Wood Piles

We have wood piles at the end of the garden, these are built deliberately and with wild life in mind. when the wood is disturbed it is amazing to see the various creatures living there. A vast number of insects and arachnids of many different kinds have their homes in these piles.

Birds build they nests in them and for years hedgehogs overwintered underneath them. During the warmer months, clematis and honeysuckle grow over them.

Woodpeckers drum on them and bore holes in them and always fungi is to be found growing there. They are a great addition to the garden and a source of interest, learning and pleasure, especially to visiting children.

Winters Blooms

Amazing, it is the middle of November and areas of the garden are still so pretty.

Fuschias are still flowering amid the fallen winter leaves. These were only planted a few months ago and have been such a hit. They are good for insects and I have noticed bees in particular love them.

We tried to plant only hardy fuschias, but to give them a helping hand to survive the winter we will mulch them well when we empty the composter.

Co-operation between a squirrel and a magpie

A misty moisty morning. The mist came swirling up to the kitchen windows lightly, but thickened considerably by the time it reached the end of the garden, it was as if we lived isolated in a white void, in total seclusion from the rest of the world.

As the mist lifted, the garden filled with birds, even as I was filling the bird table the blue tits, robins and great tits were flying to the food.

The first bird to feed from the lawn was a jay, swiftly followed by No-Tail the pigeon and a magpie who arrived at the same time. Within minutes a flock of sea gulls flew in, these are wonderful birds to view, as they circle above the grass, swooping and diving headlong in order to feed. I was lucky to be watching from just a few feet away. Very quickly the lawn was cleared of food and the larger birds had all flown.

The squirrels were the next to arrive, as they did so the smaller birds vacated the bird table, for the safety of the trees. With the squirrels came a lone magpie, he sat on a low branch of the old apple tree. The squirrels -three of them each collected food from the bird table, the first one sat on the roof of the bird table eating, the second one took his biscuit and ran down the back lawn to sit on a chair near the pond, the third one climbed down from the bird table, carrying his biscuit three feet along the path and on to the edge of the lawn where he settled down to eat.

This was what the magpie had been waiting for, he dropped from the branch to the grass and slowly strutted across to the squirrel's left side, where he stood so close they were almost touching. The squirrel ignored him. Slowly the magpie moved to the right hand side of the squirrel, walking closely in front of him, the squirrel remained as he  was.

The magpie stayed standing very close to the squirrel, for almost a minute, still almost touching the squirrel who still ignored him. I guess the squirrel had been harassed by the magpie for so long that he has grown used to him.

As I watched I saw something, that if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I probably would have had a problem believing it, however seeing is believing and I saw it.

The magpie slowly walked round the squirrel to face him and so they stood face to face. A few seconds passed and then the magpie lowered his beak and pecked the biscuit, which was still being eaten by the squirrel. The squirrel continued to eat the biscuit and the magpie standing very closely continued to gently peck the opposite edge.

I watched in wonderment. Why didn't the squirrel run away or the magpie try and wrest the biscuit from him?

Raising my head I called Mike to come quickly and see this odd interplay between the squirrel and magpie, this was brilliant timing because overhead flew an eleven strong flock of white geese.

Alas, my hasty call and movement had broken the spell and as I glanced down, so the squirrel and magpie had departed.

What an amazing start to the day, firstly watching the interplay between the squirrel and magpie and secondly being lucky enough to be at the window when a flock of white geese passed over the garden.

These were both firsts for the garden.

A spectacular old man's beard on the way to Papworth

A trip to Papworth, no motorways, just A and B roads through the beautiful English autumn countryside. The  many tones and shades of copper, bronze, brown, orange, green, red and yellow were reminiscent of an artists pallet, and made the journey pass quickly.

The most spectacular sight was for me an old man's beard plant, Clematis vitalba, it is a member of the Ranunculaceae family. It has wonderful soft, white, stranded, fluffy seed heads. they remind me of miniature Father Christmas wigs and always make me smile, today however I was amazed by the size of the plant and the sheer number of seed heads. The shrub it rested upon was taller than I am and wider than both of my arms outstretched, there were hundreds of densely packed seed heads on it, so much so, I was unable to recognise the shrub it had covered.

It is known as old man's beard because it's appearance is reminiscent of an elderly man's beard. It is also known as the devil's plant because of the way it covers and chokes other plants. Many people know it as travellers joy.

The flowers are a very pale creamy, greenish colour and in the U.K. are perfumed. They attract short tongued bees and insects.

