Nut Mystery
June 21st, 2010
While looking for information about Great Tits, I stumbled on this entertaining little article on h2g2 about who might be stealing the hazelnuts from our trees before they’re ready to eat…
Great Tit has a Lucky Escape
June 19th, 2010
Sometimes the cat doesn’t only get the cream, it also gets the unsuspecting bird (or frog) as well. Yesterday, I could hear one of the cats miaowing outside and wondered what the problem was. I opened the back door and Suki, the big black female cat, sauntered in with something clutched in her mouth. She continued to announce her arrival and went into the hall, where my wife intercepted her and rescued the bird she’d delivered.
It turned out (from a quick consultation of the excellent photographic guide in the Collins Complete British Wildlife) we had a juvenile Great Tit in our possession. The colours are all there, except the yellow face, which – according to the book – doesn’t become white until adulthood. Quite where she got it from I don’t know, but we kept it inside for a while, in a small cage with food and water, and after about half an hour, my wife tried to get it back into the garden. She placed it on this little bird nester, but it didn’t seem ready. It just stared at her.
We had it in the house a while longer – where it continued to stare a lot, with occasionally lapses into sleep – until it hopped up on it’s feet and seemed ready to go. Refreshed and recovered, when I took it outside, it paused for only a moment before launching into the air and flying into a nearby tree.
A lucky save from becoming dinner!
Blockhead
June 13th, 2010
Does anyone have any ideas why a squirrel would have a square of fur missing in the middle of it’s forehead?
This critter – affectionately known as ‘Blockhead’ – has been coming to our garden for a few weeks now. He doesn’t stay still for long, a squirrel ever in pursuit of nuts, so the quality of the picture isn’t so good. Motion blur does not make for a good image.
Blockhead appears to be quite a feisty character, one of the chasers rather than the chased. I suppose that might be the source of his injury, but he doesn’t seem inconvenienced by it. You might wonder whether such a mark might disrupt his vision, but thus far nothing seems to suggest that this is the case at all.
We’ll keep an eye out for him! And, maybe, get some better pictures…
Ah… A Challenge!
May 29th, 2010
Squirrels appreciate nothing more than a challenge. Fine weather or foul, there’s nothing quite like a hanging treat to get a squirrel excited. Here. the cage of nuts hangs off a side branch, while the squirrel sits on a broken branch we’ve stuck between the main trunk of the tree and an old wooden bird feeder. The persistant squirrels will happily hang upside-down from that cage trying to pry nuts out through the holes, which – depending on the nut and the angle, can seem a little too small. Challenge, however, is everything.
Cat Biscuits for Me
May 19th, 2010
We just witnessed a hedgehog in our back garden for the first time in ten years. While we’ve (unfortunately) seen casualties on the main road a ways from here and I’ve seen one in a neighbours front garden, we’d never seen one ourselves in the garden. Given our garden contains so many nooks and crannies, this has always seemed odd – and it’s often seemed likely we’ve simply been missing them. In the last couple of weeks we have noticed poop in the garden that we couldn’t identify, but there was no reason to suspect it was a hedgehog.
This even, however, on looking through the backdoor, we found a hedgehog feeding on scraps of cat biscuits from a bowl in the back garden. We do have a lot of cats around; but, last time I did see a hedgehog it had rolled up tight and a cat that had been toying with it rapidly lost interest in the ball of spines. We will have to keep a keen eye open now to make sure the cats keep away from the little fellow – and be sure to keep the odd snack or two outside to reward him for his efforts.
Nice to extend the back garden menagerie!
Bat Garden
May 9th, 2010
Our resident Pipistrelle bat made an appearance this evening, despite the fact the garden wasn’t terribly warm. The summer sees a lot of bat activity, as the insect swarm provides a regular smorgasbord – so, seeing the bat out appeared a little odd.
Still, nice to see him around so early – and looking forward to seeing further activity from our little friend in the nights to come. I’d love to get a picture, but if I tried I’m reasonably certain I’d get nothing but sky and, perhaps, a grey/brown blur if I’m really lucky.
It’s Bill’s Fault
August 28th, 2009
The garden is wet, the cats soaked. The squirrels struggle out from cover reluctantly to search for food. It would seem the trailing end of Hurricane Bill – http://tr.im/xnKY – has put an end to the summer in Britain.
