Through the Garden Gate--January 2020

There's not much happening in the garden at the moment. January isn't really a good month to do any gardening and with all the rain we have had which has made the garden very soggy it's best to leave well alone.

I have been keeping the bird feeders topped up with seed and fat balls.  Last weekend I thought I would do the RSPB Garden Birdwatch.  When we moved here two and a half years ago there weren't any birds visiting the garden, but with no trees, shrubs or plants of any description it wasn't surprising that all the birds bypassed our garden. Now we have a lovely garden full of plants to attract the wildlife and we love to watch the birds. Most of our regular birds, however decided not to visit us in the hour I chose to watch out for them. In a short space of about ten minutes there was a sudden flurry of activity on the bird table and I managed to count three woodpigeons and fourteen starlings.  There was no sign of the robin, the blue tits, sparrows and blackbirds.

I still have some hyacinths in the shed which I potted up in the autumn.  They stay cool in the shed so  I can bring them in to the house gradually.

Last year I bought some snowdrops in the green and planted them around the garden late February so I have been looking forward to seeing them in flower this year.  I enjoy wandering around the garden spotting them coming into flower. 100 snowdrops seemed a lot at the time of buying them but they don't go very far and it will be several years before we can see lovely clumps of them. I will just have to enjoy seeing them in other people's gardens.

I  recently bought some pots of crocus from the garden centre and also found some pots of  mini daffodils down the side of the house left from last year. So I had a pleasant hour on a fine, dry day last weekend  planting these up in a border in the side garden. I will be able to see these from the house so hopefully they will provide a bit of colour in a few weeks time.

I am linking this post to Sarah's blog at 'Down by the Sea' for her monthly 'Through the Garden Gate' post.

Leighton Moss

I joined the RSPB a few weeks ago so was keen to visit one of their reserves in our area. Leighton Moss is not exactly in our area it's about an hour's drive up the M6 but I'd always wanted to visit.  As it was school holidays and we were looking after the grandchildren we thought it would be a good day out.

On arrival at the visitor centre we were made very welcome and as we had never been before were shown a map of the reserve on a computer screen and told which birds or animals we might see in different places.

There were a lot of professional looking birdwatchers about with big expensive looking binoculars and cameras. I kept my tiny binoculars well hidden and only took photographs when there was no one else about.  The 8 year old was given a children's backpack to look after which he appeared to take quite seriously. He had better binoculars in the backpack than I had. He didn't take a lot of interest in the rest of the contents of the backpack except when I suggested we tried to catch something in the bug catcher.  He found a spider in one of the bird hides but my attempt to catch it resulted in it being squashed.  He lost interest after that and I was not very popular.

The 11 year old was put in charge of doing the 'love birds trail' which was the children's activity for that day. We had to find the information boards for various birds and find out what their mating activity was ie sound, food, movement. That was easy.

We walked along the reed bed paths which led to the bird hides, followed at first by several pheasants.  We recognised various birds along the way, spotted nest boxes on trees, a hedgehog home and noticed how branches had been piled up in places to provide homes for wildlife.  I've done that at home in the garden and at the allotment so was pleased to see I was doing things right.

After a time walking and checking out the bird hides I could see the children were losing interest.  Hunger was taking over and we needed to get back to the car for our picnic lunch.  There were picnic benches close to the centre but it was not a day to eat outside.  It was cold, damp and the benches were wet so we settled for eating in the car.

After lunch we explored the garden area and all agreed it would look lovely later on in the year when things were growing properly. I liked this area, there was plenty to interest the children. There was a big bird feeding area where we watched the birds and the squirrel on the feeders.  The children walked through a willow tunnel structure and then sat inside a big tepee made out of thick branches under the trees. We thought we could copy that idea in the woodland den back at the allotment. There was a big bug hotel called 'Bugingham Palace' It was much bigger than our bug hotel at the allotment.

After another walk we went into the shop.  The children had some money to spend and each chose a fluffy bird which made a bird noise when pressed and a bird pen.  They had a blue tit and an owl which made very realistic noises.  I was worried that we would have to suffer these bird calls on the journey home but thankfully both children fell asleep. We must have tired them out.

