Wildlife - wot you got?

[bramble]

Alice, you are SO lucky. Wish i had something like deer in this neck of the woods but not a chance.

[Lozzie]

In my garden I've had mostly birds. We've had ravens, magpies, thrushes and wood pidgeons. We even have a robin that's made our garden his territory. He comes back every year. He's also popped into our kitchen a few times!

In my area we've got rabbits, foxes, herons, deer, frogs, slow worms, kestrels, owls, red kites, buzzards, hawks (Wales is a paradise for birds of prey), wild ducks, wild geese and the occasional bat. Bug wise, we get bees, lots of different species of butterflies, ladybirds, crane flies, wasps, all manner of beetles, centipedes (I had to rescue one from the bath yesterday), spiders, stink bugs (they used to love my raspberries), moths esp. cinnabar moths (you know the bright red and black ones that fly during the day and have orange and black striped catterpillars? I used to call them Tigerpillars when I was little!) and millipedes. Towards the west coast, you can find seagulls, seals and even bottlenose dolphins! Some of the more unusual creatures I've seen are lizards (one got into a local hospital while I was waiting to see a doctor) and budgies (OK, I guess it must have escaped from his owner, so it was technically a feral budgie.)

South Wales used to be a mining area. Now that the rivers around my place are all mostly clean (apart from those litterbugs that insist on dumping their old stuff in the rivers >_<) and the woodlands are growing back, wildlife has been flooding back into the area. Isn't it amazing that, no matter how much humans change the land, Mother Nature always takes back what's hers in the end...

[nick the grief]

Alice, you are SO lucky. Wish i had something like deer in this neck of the woods but not a chance.

We had Roe deer on sunday.... New potatoes, Cauliflower, carrots hmmmm

Only joking it was last week

For the last 20 years we (well I ) have had bird feeders up to very little success but the other week I moved one to the bottom of the garden & hung it fro the Silver Birch - What a difference ! I've had to fill it up 3 time in 2 weeks (it is a big feeder mind you) whereas it would last a bout 4 or 5 weeks before. Only trouble is I can't see the little gits now !!

[Alice]

Hello Bramble, if you read my previous posts , or had ever had deer in your garden you would not think I was lucky Yes, they are gorgeous, and the destruction they do is unbelievable It's like having monster slugs eating everything in their path - flowers, veg, shrubs, trees and what they don't eat they trample on or the buck barks with his beautiful little horns. I have a very large garden and we have spent considerable sums of money on fencing to keep them out - they can jump 8 feet.They seem to be able to just walk through hedges. I don't want to harm these lovely animals. I just want to stop them eating my whole garden. I can do no more to keep them out. I fear if I find them back in they are all going to be Bambi burgers. For the moment we are managing to kep them out and enjoying watching them over the fence. Long may it last

[SueA]

Alice, I just got a free book from Garden News mag. (well £4.94 p&p) called Gardener's Problem Solver by Miranda Smith, she's American but it's mostly relevant to here as well. It has a section in it on deer which you would probably be interested in. It mentions that they can jump 7ft high but says they won't jump over width so you should fix angled brackets to the top of your posts which stick out for 2 or 3 ft. & then string wires across them so that your fence has a sort of ledge of wires at the top to put them off.She also suggests if you're in a rural area to have an electric fence with strips of tinfoil baited with peanut butter fixed to it so that the deer lick it, get a small shock & don't do it again! Sounds a bit cruel to me.Other ideas were tying packs of strongly scented soaps at deer nose height around the fence, small mirrors on strings which you move around so they don't get used to them & 'zoo poo' - lion manure!

[smallblueplanet]

just had a visitor.....looked out in the garden cos there was a large group of sparrows hollering and a squawking and saw this! Had to dash inside first to get camera and then to put my shoes on!

Checked on the net looks like a grass snake, cos of the yellow band round its head/neck.

[Squirrel]

Would agree with that! They are a lovely snake arn't they!

[Sunbeam]

what a beauty! My mother would've packed her bags and moved house if she found one in her garden!

[smallblueplanet]

Hah! it didn't stay around long. I think me & the sparrows spooked it - tremendous sight though, I've only seen a snake once before, they're amazing.

Last year I saw a little lizard on the patio - that seemed very exotic too!

[Alice]

Thanks for the pic SBP. I'm always amazed at the great pics people can post. I'm sure it is a grass snake. I don't have any but my sister has them in her garden in Dorset. Maybe I would get used to them. I know they are harmless, and beautiful in their own way, but........... they just don't draw my affection. I'm trying.. honest.

[Lozzie]

Lovely picture! I believe that grass snakes can be helpful since they sometimes eat mice. Unforutnately, they are keen on frogs too. Did you know that grass snakes can play dead when disturbed?

[smallblueplanet]

It better stay around then 'cos come winter the mice like to head for our loft!

[JennieAtkinson]

Snakes ! Even the photograph (good one!) made me feel nervous. One of the reasons I like being here - there are none.

[SueA]

Lovely pic. SBP, I have only ever seen snakes when we have been out on walks or on holiday. We saw a grass snake slither across the path in front of us once near Peckforton Castle & some baby adders once at Corfe Castle ( maybe they've got a thing about castles? Does your house have turrets? ) I think I would be so shocked if I saw one in the garden I'd probably trip up running off for my camera!

[smallblueplanet]

Know what you mean Sue, it was actually slithering along full length when I first saw it and it saw me. (My first thought was something like 'woah, snake'!!!). After I'd dashed in to get the camera (and then in again cos I thought bare feet was a bad move ) it had moved off to the 'undergrowth' and curled up.

Oh, no turrets btw!