Clouds, thick and dark, hide a sun keen to emerge whenever the chance arises – but such opportunities seem few and far between. The sky pokes through, cracks of bright blue amidst the gloom, but the warmth doesn’t last for long before fat drops of rain start falling again.
Ah well… I hope this means no cries of water storage and hosepipe bans this year!
Tad Pool
April 4th, 2009
The tadpoles are swarming around our little pond in the back garden at the moment. Hundreds upon hundreds of them, tails thrashing to the point where the water was literally frothing in places. The first promise of the warmth of Summer-to-come seems to have got them all seriously excited.
At the same time, the daffodils have come into full bloom, with brilliant yellows and whites bordering the garden. The trees are budding green or in playful bloom, bringing the Bumblebees out for an early round of collection activities.
And while the squirrels play and the birds twitter, a little kitten lurks at the backdoor of the house pondering what that big garden might be like to run around in…
Froggy Went A Courting
March 7th, 2008
Noticed a lot of activity in the pond last weekend, and looking forward to seeing just how much spawn has formed since. Some pretty healthy looking frogs floating around at the moment, we can but hope that they will not fall foul of the same unpleasant malady that claimed so many last year. Those lesions looked so damned painful, and it was becoming quite wearing to go out each day and see what might have died overnight.
It’s A Puppet!
January 26th, 2008
I had the shock of my life today when I went to the garden pond. Chasing a cat around the garden, I mounted a small flight of flagstone stairs next to the pond and saw something white sticking out of the soil. It looked like a frog. On closer inspection, it was. Arms splayed, lying on it’s back, it seemed frozen in the rictus of death. Quite frankly, it looked awful. A painful and lonely demise. So, obviously I got a stick to poke it. A double poke later, it became suddenly clear that this was not a frog, but a plastic ornament – one to which no one has since admitted ownership.
Given the whole business last summer of frogs dying like flies, bodies riddled with weird tumours, I can really do without this sort of discovery!
Roller Hamster Derby
June 13th, 2010
It’s tough keeping track of ‘em. Harder still taking any reasonable picture!
Bath-room
May 31st, 2010
Not a good thing at all, we found some tiny mycelium beneath the bath cavity, likely encouraged by the damp of shoddy plumbing…
Dangerous Holes
May 29th, 2010
We have a hole outside our driveway.
United Utilities sent out their contractors, Enterprise, who dug a hole in the corner of the road, slung some yellow barriers around it, dropped a yellow toughened plastic cover over half of the hole, and then left. They didn’t return for two days. The hole, on initial inspection, contained water – filthy water – and turned out to be about 12 inches deep. For some reason, Enterprise – who, apparently, won the Highways Considerate Contractors Gold Award in 2009 – thought that the barriers only needed to be there to stop pedestrians falling into the hole. Considerate of human beings, but less concerns about cats, dogs, squirrels, hedgehogs and any other random wildlife not expect a deep hole where there used to be tarmac.
It’s my experience that no wildlife has an inherent ability to read warnings or take any notice of yellow barriers designed only to warn off idiotic bipeds. On phoning Enterprise – who claim to have a commitment to operate in a responsible way towards its customers, communities and environments in which it operates – the person on the other end of the phone explained the barrier was intended to stop pedestrians getting hurt and when informed we’d be contacting the RSPCA, indicated they weren’t likely to do much about it.
Anyway – the day after the phone call, and the day before anyone turned up to do something about the hole, it rained. The hole filled almost to the brim with foaming, murky water – though, we’d taken our own steps to cover it with a sheet of thick cardboard anchored with rubble. Luckily, no animals got hurt, though the opportunity certainly presented itself…
Perhaps, in future, United Utilities and Enterprise could take the time to show greater consideration for the community – both human and animal – and not dig dangerous holes days before anyone plans to do anything with them. I understand schedules may mean the people who fix can’t get to a spot the same day the people who dig – but, when that happens, the people who dig should try a darn sight harder to ensure they leave having made the location safe to anyone simply passing through.
Looks How I Feel
May 22nd, 2010
Seriously hot today and all the cats are lounging around the garden in various states of unconsciousness.
I know exactly how they feel. Stay still too long in this heat and my skin will crisp up like an order of duck from the local takeaway!
Eric (2008 – 2010)
May 8th, 2010
Unfortunately, Eric – one of our rescued Roborovski dwarf hamsters – has passed away following a short illness, possibly a stroke.