Happy birds

There's a blackbird in our garden who is very brave and hops onto the bird table as I'm putting the bird food out every morning. I always say 'hello' to him and then he gets a bit scared and shoots off into the hedge. There's a robin too who follows me around when I'm gardening. I see him perching on the wheelbarrow or pecking away at the newly weeded soil and he makes me feel quite happy, like he's looking after me.

The robin and the blackbird are just two of the many birds who visit our garden every day.  There are some collared doves  who arrive as a group, they're fairly calm and quiet. Unlike the very greedy starlings who seem always to be squabbling. The  magpies are like bovver boys, strutting across the lawn, wobetide anyone who gets in their way!  The  woodpigeon is another scary bird who will perch on the nearby garden chair or table surveying the scene as if he owns the place.  There are blue tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, sparrows, dunnets, a chaffinch and the robin, who wait until the big birds have gone before they come to feed on the remaining food.  Then there are the occasional visits we get from a thrush, a couple of nuthatches, a jay and some goldfinches ( I wish they would stay, I really do).

I suppose I feel like all these birds are part of our family, because I know them so well. They seem to be very happy, as my daughter commented the other day when she heard the noise of twittering birds coming from the holly tree. Because they seem so happy and because there are so many of them  makes me think that I must be doing all the right things. Well I spend a lot of money on food for them. My husband says they are better fed than we are!

We have feeders in various places around the garden.  Some are in the apple tree at the top end of the garden. There is a bird table with feeders on nearer the house and another feeding area, a stone platform which was originally intended to be a seat for us but the birds took it over (sigh).

The garden itself has plenty of mature trees, shrubs, and a hedge where the birds can hide, nest and feel secure.  The apple tree provides enough apples for us to share, we leave a lot of the fruit where they fall. There are plenty of perennial plants in the borders which I don't cut back in the autumn.  I leave them until late winter, so that the birds can find food in the winter from the seedheads and insects.

I put out sunflower hearts ( not the black sunflower seeds which make a lot of mess), dried mealworms, suet pellets and the 'no mess' bird seed. There are feeders filled with peanuts, mixed seed, niger seed (for the goldfinches) and fat balls. Feeding areas need to be kept clean because birds can get all sorts of disease, so I clean the feeders and feeding areas with disinfectant every so often.

We get a really good view of the birds from our dining room window and I love to sit there with a cup of tea watching them.  There are squirrels too, their antics are quite amusing, but we could do without them really, they eat a lot of the birds' food and dig up the garden.

Next weekend I am taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch. If you want to take part just click on this link   http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

For more information about feeding the birds in your garden click on this link
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/feeding/

or  :http://www.wildaboutgardens.org/thingstodo/allyearround/feed-the-birds.aspx

The Lodge Nature Reserve, Sandy

Last weekend we visited our daughter and family who live in Bedfordshire. On the Saturday they took us to  the The Lodge Nature Reserve at Sandy which is run by the RSPB. It is not far from where they live and although they have been there before it was a first visit for us. There was a Christmas Fayre on too so plenty for us to look at.

It was a lovely mild November day and the sunshine enhanced the autumn colour of the trees.  I was aware of lots of space and trees as we drove through to the car park.  There seemed to be plenty of walks on offer and we took the track which led to the Christmas Fayre and the RSPB shop. We didn't see any birds, but then with two lively grandchildren maybe the birds were keeping out of our way. The children enjoyed doing the Christmas trail as we walked along which entailed spotting  pictures placed among the trees. They also enjoyed spotting toadstools.

Father Christmas was in his grotto at the Fayre, so we had to go to see him of course. There was a Salvation Army band playing carols which all added to the Christmas theme.

After we had looked around the Fayre we walked to the Lodge.  On the way we found a huge tree which was great for climbing. We also found a wasp's nest in the ground, fortunately it was sectioned off with a warning to keep away, but we could see the wasps flying around the hole.

The Lodge has lovely gardens which are organic and worked to provide homes and food for wildlife

I'm sure it's a lovely place to visit in the spring and summer when the borders are in flower, but there was still plenty of colour around.

The grandchildren were very interested in the Japanese orange tree.  It had quite small fruit which had a soft downy feel to it and a delicate smell which we thought was a bit like peaches. The label said it had a very bitter flavour.

We enjoyed our visit to The Lodge and we left feeling there was much more to see.  We'll probably go back at another time of year when we can see different things.