Monday 20 April 2009

Garden Wildlife

Our gardens are becoming a haven for wildlife. My next door neighbour on one side had a fox in his garden one evening recently and the neighbours on the other side had a badger eating worms on the lawn one night. One man living close by when walking to work early one morning last week, followed a badger up the road.

And from the larger mammals like fox and badger, there were also a couple of the smaller ones in my garden and on my allotment yesterday and today. On the allotment a mouse was running around in broad daylight while we were working and today, in the garden this evening, a Pipistrelle Bat was hawking for insects over the pond. It was successful in its hunting as the Bat Detector I was using, distinctively picked up the buzzing sound that the bat makes as he homes in on an insect.

Bird species breeding in my garden include 2 nests of blackbird, blue tit, great tit, robin, wood pigeon, collared dove, starling, house sparrow and dunnock. There may well be a song thrush and wren, goldfinch and chaffinch are behaving as if they will also nest in the garden or very close in the weeks ahead.

Recent summer visitors heard singing in the garden include, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap - but these species will move on to their more favourite habitats i.e. woodland. They all breed in the parish.

I am now waiting for the first house martins and swifts over the village. I have swift boxes attached to the house and they were investigating last year. Swifts usually return to their last year's nesting sites in the first week of May - only a couple of weeks to go.

But will we get a cuckoo in the parish this year? They used to be regularly heard even flying over our house on The Marsh but in recent years I have not heard of one in our parish, never mind in the village. Cannock Chase would appear to be the nearest where you can hear them now. Traditionally they are first heard around the 21 April - that's tomorrow folks - so listen out.

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