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Blackbirds – again!
This particular blackbird has been a regular visitor to the garden – she’s not after the berries in the Berberis (I think all the berries have been eaten already!), but comes to gather up some food we’ve put out, then take it away for her youngsters to share. It’s certainly keeping us busy, making sure…
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Soggy Fuchsias
The weather’s been a mixed bag today – blue skies and sunshine one minute, and rain the next! So when I looked into the garden after a rain shower, I spotted the raindrops on the fuchsia flowers. Nothing too spectacular about that, but with the way the sunlight was passing through the fence, it led to…
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Post the food in here!
The House Sparrow families are back again! Bringing a few youngsters with them, they landed in the plants in the garden, swooping down to the wall where we’d left some food for them. The young sparrows still haven’t got the hang of feeding themselves yet – they sit near the food with quivering wings and…
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Not so tasty….
The House Sparrow families have been visiting the garden over the last few days, scooping up the food we’d put out, as well as taking a drink from the bird bath. But one sparrow had other ideas: Sitting in the ornamental Quince, he decided to sample one of the petals! I’m not sure if it was…
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A Queue for the Feeders
I know that seed feeders can be popular with small birds, but I never expected to see three different species all feeding at the same time! The birds which couldn’t get close to the feeders, all lined up on the roof. Either they’re drinking water from the guttering, or trying to pick insects and seeds…
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Small bird, loud voice!
I could hear the short staccato shouting of a small bird in the garden. Thinking it was the female blackcap again I went to get my camera, only to discover it was actually a wren sitting on the garden fence. I’m impressed with the way the wren was able to preen its feathers and shout at the…
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Fennel flowers
I bought a herb fennel plant in our first year as allotment holders – I hadn’t realised quite how readily it spreads its seeds! I now have multiple plants, but unless they’re in the way of other things I’m trying to grow, I let the new fennel plants grow too. Normally the fennel reaches about…
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Hopping around on the allotment
One thing you have to be careful of on the allotment, is where you put your feet. Not because the local cats might have left a deposit, but because the grasshoppers might end up underfoot! This one jumped onto the rhubarb leaves as I was walking past, and I spotted the next one on a…
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Wildflowers on the allotment
On my allotment, I’m allowed to use up to 25% of the space for flowering plants. I’ve not got anywhere near that much space devoted to non-edible flowers, but I do have a small flower section to entice the pollinating insects. As well as the lavender plants, there’s a fennel and some mint growing near the…
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Swiftly Soaring Swifts
Can you spot the Swifts in this photo? They’re that swarm of black blobs in the top right – I couldn’t even consider zooming the camera in on them, as they moved too quickly! I was able to zoom in on the photo itself though. I still don’t see how they manage to fly so quickly,…