A Summers Day in an English Garden

Awoke to heavy pelting rain, drooping the slimmer branches, running off the leaves and pulling the petals from flowers. After it stopped I looked for signs of a fine day coming, but the sky was overcast and the distance looked misty. A short while later it began to rain, not the heavy pelting rain of earlier nor the soft misty Irish rain, but what I think of as English rain, heavier than a drizzle, but still a gentle rain that drops steadily and windlessly straight down, gently soaking everything.

Around lunchtime the rain ceased, the sky brightened and not too long after the sun shone and the sparkling rain drops on the grass dried up. Within a few minutes birds started to appear, first blackbirds, followed by robins, magpies, a thrush, a young green woodpecker and then two jays, one adult and one immature.

I also had a very good view of a delightful little wren, on the step the other side of the patio door, just two feet from my chair.

I haven't seen many squirrels lately, so was pleased when I walked into the kitchen this morning to see one waiting by the window for food.

I recently noted that the pineapple broom shrub (Cytisus Battandieri) was having a second flowering, but failed to say the Magnolia Soulangiana is also having a second flowering, although it is very attractive, it is not as stunning as the first flowering due to the thick covering of leaves on the plant. The Magnolia Grandiflora is making a grand show though, the dinner plate sized flowers have been blooming for over a month now, they don't just look amazing, they also have the most wonderful perfume, it is lemon scented and very strong.

The prize winning shrub in the garden at the moment though has to be the beautiful Eucryphia Nymansensis "Nymansay", it is about fifteen feet high and four feet wide. At the moment it makes a tall column of hundreds and hundreds of beautiful white blossoms, which are so attractive to the bees that they are all over the plant --- even sleeping in the flowers overnight.

Another beautiful display is made by the tall yellow daisies, they are ten to twelve feet high. They are multi -stemmed, bright yellow in colour and again so attractive to the bees, who also spend the night in them.

Willow Warbler,Young Goldfinches and Lone Female Pheasant

Willow warbler again in the pineapple broom shrub (Cytisis Battandieri), but also present were young goldfinches. Pleased to see these as we see the adult goldfinches every day in the garden, I'm sure they are nesting somewhere here, but I have no idea where. The main difference between the adult and the young is the absence of the striking red face, found only in the adult birds.

Checking out of the back bedroom window I was amazed to see  the hazel alive with birds, blue and great tits, robins, blackbirds and surprisingly a family of blackcaps. Usually when I look out of this window my eyes are fixed on the flint wall, because this is where I usually see the short tailed field voles. In future I shall make sure I check the trees and shrubs as well.

I did notice while looking into the hazel at the birds, that all the nuts have disappeared already, either eaten or stored for winter by the resident squirrels. It seems churlish to begrudge them, after all they are unable to go the shops and buy anymore.

Pleased to see the lone female pheasant wandering round the garden again today, I'd feel even more pleased if there were more of them as there used to be in past years.

Birds, Flowers and Insects seen from the Back Kitchen Window

What a joy filled morning - up at 6 a.m. and again watched a female pheasant wandering about the back kitchen lawn.

A little later I noticed a fluttering movement coming down from the silver birch tree, it was a butterfly, an attractive speckled wood. It landed by the pond, where it rested in the warmth of the sun for many minutes. The garden was alive with bees, butterflies and many other flying insects everywhere I looked and no doubt anywhere I didn't.

The fennel which is an amazing wild life attracting plant for a garden, is now more than eight feet tall, it has more than a dozen stems and each of these have many forks in them. The whole creates an enormous plant, more than ten feet around and every stem large or small is topped by a flat panicle of yellow flowers. So densely are these panicles packed together that the whole is like an enormous bouquet of flowers. The best and most extraordinary fact about fennel is the very large and varied number of insects it attracts.  A veritable hoard, creeping, buzzing and flying all over and around, forming a cloud over the plant's flower head.

Perhaps the best plant in the garden this morning is the pineapple broom shrub ((Cytisus Battandieri), it is in the midst of a second flowering, bright yellow tightly packed upright racemes. Each flower is full of tiny black insects, the same type that fill the flower heads of the evening primroses.Each bright yellow cluster of flowers is set against a sea of blue/grey foliage surrounding it.

What made this shrub so special this morning was the number and variety of birds in and around it. The first bird I noticed was the tiny goldcrest as it moved restlessly about the branches. While watching it I noticed first one then a second coal tit, further along the branch were five blackcaps male, female and immature.    

Now my attention was really caught and I started to look in earnest to see what else I could spot. On the lawn underneath the pineapple broom shrub is a bird bath and bathing in it was a willow warbler, on the branch above I spotted another, which quickly dropped to join the first in the bird bath. Higher in the shrub I watched a garden warbler, when he flew it was to a nearby cotoneaster.

Seeing these birds this morning made me realise I just need to be more aware while garden watching.

The aforementioned birds were all special, but as well as seeing all of these I also saw blue tits, great tits, robins, a dunnock, a wren, two young blackbirds and on the grass underneath a pigeon and a thrush.

