What wild life have you seen in your garden?

Sive · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:42 pm Post subject:

I think many,many more children are killed by their own parents than are attacked by foxes, as well you know, so your point is exactly what????
Just read the details of "Baby P" in England, and a little girl in New Zealand whose multiple tormentors/killers have just been sentenced.

verge · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:33 pm Post subject:

Ah folks, from Irish wildlife to child injury. Sad

Lets put this and the point scoring behind us and return on topic 'wildlife in your garden'. Thanks Wink

Red · Hazel Tree Joined: 01 Jul 2006 Posts: 14

Sive · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:08 pm Post subject:

Fair comment, verge, why don't we just enjoy that lovely photo of the fox....
and live and let live!!!!!

hawthorn · Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject:

No janelee, we don't kill our neighbours chickens because it would be breaking the law, but the fox does'nt know that they are our chickens, to him its just food, he knows no bounds. And thanks to all who liked the photo of the fox. i will be campaigning to have it at the number one spot in the irish gardners.com prestigious photo of the month award..... Laughing

PS it wasn't meant to be controversial.

cooler · Ash Tree Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 239

medieval knievel · Sessile Oak Tree Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Posts: 318

over the weekend, in my girlfriend's garden (apart from the birds which are attracted to the bird feeder), we found mice (first time we've seen them) and a frog, which looks as if it's chock full of spawn. suburban garden in ashbourne.

Liparis · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:35 pm Post subject:

Well, I'm very happy to anounce the first Tawny owl calling last night.
When we bought this place and moved in 7 1/2 years ago, darkness fell before we finished and I was pleased to see a Tawny sitting atop the telephone pole. That was the last we saw or heard him/her until last night.
In Scotland, Lockerbie, we had numerous Barn Owls, tawny owls and on one ocassion a long-eared owl. I'd love to see Barn owls here.
Bill.

walltoall · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:23 pm Post subject: wildlife in my Thurrock garden

Latest around here in the wildlife list are ring-necked parakeets. They arrived last year. But my favourite just now is a resident starling who copies their screech. The hure catches me out every time. Last year him or one of his mates used to do a green woodpecker. We do have green woodpecker in the estate but not near my house so the starling did a handy fill-in. .

ormondsview · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 11:31 pm Post subject: bird cunning

We have have several falcons which shriek when they hunt. They show up usually at noon time when you can see them soaring overhead. It's like high noon in the old west. All the animals are hidden and quiet. No birds, no squirrels. They are so big, that there's a shadow as they swoop past. Well, the bluebirds have copied their shriek. Suddenly, all is quiet. Not a squirrel to be seen. Two bluebirds appear. One is the lookout, the other the thief who raids the squirrels knothole. They take turns getting the stashed food. I know this because they look about like two robbers on the big job. Another thief in the garden is a big blue heron who raids the koi in the fish pond. We've given up really on the koi and stock only goldfish now. It's so out of place to see the heron hiding out in the neighbour's tree. It knows the fish would be away from the surface if he were spotted. We have raccoons as plentiful as foxes and I feed them the leftovers which the dog can't have. Here's a video. http://www.vimeo.com/179797 The shriek in the video is Coco the parrot who doesn't like raccoons. Once we left the budgies out in their cage and came home to find a raccoon trying to get at them. They are smart, cute, but vicious.
I have had a favourite cat killed by a coyote who brazenly hunt in the daytime.

kindredspirit · Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:56 am Post subject:

We had a hare and her leverets nesting at the bottom of our garden a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately a cat turned up and that was the last of the leverets. It was actually the ONLY time we've seen a cat in our garden in 30 years. None of our neighbours own cats; don't know why.

Oh. And we've sticklebacks in our pond now. They're almost impossible to see in the water.

dinahdabble · Hawthorn Tree Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 93 Location: Torr

The key to good chicken keeping is locking the pop-hole at night, and securing the fences with a dog on the premises.

As for predators in general, I hear an awful lot of arguments about whether people should shoot or poison them up here - including large birds of pray. Oh dear, this is going to sound like a rant, but I'm an X-ethicist by trade and training, and have to argue the case when it comes up. Sorry. Embarassed

I usually try to explain that the main danger to non-predatory wild animals and predators alike is the lack of habitats, including but by no means exclusively, the construction of roads and buildings. Of course you have to look after all aspects. The main debate that comes up around here is oddly limited to "the preditor or car" as the worst culprits. I try to explain that foxes regulate periodic explosions in numbers of rats and rabbits. Similarly, I try to explain that you don't have to shoot cats, because you can have them neutered or spayed, and out in the country their impact is small (and they're very good for keeping the rats down if you can be bothered to lure them into working in the barn).

I try to explain that people have the means to destroy huge areas of habitats, that support wild ecosystems - but that they don't HAVE to do this to live. Some people definitely have to be predators in order to live or preserve their livelihood - I am sorry that they have to do this but it seems reasonable to me. Some simply don't realise that there's an alternative way of living. Others just seem to have an overwhelming urge to be predatory and any excuse will do. They even kill one another with the excuse that somehow they have to. Other people are lucky enough to realise that they don't have to be predatory, or judgemental. Lucky old them eh?.. but then there is a bigger responsibility upon them to try to preserve, and to teach by example. So they keep chuntering away about the "look -you really don't have to destroy it" thing. But there is no point upsetting people, or going off on moral rant because in my experience people only learn by experience or example – and that is a very slow process. Sad

I had a Goldcrest land on me in the back yard. It just sat on my shoulder and rode around for a while. In the end I carried it to the bird table. Apparently this is not unusual, since they like to rest on animals backs after the long flight from the Mediterranean and are noted for their inability to distinguish between animals and humans. Smile

walltoall

Commonest visitor to our garden here in Thurrock these days is a grey squirrel. We still see or hear the parakeets overhead most days. But a couple of weeks ago we had a real first. A little egret flew over the garden. I'd never seen one flying before. We often see them down on the Thames marshes but here we're about three miles from water. Just now bird life is uncommonly quiet. Some sparrows, a few starlings, an odd magpie or three, a few wood-pigeons. Where do they go in late November?