The dried seed heads are reputed to readily catch a spark and if so could help with lighting your fire.

A feline predator

We seem to have a trouble maker in the garden, he is a very beautiful multi-coloured cat.

He is here daily, several times in fact and every time I see him he is either fishing in one of the ponds, stalking birds, pouncing on voles and shrews or contentedly crossing the lawn with a creature in his mouth.

I think I must seek out his owner and ask that he be given a bell to wear.

A wondrous white autumn morning

I awoke to a breathtaking white world today - not snow, but a very heavy frost, coupled with a light mist. The world seen from my window looked a wondrous place. Every branch, every leaf and twig was a sparkling white as the sun rose.

Looking out of the end kitchen window I gazed upon the silver birch tree, it was covered in golden, sunlit leaves, as the mist lifted it stood out against a perfect blue cloudless sky.

Beyond this the fields were flooded and the shimmer of the sun on the water, surrounded by the white, frost covered fields already being visited by a flock of swooping and circling gulls, gave me a perfect start to the day.

Shortly after I glanced through the window at the side lawn, it was partly covered in sunshine and where the sun had melted the frost, diamond dew drops glinted and shone from each blade of grass.

How lucky we are with the seasons, that bring so much change and eye catching interest to our lives.

So many flowers are late bloomers.

Update on facially scarred squirrel ( see 01/11/12)

A few days have passed and there has been no sighting of the facially scarred squirrel, he had become  my favourite  and I miss him. He was particularly endearing the way when he was ready to eat, he would come looking for me if there was no food on the bird table.

He would go from window to window peering into the room, looking all round and if he saw me he would bang on the window with the flats of his hands, on noticing him I would give him a wave and off we would set to the side kitchen window. He always beat me and would be standing on the sill, little hands clasped in front of him patiently waiting.

Unlike some other squirrels he was not fussy, whatever I gave him he ate it, which of course endeared me to him even more, causing me to give him the choicest titbits.

I'd like to think that he is holed up somewhere recovering, but common sense tells me that he is not and I will never see him again. I feel sad to think this is most probably the case, but thankful for all the pleasure he gave me.

A Sad Squirrel Day

A sad day, the facially scarred squirrel came to the lounge window for food this morning, as always I waved to him and went to the kitchen to feed him.

Looking out of the window there he was ready and waiting (he is always quicker to reach there than I am!). Through the window I checked his wounded head, on the left side it was hideously swollen, but looked clean and dry --- no oozing pus. I had often seen it looking much worse and wished I could do something about it.

Opening the window I gave him some food, he took it and put it to his mouth, turning it round and round in his little hands. Meanwhile I refilled the bird table with dried fruit, seed, porridge oats, suet and mealworms. Glancing at the squirrel I noticed he was still standing in the same position, holding the food to his mouth and still turning it round and round. As I watched he dropped the food moved across and picked up more.

I had never seen this behaviour before and was intrigued, so continued to watch.

The squirrel went from one piece of food to another, it didn't matter what he picked up, he didn't seem able to eat it. Watching closely I realised that although he could put the food to his mouth he appeared to be unable to open his mouth.

He was obviously very hungry, he was standing on the bird table, bringing his hands together in a sweeping motion, then trying to push the food into his still closed mouth.

He climbed back up to the windowsill and sat there looking at me. I felt so helpless, I didn't know how to help him. Then I had an idea that may work, he loved peanuts, opening the tin I took a handful and dropped them out to him. Quickly he picked one up held it to his mouth, but he wasn't putting it in despite trying, in his efforts he rubbed all of the skin off the peanut. He dropped the peanut and moved on to the next one, he did this repeatedly always with the same results.

While watching him I became aware that his tail which had always been long and luxuriant, was no longer, I noticed the last inch was hairless and looked like a rats tail, the whole of the rest of the tail also looked different. Gone were the long luxuriant light coloured hairs and left was a covering of short brownish hair.

What had happened to him I wondered. Did it have something to do with his inability to eat? Had he been damaged by a car or a cat?

He was back on the windowsill, standing, hands clutched in front of him and staring at me, obviously hungry and still he hadn't managed to eat.

I racked my brains and thought of grapes, which he also loved. Taking four I cut them in half and gave them to him. One after the other he picked them up, put them to his mouth but was still unable to eat them.

It was a good fifteen minutes now and still he hadn't managed to eat anything. He was back on the bird table and sweeping up hands full of food trying to push the food into his mouth. Feeling upset that I could do nothing to help him, I left the window asking myself, what will happen to him.