Eric – and his associate Ernie – came into our possession in 2008 – see Hamster Rescue – following an advert on a local Freecycle site. The owner couldn’t look after them, as they were moving suddenly, and so we took them on.
While kept together originally, Eric and Ernie didn’t stay friends for long. Eric, the larger, seemed to take issue with Ernie over food and space – leading to an unpleasant discovery one morning finding Ernie covered with bleeding bite wounds. Separated, Ernie recovered – and remained the most friendly and approachable of the two. Eric never really enjoyed contact, but could be handled when cleaning time came around and enjoyed running around in the hamster balls and his wheel. His wheel running, indeed, led to the purchase of a silent variety, following some very noisy evenings.
Like all our pets, Eric will be sorely missed. He died in my hands and hopefully suffered very little pain in his passing.
Good Advice Ill Taken
June 13th, 2009
I found myself in an odd situation this morning. I was in the kitchen making toast and coffee. Our only male cat, a big ginger character called Bill, often spends the morning waiting expectantly in the kitchen – and he was there again.
As I made my breakfast I lectured Bill on why I wasn’t feeding him. There were biscuits down, but Bill would much rather have a pouch of soft food. I told Bill I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, give him what he wanted simply for the good of his health. Biscuits are good for his teeth while the soft food isn’t. Admittedly, Bill probably didn’t understand much, if any, of what I was saying to him; but, as I lectured it occurred to me that it’s a lot easier to enforce a healthy regime on a hungry ginger cat than it is on myself.
Perhaps, as I assist Bill with his self control, I should listen a little myself and try to improve my own eating habits.
Holly Ahoy
May 7th, 2009
Holly has grown up enough now to spend some time outside unattended. She was uncertain at first, but certainly has adjusted very quickly. We still don’t want her going too far, but running around the garden gives her a perfect chance to run off some of her energy. Mind, she seems to have a massive reserve to work off.
Unfortunately for the squirrels and the birds, Holly has discovered trees and how much fun they are to climb. I can’t be exact, but I’m guessing she climbs a good three or four metres up the biggest tree in the garden. I sometimes worry that she might emerge from the top at some point and get stuck there. Luckily, the interior of the tree is pretty dense, so if she falls she can’t go far. Heck, her claws are so sharp you can hardly pull her out of the low branches without a real struggle.
Once she has been neutered and tagged, I suspect the whole neighbourhood will be in for some real trouble…
Kitty in a Basket
April 6th, 2009
Suki has become a distinctly playful surrogate mother foe our kitten Holly.
New Arrival
December 11th, 2008
We have kitten. She won’t get into the garden for a few weeks, so in the meantime she’s laying waste to the house, loose capable, Christmas decorations, other cats, and the skins on my arms and hands. Poor thing had worms, so she’s on medication. Still, she’s a beautiful little cat and I’m sure she’ll make a great addition to the menagerie.
Hamster Rescue
November 12th, 2008
Like some kind of miniature wildlife rescue centre (except with a domestic slant), we have recently taken to homing hamsters. A few weeks back we got a Syrian hamster – called Oliver – and last week we acquired a couple of Roborovski hamsters – called Eric and Ernie.
Alas, pet shops seem to be confused about which hamsters like company and we didn’t have enough cages to home Eric and Ernie in separate cages. For some reason pet shops sell these guys in discounted pairs – but, they just don’t get on. Or maybe it’s just the males?
We had had paired males before – Vic and Bob – and suspect that Vic might have done something to Bob, who unfortunately passed away. Now, Eric and Ernie have set upon one another, and little Ernie has come away with blooded wounds to his rump and front right paw. He seems in good spirits and has been eating/drinking, but just how much blood can a dwarf hamster lose before it causes issues – and wound need to be kept clean to prevent infection.
In both cases the animals we have rehomed came from homes advertising through an online ‘recycle’ site, Freecycle, where people normally offload unwanted furniture, toys, or white goods. The recent trend towards disposing of pets has been a worry. We’ve reached the limit now on space for pets, so we can’t do much more than lodge complaints on this matter; but, I urge anyone considering buying a new pet to think long and hard about whether they’ll have the time to look after it. The Syrian we adopted had suffered wounds to it’s flanks because of a small, metal wheel in the cage tearing out hair; while, the little hamsters smelled like the owner hadn’t cleaned them out in weeks. Pets are not disposable play-things or accessories – and you should make the decision to buy one lightly.
