Animals in your garden

[Sean Regan]

Can you identify the bird in the feeder?
A clue is its tail hanging down out of the back of it.

A tap on the window got a reaction.

I've put a wire across the mouth of this peanut butter feeder. It's really frustrating the mob of starlings as only the small birds can get in to feed.

 

[Sean Regan]

I spent a fair bit of time on Sunday doing some gardening, as usual I selected a couple of dozen 45s on my jukeboxes in the tea-house and let them play through whilst I was working.

I can only conclude that 'arry is sick of Motown, as I checked today and he's moved out from under the tea-house and into the hedgehog house we bought him which is under the azaleas against the side fence near the patio. Up 'til now he'd been ignoring it.

 

[Logan]

They don't stay in the same place all the time. Yesterday had one in the feeding station in the day, this time of year they get pregnant or got babies and that's why they're seen in the day.

 

[plumberroy]

For the most part birds don't damage my garden . I have an electric fence around it to keep bigger critters out it work some what for rabbits. As long as the critters stay out of my garden we get along fine (I put out bird seed regularly) they start damaging my veggies then we have a problem and I will remove them

 

[Sean Regan]

'arry is growing.

Here he is on "ant patrol" at ten-thirty last night after eating half his dinner.

 

[Sean Regan]

We're thinking of renaming 'arry as "Porky."

 

[Sean Regan]

I don't think I mentioned it before.
'arry's feeding station has a lid. This makes an excellent base for the food as obviously the lid fits just as well upside down.
I removed part of the lips in the lid that retain the lid in the normal fashion, so there was a smooth threshold for him under the entrance. I also tremoved the handles.
If he poos or wees in there, it's easy enough to hold the lid over a drain and wash it all off with a hose and a brush every day.
I had to reinforce with tape the bit above where the little block of wood and the hook attaches to a hole in the rim of the feeding bowl to stop him moving it, or tipping it over by standing on the lip. and rim of the other corner of the box which split when I dropped it.

 

[Logan]

Since this dry weather the hedgehogs have been eating all the food.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

One of my frogs.

Hummingbirds.

 

[Logan]

Now that the weather has turned wetter the hedgehogs aren't eating all of the food or there's just one now.

 

[Sean Regan]

'arry is still chomping through his 85grms of Sheba cat food, every night.
I'd bought two different varieties of hedgehog pellets and mixed in with some dried mealworms as additional food, but he didn't like either of them. But he does like the meal worms. You're not s'pposed to give them too many.
So a couple of days ago, I bought him some "Spikes slightly moist hedgehog pellets," from "Pets at Home" for £4.99 and gave him some mixed in with the mealworms.
He fished out the mealworms and left the pellets.

 

[Logan]

'arry must be a clever hedgehog.

 

[Sean Regan]

Whilst 'arry was eating his dinner tonight, I had a check on his house.

He's been making some alterations since I started occasionally leaving small handfulls of straw by his front door.
He's obviously looking for material as he's brought in a giant lily leaf. He's creating a bit of a tunnel from the inner door and there's a nice bowl of straw, where he sleeps, difficult to see the depth in this photo. Although the lid has a roofing felt covering, I've noticed there appears to be evidence of the beginnings of a bit of damp under it at the far end. But the inside seems nice and dry.

I think I've some plywood in the shed and a bit of spare roofing felt.
So I can make an oversize false roof for it and just sit it on top asnd put a brick on it..

 

[Logan]

He must be getting ready for the winter months.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

There is a hole in the hedge either side of the garden and a worn pathway in the grass across it. We have wondered what made it and I even looked at the price of cameras when 'Arry started becoming a screen star, but decided it was prohibitive. Last night we were sitting having dinner in the back room, coming up dusk, when a badger crossed the garden using the path. Not just any old badger though, he was huge, the biggest brock I have ever seen, made the missus literally jump out of her chair. No wonder there are times when Our little cat just doesn't want to go out of the door. There is a plum tree one end of the run and we had noticed that something was eating all the fallen ones, we even started dropping the iffy ones rather than put them in the compost. I reckon that may have been what brought him out a bit early.