Muntjac Feeding

I had a wonderful hour in the late afternoon watching the female muntjac deer in the garden. She was so relaxed and calm. She fed all round the pond, taking notice of the ducks nor they of her. She ignored the squirrel and although he takes a wide boundary, round the ducks, he was fearless of the muntjac, who made her way round the garden, slowly and meticulously. She ate all the new growth on the hardy geraniums, dozens of bright yellow daffodil heads, while hardly touching the snowdrops, but loved the new growth on the fatsia, rose petals and rosebuds were eaten vigorously, lower leaves from the apple tree were stripped and big fat buds on a rhododendron, were slowly snapped off and munched with obvious pleasure. She ended up feasting on the yew, which really surprised me as I thought all parts of the yew, with the exception of the soft outer part of the berry surrounding the seed, were poisonous. Eventually, she disappeared behind the greenhouse. She clearly is able to digest yew without absorbing any toxins, so suffers no adverse effects, I imagine.


The magpie continues daily to increase the size of her nest, collecting vegetation from our garden and the orchard at the end of it, also breaking off twigs from the birch tree. I have also noticed her stealing the twigs from both the pigeons’ nest and the now squashed squirrel dray.

The birch twigs are easily broken off and seem to be used by all the larger birds: crows, pigeons and magpies. Although we have jackdaws about, I have never noticed them collecting nesting material from anywhere.

At tea time, I was surprised to see nine cormorants fly over. They pass over at approximately the same time each day, but I have never seen more than six before.

Today was wet. Incessant rain fell all day and evening.

End of a Long Hard Winter

It has been a long, hard, cold winter, but at last the temperature has risen and days are noticeably less cold. Fat furry bees are beginning to buzz about, banging into windows. Down by the river, we noticed a mass of bright yellow on the south-facing bank. Further investigation showed it to be more than a dozen clumps of coltsfoot. The floods have, at last, subsided, and the river has returned to normal.

The last few days our female duck has been slipping away and searching the garden for a good nesting place. The male duck waits impatiently for her return, anxiously peering around and quietly quacking all the while. Sometimes he searches for her, wandering all over the garden, peering under bushes and overgrown areas, back and forth he wanders, but all to no avail, because he never finds her. She hides her nest well. Only once have I ever found it, and then it was the young ducklings running in and out that gave it away.

The riverside woodlands are made pretty by drifts of snowdrops and aconites. The ground underfoot is a bit mushy, but much drier than for a long time. Catkins are stretching out and yellowing up, and the rich brown, sticky buds of the horse chestnut are swelling daily. Scattered about are many hollow black shells of last autumn’s conkers – the fruit of the horse chestnut.

Although the male pheasants still companionably share the garden, this will soon change as they look for mates and rivalry sets in. I have not seen any female pheasants for the last two or three months. This is unusual because we have never before had a winter without them.

The lawns are full of moss, much to the birds’ delight. I have seen tits, thrushes and blackbirds all collecting it for their nests. The moorhen has returned to the river, we shall see him only very occasionally now, but next winter he will again take up residence with us.

Woodland Walk

Mike’s car went in for a service today, so we were up early and walked home along the river. Our eyes were drawn to a patch of south-facing bank – the wholes area covered with brightest yellow coltsfoot. The sunlight made them really shine out, causing us to stop and admire them. Later I will return with my camera to photograph them.

We walked through the woodland and were delighted to see clumps of both aconites and snowdrops. The catkins are really long and yellow now and sticky buds are swelling. Along the river bank we found hollow, black shells of last autumn’s conkers. Today, the sky is blue with fluffy white clouds. It is sunny and warm. In a sheltered spot it is very pleasant, but the wind unfortunately makes it a little too chilly to hang around.

Bluebell leaves are a few inches tall and daffodils are in thick bud. Aconites are starting to go open now, but the snowdrops still look wonderful as do the primroses. At home, I bought six primroses and left them outside while they waited to be planted, but when we went out two days later we found either the pheasant or the deer had eaten all the flower heads!

Winter Wanes

It has been a long, hard, cold winter, but at last the temperature has risen; days are noticeably warmer and nights less cold. Fat furry bees are beginning to buzz about, banging into windows. Down by the river we noticed a mass of bright yellow on the far south facing bank, further investigation showed it to be more than a dozen clumps of coltsfoot. The floods have at last subsided and the river has returned to normal. The riverside woodlands are made pretty by drifts of snowdrops and winter aconites, the ground underfoot is still a bit marshy, but much drier than for a long time. Catkins are stretching out and yellowing up, and the rich brown sticky buds of the horse chestnut are daily swelling, while scattered about are many hollow, black shells of last autumn's fruit of this same tree, their chance of growing and reproducing lost to the months spent in the river's wild winter torrents.

Although the male pheasants still companionably share the garden this will soon change, as they look for mates and rivalry sets in. I haven't seen any female pheasants for the last 2 -3 months, this is unusual as we have never before been without them. The moorhen has returned to the river, we shall only see him very occasionally now until next winter when he will again take up residency with us, unlike the ducks he never becomes tame always running away when he sees us and never approaching us for food, although happy to eat food put out for other creatures. The last few days Mrs. Duck has been slipping away from Mr. Duck and searching the garden for a good nesting place. Mr. Duck waits impatiently for her return, anxiously looking around and calling with loud quacks, sometimes he searches for her, wandering all over the garden, peering under bushes and into overgrown areas, back and forth he wanders but to no avail, as he never finds her. She hides her nest well, only once have I ever found it and that was because the ducklings, running in and out, gave it away. It was remarkably well camouflaged; I would never have found it on my own. The pigeons have lost their first clutch of eggs to the squirrels, and are now building a new nest. The magpie has built her untidy nest from twigs and vegetation high in a lleylandii overlooking the garden and it is a perfect spot for keeping her hungry eye on other nests in the area. The lawns are full of moss due to the very wet winter, much to the delight of the birds, I have seen tits, thrushes and blackbirds all collecting for their nests.