Wildlife - wot you got?

[fruit&vegvirgin]

ok, yesterday I found a toad (I think) laying spawn on the grass on our field. today I found a slow worm in the compost heap, and I know several spots in the garden where they live.
the cats catch lizards in the summer.
we often get hedgehogs.
last summer I surpirsed a grass snake on our kitchen garden wall.
birds: we get the usual, plus woodpeckers and the odd sparrowhawk which uses an old tree stump outside the kitchen window as a killing ground - fantastic to see while you are washing up.
also the odd fox.

no wild rabbits, just one of ours (escapee). no deer or anything like that!

wot you got?

[JennieAtkinson]

Rabbits, rabbits and more rabbits.

Starlings, blackbirds, sparrows and Shetland wrens in the garden. On the loch (by our house) greylag geese (if it gets warmer these will be off to colder climes), breeding whooper swans (apparently the only ones in Great Britain) and all manners of water type birds (I'm not a birdie and only know the big ones like swans).

We also have otters - what a delight if you see one. And sometimes a heron or two.

There are some benefits from living here!

[fruit&vegvirgin]

otters!! how fab is that? my mum once saw a seal in the sea here, think it might have been lost though...

weird, in the lanes round here you see bunnies, but we have no wild ones at all in the garden or up the sea wall.

[JennieAtkinson]

Best place to see seals in Shetland is Somerfield in Lerwick ! Yes ...... no one believes it when you tell them. But Somerfield is quite close to the sea and the rocks by the road is a "pull out" for seals. Took a southern England IT chappie out there a couple of months ago and he got pictures of about 20 seals.

We are about 2 miles from the sea, but we have a (large) freshwater loch at the bottom of our garden.

[poultrychat]

Nothing as glamorous as seals and otters but I think more than my fair share. I get all the waterfowl flying overhead for the broads which is lovely but luckily they don't land here I have frogs, hedgehogs, newts, woodpeckers,sparrowhawk, a tawny owl, all the 'common' garden birds - including the 'rare' sparrow and having just started clearing a bank I think I have snakes too

[blackkitty]

Loads of water things, frogs, newts and toads. We also have a thrush nesting in the conifer for the second yearr running. But no hedgehogs we had loads the first year we moved here but haven't had any since and neither have any of our neighbours. Oh and lots of squirrels.

[pigletwillie]

Lots of amphibians (so picture perfect hostas) and common birds. We have 8 nest boxes but as yet have never had a resident.

[smallblueplanet]

Lots of birdies - 'garden list' of things seen in or from the garden of 43.

I think we have a hedgehog visit - we've seen the poo! A three-legged fox.

Nothing really exotic, but we did see a common lizard last summer on the patio.

What I really enjoy seeing are the hirundines, especially the martins - I hope we have them nest in the boxes we put up under the eaves, again this year.

Has anyone seen any swallows, swifts etc yet?

[poultrychat]

Swallows arrived last Thursday here

[Shortie]

Help - I've found my toad

I've just found 'our' toad again. Been in my garden since we moved and I keep deisturbing the poor b*gger and not realising it! I have no water featurea or anything in my agrden so I don't know what he's surviving on...

Can anyone offer me advise to keep him here and happy (mind you he can't be unhappy as he would have moved on ages ago I suppose..?

[sewer rat]

In this garden we have loads of birdies, but my last garden there were a family of Red Squirrels, two Roe Deer and a Pine Marten as well as the birds. Saw the squirrels daily, the Roe Deer weekly and it took me 11 months to see the Pine Marten in the flesh (or should that be fur?) but on the day we were moving to our current residence, he made a ten minute guest appearance.

[fruit&vegvirgin]

all's well in the world - the bats are back! saw my first 2 of the year last night.

[dabbit]

I've seen in my small back garden: Mice, various birds, & frogs - nothing exciting I'm afraid

[andrewo]

I get field mice, and amorous cats, a few birds now I have more trees and cover, alot of slugs and snails. Occasionally I see the odd fox. Yesterday I was inside in a garden centre and they had set up a bird feeder, as an example, a robin had darted in an open window and was using it. Tame as anything.

[Jaxom]

Last year a Robin set up home in our local garden centre and raised a family. It became a bit of an attraction. I am sure it pulled in more visitors to see the family than an advert of special offers ever would.
Jax