Lockdown Nature Experiences
Discussion
Idly scrolling through my phone pics and realised I have built up a decent collection of animal pics since I started working from home nearly 7 months ago. I work from the kitchen table with a good view of the garden and bird feeders and there's always something going on, it has been an utter delight...
There are always pheasants coming and going to feed on the seed dropped from the bird feeders. I think my record was 9 at once, mostly females. I was delighted in April when this tame male would happily feed from my hand and then he started wandering in to the kitchen with a little temptation:
My cockerel also liked to wander in too. He would eat some blueberries and raisins before having a nap on the kitchen floor:
Having more time at home has given greater insight into the life of my cats, twin Siamese brothers. It seems they mostly enjoy sleeping:
This one was bizarre. Two juvenile woodpeckers on the bird feeder tree and I couldn't believe it as one pecked the other one to death
This Nuthatch flew in to the glass of the kitchen windows and stunned itself. It recovered and flew off:
This was amazing. A sparrowhawk attacked a parakeet that was on the feeder. There was an explosive aerial tussle and both crashed in to the kitchen window glass. The parakeet flew off but the sparrowhawk was stunned and I thought she had broken her wing. After the selfie I put her on the lawn and was relieved when she flew off after a few mins:
My cat caught a live mole and brought him in to play with before eating but I managed to intervene. I am not a fan of the local moles given that you can actually see their molehills on the Google maps satellite photos of my garden! However, he was magnificent. Extremely strong and the softest fur you can imagine (I took a glove off for the picture and a quick stroke). Eyes were not apparent but I think they do have eyes?
This Goldfinch also flew in to the window and was stunned for a few minutes:
Finally this small hornet was suffering in the cooler temperatures and was low on energy. He loved the sugar in water and was soon on his way:
I also held a young grass snake but stupidly didn't take a picture. I put him in the compost heap.
Anyone else got anything similar?
There are always pheasants coming and going to feed on the seed dropped from the bird feeders. I think my record was 9 at once, mostly females. I was delighted in April when this tame male would happily feed from my hand and then he started wandering in to the kitchen with a little temptation:
My cockerel also liked to wander in too. He would eat some blueberries and raisins before having a nap on the kitchen floor:
Having more time at home has given greater insight into the life of my cats, twin Siamese brothers. It seems they mostly enjoy sleeping:
This one was bizarre. Two juvenile woodpeckers on the bird feeder tree and I couldn't believe it as one pecked the other one to death
This Nuthatch flew in to the glass of the kitchen windows and stunned itself. It recovered and flew off:
This was amazing. A sparrowhawk attacked a parakeet that was on the feeder. There was an explosive aerial tussle and both crashed in to the kitchen window glass. The parakeet flew off but the sparrowhawk was stunned and I thought she had broken her wing. After the selfie I put her on the lawn and was relieved when she flew off after a few mins:
My cat caught a live mole and brought him in to play with before eating but I managed to intervene. I am not a fan of the local moles given that you can actually see their molehills on the Google maps satellite photos of my garden! However, he was magnificent. Extremely strong and the softest fur you can imagine (I took a glove off for the picture and a quick stroke). Eyes were not apparent but I think they do have eyes?
This Goldfinch also flew in to the window and was stunned for a few minutes:
Finally this small hornet was suffering in the cooler temperatures and was low on energy. He loved the sugar in water and was soon on his way:
I also held a young grass snake but stupidly didn't take a picture. I put him in the compost heap.
Anyone else got anything similar?
Yes, I do need to do something about the windows! Some stickers or something. Their proximity to the bird feeder means that startled birds do crash in to them.
It is no exaggeration to say that these experiences (and generally taking the time to observe nature every day) is saving my mental health. It keeps me in awe and wonderment of this planet.
It is no exaggeration to say that these experiences (and generally taking the time to observe nature every day) is saving my mental health. It keeps me in awe and wonderment of this planet.
Well you have some stunning shots there.. We used to get a lot of pheasant in our garden (and the male would start yelling for his food if I didn't put it out fast enough), I think we had 22 once for our record. Used to get three woodpeckers too and we get the bats each night. The one thing we have that I've not seen anywhere else was a white pheasant....... Before we put up the fences we could get deer (mainly muntjak) in the garden, one morning there were three of them eating the shrubs outside my lounge window and we used to get a fair few squirrels too.
Sadly we've not had much of late in terms of wildlife in the garden, no pheasant this year at all even. I don't know why.
Sadly we've not had much of late in terms of wildlife in the garden, no pheasant this year at all even. I don't know why.
Sadly all I'll I have is one/possibly two hedgehogs. Over the past few years we've had one large on in our garden, and from what I see it's hibernating in the leaf dropping + grass cuttings over the space between my two fences. Now I've found ( thanks to our dog) that we have a smaller visitor, possibly a hoglet from the larger one, as it tends to follow the same routes as the larger one. I weighed it last week at circa 400g and tonight at 450g. Normally I see hordes of slugs in/on the rear garden, but since harry/harriete ( the large one) and not son of ,I hardly see any slugs. But I notice that any food we put out (chunks of mince ,when we find hoglet in places where it's found by dog )or a small plate with a dollop of dog food under the fence where I suspect it's sleepng during the day gets eaten.
The large one- I've only seen it recently around 0300 ,when I've gone down to get a glass of water.
The large one- I've only seen it recently around 0300 ,when I've gone down to get a glass of water.
Awesome pics OP! I take it the cats don’t take a particular interest in the pheasants or chickens then? (Our neighbour keeps Asil chickens and the cockerel killed a fox last year!)
Super jealous of both the mole (never seen a live one
. ) and the grass snake
I also have pics and vids of similar - will upload some later
Super jealous of both the mole (never seen a live one
. ) and the grass snakeI also have pics and vids of similar - will upload some later
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