Skip to main content

More Badgers

With a little remodelling of my garden in mind I marked out the planned paths with chipped bark. This proved to be a mistake as the badgers spend a fair bit of time scraping it out of the way to find food underneath. I have found chips scattered widely across the garden and the camera trap has verified my suspicians about the culprits.

The badgers seem to visit on most nights, last night the camera revealed two separate visits, one by a pair. Seeing the route that they take into the garden has also proved my suspician that they are responsible for the gap in one of my fences. At different times of night various cats also explore the garden. I have one confrontation recorded, I am glad to say that it didn't wake me up, and do wonder if I will get to record any interaction between the cats and other wildlife.

On the birding side everything has settled down. A wren seems to be active in the front garden and a pair of long tailed tits must be nesting nearby as they are regulars on the feeder. In the back we had a rare visit from the hen bullfinch who restricted her feeding to the ground. The cock bird has become accustomed to using the feeder now and perches without difficulty.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Finally

 Health issues mean that I haven't been paying any attention to my blogs but I was roused from my afternoon cup of tea today but a most unholy racket. Yes the parakeets have finallyarrived in my part of Chesham with a flock of five in the tree in my neighbours garden. It had to come eventually as they have been in Rickmansworth for years. Not much else happening apart from the usual circling kites and the occasional buzzard. I haven't seen anything eating my rowan berries but the tree is being steadily stripped. Usually its a mix of wood pigeons and blackbirds. Collared doves seem to be back in this end of the village as I saw a pair while waiting for the bus this week. They used to be garden regulars but hadn't seen any near the house for years.

Harvest

The arable fields between Ley Hill and Latimer have been harvested over the last couple of days. This morning I saw a group of yellowhammers in the middle of the road by a field gate. From the look of things they were eating spilled grain. Instead of flying into the hedgerow they flew away from me along the road at windscreen height. I haven't seen much else recently apart from a distant glimpse of a partridge and the occasional red kite.

Returning to the Garden

High summer and early autumn is always a quiet time for birds in my garden. I no longer feed after my summer holiday as I have ended up throwing away far to much mouldy fat or seed. Normally I would wait until November before putting the feeders back out but a party of long tailed tits appeared in the front garden today so I think that it might be worth while trying a single fat bar for the moment. For the past couple of weeks I have seen a lot of roadside signs saying "beware of deer" in places where I wouldn't normally see them. Last weekend I decided that they might be justified when I encountered a herd of roe deer in the road between Ley Hill and Latimer. While muntjac are seen often enough the roes tend to be shy and this was only the third time that I have had a good look at some in all the years that I have lived here.