Wildlife in our gardens

kiwichick

Its a lovely little bird. I spent ages trawling through my husbands bird books trying to identify him and then read in our village newsletter that he had visited another garden locally. He's only been here three times but sits on my fence quite happily for quite a while when he visits.

kiwichick

We've had our friendly green woodpecker in again this morning, spent 40 mins pecking around the grass - is that normal?? Thought they did that to trees.....

~Chameleon~

kiwichick wrote: »

We've had our friendly green woodpecker in again this morning, spent 40 mins pecking around the grass - is that normal?? Thought they did that to trees.....

They'll be after the ants!

All this rain we've had recently had brought many ants' nests to the surface, well it has in my garden anyway!

kiwichick

Oh Gosh, hadnt realised that. Hope he comes back then, we seem to have been inundated with red ants nests - about 16!!!

bluedog

Lovely thread!

I get too many birds to list, although not all at once obviously! I live in rural woody areas and have had yellow hammers visit in spring over the last few years which was a nice surprise. The starlings tend to take control off the nut feeders ..... until the woodpecker arrives and then they leave well alone until he's finished.

As with everyone else right now, the parents are bringing their fledglings along and it's been hilarious watching them in the bird bath. One of the starlings just couldn't figure it out and was dipping his beak into the water and then giving his feathers a good ruffle as he flapped his wings though was standing on the rim of the bath. :rotfl:

I've put up bug homes for the ladybirds/lacewings and bees in hope they will reward me with keeping aphids under control - I'm sure I've got more than my fair share. My next main project will be putting in a wildlife pond as I want to attract some frogs or toads to do the same with slugs and snails. The more birds I've got visiting, the less I want to use chemicals on the pests. has anyone else done this successfully?

Davesnave

My next main project will be putting in a wildlife pond as I want to attract some frogs or toads to do the same with slugs and snails. The more birds I've got visiting, the less I want to use chemicals on the pests. has anyone else done this successfully?

You may reduce your small slugs a bit with extra frogs & toads, but they won't dent the snail population or that of the very big slugs. We have a very successful pond and dozens of amphibians, but we also have a huge number of snails.

There is a fine balance to be struck here. If you have a tidy garden, it won't attract much wildlife, and if you have one full of interesting nooks & crannies, log piles etc, you'll be rewarded with thousands of molluscs! Personally, I'm not convinced that slug pellets, targeted carefully, are as much of a 'problem' as some people say, so I'll keep my interesting garden (most of which never sees a pellet) and carry on protecting my veggies as necessary.

Canucklehead

Good morning: Our 4 song thrushes are making a meal out the snails and slugs in our garden (but they still have room for dessert i.e.juicy sultanas from our patio).

Canucklehead

~Chameleon~

I spotted my first caterpillar of the year this evening! :j

It's very pretty and has cleverly camouflaged itself on a buddleia stem. I don't think I've seen one like this before, any ideas what it might be please?

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chameleon.photos/WhatSThis/photo#5211095421251316898

Davesnave

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

I spotted my first caterpillar of the year this evening! :j

It's very pretty and has cleverly camouflaged itself on a buddleia stem. I don't think I've seen one like this before, any ideas what it might be please?

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chameleon.photos/WhatSThis/photo#5211095421251316898

Looks like a Mullein Moth caterpillar to me:

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/T26876.HTM

Very nice, if you don't specialise in verbascums like I do! These, and Figwort Weevil, give me a real run around at this time of year.

~Chameleon~

Davesnave wrote: »

Looks like a Mullein Moth caterpillar to me:

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/T26876.HTM

Very nice, if you don't specialise in verbascums like I do! These, and Figwort Weevil, give me a real run around at this time of year.

I'd never heard of these, thanks!

I don't specialise in verbascums, but I am trying to grow a few for the first time this year! Just hope the caterpillar doesn't find them and sticks to the buddleia instead