I had seen so much in this area that I wondered what was on the other lawns, checking them out all I saw was one lone magpie, gleaning the lawn for crumbs left by the foxes. Mind you the majority of what I had previously seen was not on the lawn.

Feeding the Foxes and the Magpie and the Sour Milk

Sometimes as well as the usual food we leave out for the foxes, we also put out other morsels, this happens for various reasons, maybe we have something left over we think they would like, other times we like to find out how much of an omnivore the foxes really are.

Most food put out is devoured, broccoli and cauliflower, need to be disguised either in a sandwich or with gravy over. Eggs are a real favourite and they also enjoy an occasional drink of milk, the container is usually licked clean, I suspect they really enjoy the spread scrapings at the bottom of the tub also.

Last night we left them a drink of milk in an old plastic spread tub, this morning it was mostly gone, there was just half an inch left in the bottom, during the day this curdled in the hot sun.

Mid afternoon it was approached by a magpie, who tentatively dipped his beak in to the container. On bringing his beak out, it was clear the milk was now solid as he had a lump of it in his beak. Undeterred he tipped his head back and swallowed it, the magpie then continued to eat the very sour milk until the container was empty.No wonder magpies are such survivors, I have not found anything they do not eat - even the broccoli and cauliflower left by the foxes, is soon devoured by the magpies.

Early Morning Visitor

Up at 6 a.m. again this morning and pleased to see the female pheasant wandering the lawns. This time she either didn't see me or was ignoring me, or perhaps she was a different one to yesterday, because we had no stretched neck or lengthening of her body.

Early Morning Female Pheasant Visitor

Six a.m. on this bright sunny morning, a clear, cloudless sky and there as I looked out was a plump, well rounded female pheasant, meandering across the middle lawn. Suddenly she spotted me watching her and from giving the appearance of being a ball she quickly became a line, her neck stretched up and her whole body lengthening to keep up with it. She stared in my direction and I in turn froze.

We stayed motionless for a few minutes until she, not sure whether I was a real person or not, decided against it and moved. Still she kept her body and neck stretched and her head held high, keeping her head at the same angle she took three steps to one side. Now she waited again still watching me, I didn't move. After a short while she turned her still long body, keeping her neck stretched, her head still held high she slowly walked away, while keeping her eye still fixed on me.

I thought she would disappear into the shrubs, but no, still at full stretch, eye still watching me, she turned and walked down the lawn where she disappeared under the bendy old apple tree.

Odd Behaviour from a New Fox

The foxes have been very late arriving for their food the last two or three nights, it has often been as late as 2 or 3 a.m., last night just after 1:00 a.m. on looking out I saw a different fox. He must have been born earlier this year, he was tiny and had a very scrawny tail, he must have been very hungry as he was really tucking into the food.

I stayed watching him, enjoying the thought of the food being found by a young fox, before our regulars turned up. He was quite picky and opened the tiny squares of sandwich, eating the filling and leaving the bread - not even licking the spread from the bread.

When he had finished eating he did something I have never seen before, he urinated all over the food he had left.

This behaviour is something I have read about in rodents, but never seen or heard of in foxes.

I would welcome any comments on this behaviour, if anyone reading this has heard of it before.

Muntjac Deer Visitor

While looking out of the kitchen window, a movement on the bank caught my eye, very slowly turning my head I saw our old visitor the muntjac deer, his nose just visible from the overgrown undergrowth. Not daring to move, I froze and waited, slowly he came forward, tentatively, hesitantly until I could see all of his head. Cautiously he stretched his neck and raised his head, scenting the air, he was as still as a statue. Feeling more sure of his safety he moved forward, now I was able to see the whole of his neck, again he waited and scented the air.

Now he felt very safe and stepped boldly forward, I was filled with such emotion, he was so beautiful. I was struck by how strong and fit he looked. Such a magnificent, wild creature and less than five feet from me, what an amazing view. I felt so lucky. I wanted to fetch my camera, but didn't dare move.

For a few minutes he stood motionless, then slightly lowering his horned head he gently and slowly turned it from side to side, looking first one way then the other. He spent the next seven minutes slowly wandering around and across the back kitchen lawn, before disappearing into the shrubs and on to the left hand back lawn.

The rest of the morning he spent on this lawn cropping the apple tree and resting. Amazingly where the muntjac appeared from this morning is the same spot that yesterday I saw a grass snake.

Female Grass Snake Basking

A beautiful bright, sunny morning. Surprised to see on glancing out of the back kitchen window the huge, female, resident grass snake. She does not usually bask so near the house or in such an open space, during the summer it is much more usual to see her either in the pond or under a bush.

She was coiled up - not smoothly but in a hotch potch manner - on the back kitchen lawn near to the bank and quite close to the base of the bird house. The sun was bright and that patch of lawn must have been temptingly warm.

This is the first time I have seen her this summer and I went to fetch my camera, but was saddened on my return to see her disappearing into the undergrowth on the bank.

I feel pleased to have grass snakes living here as I once read that snakes are a sign of a good wildlife garden.