders this year but we've been so busy watching them we keep forgetting to get the camera out.

I just know I'm supposed to be able to get in to this food!

We get far too many magpies!

The chaffinches have also been regular (and very colourful) visitors this year (2011).

This fox so desperately wanted to come to the patio to nick some of the cheese rind we'd put out for the birds. Eventually he got there, gathered it all up and (probably) went to bury it somewhere in one of my recently weeded beds.

squirrel

What shall I eat next?

parakeets

This is where we come for food

thrush

A welcome, slug eating visitor

squirrel

Food always tastes better upside down ...

The blue tits and great tits really like their new feeder. Woodpecker's worked out that he can stick his head through the underneath part and get to the food as well (see above)

We came across this little chap and several of his friends and relatives when we thinned out the irises in the pond (June 2011). There were lots of tiny frogs as well so hopefully they are breeding and happy sharing our garden.

We're used to seeing the Greater Spotted Woodpeckers around - they're regular visitors - but it's very unusual for us to see them eating on the ground. There were 3 of them feeding on the grass at the same time. Hope they're eating all the ants that are around this year (2011).

The pigeon on the immediate right has rings round its leg so we're assuming it's a homing pigeon that didn't get home. Seems to be quite OK with the other pigeons that visit us.

Parakeets are also regular visitors. There was something on the radio recently that they're scaring off the other birds. Ours don't seem that bothered by them!

squirrel

If I lay down as flat as possible that woman with the camera might not notice me!

starlings

We usually have a few baby starlings around in late Spring. They don't take long to work out how to feed themselves but, gosh!, they are noisy.

squirrel

So ... the squirrel baffle didn't work this time then!

fox

It's a tiring life being a fox in our garden.

bluetit

We often get bluetits and great tits nesting in our boxes - great fun to watch them. I guess they have food, water and shelter readily available so why not?

Hope you enjoyed sharing our varied wildlife!