What's in your garden?

r3nu4l

Inspired by the hedgehog thread, what birds, animals and insects do you have in your garden?

I have several blackbirds and a robin in my garden. The robin and blackbirds have now taken to quitely standing close to me and watching every time I weed the flowerbeds so that they can grab insects. They usually wait until I move onto a new area before approaching.

We have a bird bath that is regularly used by starlings, pigeons, the robin and blackbirds, and finches and tits. Our bird feeder is used by tits late in the year.

I have a bees nest under a summerhouse (still haven't got any photos of them entering or leaving).

Only last week I noticed that there were about 15 humps of soil particles spread throughout the lawn. A quick tug on the grass to disturb the soil confirmed my suspicion as hordes of tiny little yellow meadow ants came bustling to the surface to investigate the disturbance and protect the nest!

We also have a very small pond that has attracted dragon flies and pond skaters which is fairly cool!

I've always found gardens to be fascinating places for wildlife so I'm interested to hear what you guys notice in your gardens.

dranoel

All I've got is a lawn but I've seen blue tit, blackbird, robin, wren, goldfinch, greenfinch and pied wagtail.

KTRIC

I've got a little ginger cat, so not many bird's around :rolleyes:

The little b0llox doesn't kill them , he just meow's and scares them off.

Ruu_Old

We have quite a few of these beauties. Plenty of squirrels who are very tame and come right up onto the patio.

KTRIC

Ruu wrote:

We have quite a few of these beauties. Plenty of squirrels who are very tame and come right up onto the patio.

Thats some burd , what part of the world are you in Ruu ??b

Ruu_Old

Illinois in the US at the moment, far away from my beloved County Meath. It is quite a change.

crosstownk

So far, this year, I've had Robins, Blackbirds, Starlings, Jackdaws, Coal Tits, Blue Tits, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Wood Pigeons, Collared Doves, Magpies, House Sparrows, Song Thrushes, 3 cats (1 mine) and a fox.

I'd like to see a Goldfinch - there is one around - I can hear him - but he hasn't visited my garden yet.

hmboards

We have blackbirds, collared doves, magpies, robins, house sparrows, and every now and again we are visted by a cock pheasant.

The house sparrows are nesting under the roof tiles at the front of the house. Some pics here. I'd love to get a photo of the pheasant, but he doesn't call often enough or stay long enough. I can hear him though. They must be nesting nearby.

Lillyella

We have a male and female blackbird which I could sit and watch all day. The female one is most destructive and kicks my flower beds all over the shop.

We have a wealth of magpies which I'm not too pleased about, the noise of them, and they are such bullies. Couldn't get over one chasing a local cat across the wall.

We had a robin but he seems to have disappeared a wee bit now.

Roen

Male and female Blackbirds, all manner of Finches, Tits, Robins, Sparrows, Crows, Thrushes....the list goes on and on. We even had a Sparrowhawk once!

A few Dragonflies have appeared over the years, last week being the most recent. Lots of different Butterflies and Moths. There's no end of bugs that I couldn't come close to ID'ing.

There is a Hedgehog nearby, I've seen it while on the way home from the pub late at night (me not the Hedgehog).

Our cat has become a bit too lazy these days so the birds are largely unmolested. But she has offered up just about every type of bird or mammal over the years.

r3nu4l

Ah the Cardinal bird is a beauty! We had a trush in our garden a good while ago but I've not seen it since February. Thanfully, I haven't seen a single member of the crow family in my garden since we moved in in December. Not even a magpie.

Back in Ireland we always had magpies in the garden and I did watch them swoop on cats quite a lot as well as work in pairs, each one taking turns to distract the cat while the other landed in the garden to feed!

magicbastarder

i have those aphids which are 'farmed' by ants. and some slugs, caterpillars and the like.
given that i live near the city centre, and my garden is about the size of my palm, that's about as much as i can reasonably expect.

The Hill Billy

Regular visitors: robins, a wren, pigeons, blackbirds, mistle thrushes, sparrows, song thrushes, magpies, crows, hooded crows, blue tits, wagtails, doves, rabbits.

Occasional visitors: pheasants, a heron, bats, a buzzard, frogs.

mickjoe

In the back garden here in Oxford, I have seen ... Collared Doves, pigeons, starlings, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, Sparrows, Dunnocks, gold finches, Bullfinch, black cap, magpies, jackdaws ( one of which killed and plucked a baby blue tit one day last week ) wrens, robins, blackbirds, Green Woodpecker and the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, green finches, siskins, chaffinches, Jays, Nuthatch, Longtailed Tits.

Birds that have been seen once are:-
1 Grey Heron. A Barn Owl, a Tawney Owl, a Quail, and a Sparrow Hawk.
At the moment the Greater Spotted woodpecker, blue, great and coal tits are visiting daily.

There are also Squirrels coming in to Steal the Birdy food.

artieanna

some busy gardens here:cool:

At the mo there's two thrushes that regularly drop into the lawn and feed, one large one and a smaller (younger I assume) one. There are also tits, wag tails, chaffinches, greenfinches, robins, blackbirds, woodpigeons and swallows by the dozen.

As for insects lots of young earwigs have appeared under pots, they haven't developed the two pinchers on their butts yet, butterflies, beeeezzzz, wasps, chafers, woodlice, small luminous shiny green beetles, luminous green small spiders on shrub, and unwelcome snails, aphids and midges in the warm evenings...

It's amazing how much stuff is living in/using a garden...