Wildlife - wot you got?

[Birdie Wife]

I'd love to have woodpeckers, there are lots of 'common' species we don't get much up here. Magpies is another case in point (but that's probably a good thing really!!). They are really rare here. Barn owls too, hardly ever see them. The b****y cat is still cathcing things though. I found our robin on his back with two little legs in the air a couple of weeks ago. Grr.

[SueA]

Everyone else seems to be so lucky to have such exotic wildlife in their gardens. We only have the common or garden(!) species visiting us- hedgehogs, squirrels, frogs, mice, shrews/voles,blue-tits, blackbirds, collared doves,magpies, starlings (millions of them, noisy devils), occasional heron checking out ponds, goldfinches,long-tail tits,wren,robin,ducks/geese/swans flying over on way to local canal (Manchester Ship) or 'Old River' (strip of Irwell left behind when re-routed) & umpteen cats. Lots of bees, butterflies & sometimes a hummingbird hawkmoth in the summer & millions of slugs & snails!

[Alice]

SueA, you can have my Roe Deer if you want them. They eat everything they can get their lovely lips on. If I could get them I would cheerfully make bambi burgers. Have spent fortune on fencing to keep them out so here's hoping.

[SueA]

I would love them Alice but I don't think the neighbours would like them trotting through the gardens & rummaging through the bins! I can see how the novelty would wear off though after they've eaten all your precious plants but living in a fairly built up area we rush outside with cameras & call the neighbours out if anything remotely interesting arrives in the garden.

[bramble]

Don't have anything in my neck of the woods either. A herring that arrives every year only this time two came, they stand on the top of our shed and look at the fish in the pond but our two cats hunt them off.Wood pigeons loads of them, magpies, blackbirds. (oh the dawn chorus every morning) blue tits, robins, and finches.Butterflies, saw a cabbage white today and the garden is absolutely full of ladybirds.

[sewer rat]

I have wood pigeons nesting in my large holly tree which is only about three metres from my veg beds - feel an evenning with the gun may be required - save my cabbages and get a pie filling to boot - happy days

[smallblueplanet]

.... A herring that arrives every year only this time two came......but our two cats hunt them off.

[nick the grief]

A herring that arrives every year only this time two came, they stand on the top of our shed and look at the fish in the pond .

Good stuff this Guinness

[Nicos]

trust you Nick....we were to polite to comment!!

[fruit&vegvirgin]

can herrings stand? s'ok Bramble, I knew what you meant!!!

met a very confident fox on the patio last night, practically came into the porch! Rab C. Nesbitt (our free-range rabbit) is still around this morning though.

[smallblueplanet]

The house martins are back, swooping around with the swallows, claiming their mudbuilt nest (in next doors eaves) and woodcrete nestboxes in our eaves - it's great to hear them 'squibbling' in the nest!

[Becky]

Only creepy crawlies, esp. vine weevils in my courtyard garden, but out and about I see loads of badgers - beautiful creatures but a bit of a menace, their sets totally wreck the field my pony lives in, but I guess they were there first a fair few foxes, plenty of deer which i usually only see just as they leap out right in front of my car, I've hit 2 now and just missed several more, its not nice I can assure you grey squirrels, tons of myxy rabbits, I found a stoat once too. Birds are pretty much the usual, the buzzards round here have increased a lot in recent years, hundreds of herons and swans on the nearby Somerset Levels, and I am told there are nightingales in the next village so I want to go and hear them soon. There is such a great variety of habitats within a 10 mile radius of where I live, woodlands, reservoirs, rivers, farmland, rough land, nature parks, the wetlands and the coast not much further - I feel very lucky

[Nicos]

Saw a hedgehog in the garden early this morning!

[Sinta]

Lots of creepy crawlies! A lot of earthworms, some spiders and some woodlice (ick to the latter!) I hope to make more homes for bees/birds to promote their presence, because I hardly see them. I did see 1 bee though... a furry bumblebee we decided to name 'Eric'.

[fruit&vegvirgin]

sinta - my 7 year old calls wood lice 'head lice'!!! too many goes with the nit comb, I think!