Local Wildlife

[Merddin Emrys]

One of our local pigeons has started roosting on the Sky dish (makes no difference to the signal!) he's usually there from around 3pm till 8am when he goes round the back for his breakfast. We've named him 'Sky'  D)

[Fester]

Merddin,
Have you heard about the Sky dish that got married to a TV ariel?
The wedding itself was rubbish..... but the reception was fantastic.   L0L

[Merddin Emrys]

Merddin,
Have you heard about the Sky dish that got married to a TV ariel?
The wedding itself was rubbish..... but the reception was fantastic.   L0L

 L0L I've heard it but it's still funny, after putting this picture of the pigeon up here, he's stopped roosting there now   earlier he was round the back adjusting the security lamp to a more comfortable angle, now he's not on that either!  L0L

[Yorkie]

Perhaps he's getting a warmer reception somewhere else!             

[Hugo]

A friend who I go walking with sent me some photos of Waxwings and a Redstart that he saw in Sainsburys in Rhyl when he went to the store.  He had previously seen Waxwings on the Industrial Estate at Ruthin.

[Hugo]

Here are three more photos of the birds.

[Hugo]

I bought a new bird fat holder on Saturday and thought that I had the Badger problem sorted when I tied the feeder in 4 places to the bird table. 
This morning the bird table was down again and it had been dragged towards the house this time and the metal fat ball holder was nowhere to be seen.
When I went to the bird table I could see that only the top of the fat ball holder was there but I found the bottom part of it at the top of the garden minus any fat balls!
I'll have to think of something else to sort them out.     

[Yorkie]

The most humane and long-term solution to discourage badgers from your garden is to remove or prevent access to what attracts them to the area. For further advice on deterring badgers, the contact details for your Local Badger Group can be obtained from The Badger Trust on tel: 08458 287878 or www.badger.org.uk.

Remove access to any potential food supplies
• Only provide food for wild birds on bird tables or in feeders and clear away windfall fruit.
• Use expanding straps to securely seal dustbins.
• Use either electrified flexinet fencing (pegged down along its length to prevent badgers squeezing underneath) or two strands of electrified Polywire at 7.5-20cm above ground around vegetable patches etc.
Deter badgers from the garden or limit access
• Erect a strong chain link badger-proof fence around the garden (or vulnerable crops) that is more than 1.25m high. The base needs to be buried into the ground by at least 30cm and extended at right angles underground for50cm - facing outwards from the exclusion area. Badger gates can also be set into the fencing to allow badgers to use their established paths through areas of the garden.
• Use a proprietary animal repellent approved for use to deter badgers, available from garden centres or hardware stores. Take care to read the label and closely follow the instructions, as each product is prepared and  approved for use against certain animals in the specified way. It is illegal to use any substance to deter badgers that has not been approved for such use.

[Merddin Emrys]

Just put a sign up saying 'no badgers' (in Welsh as well), my 'no elephants' sign works very well! 

[Hugo]

Actually I like Badgers coming into the garden and get a great deal of pleasure sitting in my sun lounge watching them coming in to the garden and looking around for food.
Although I don't feed them like I previously did they still keep coming here.
I hung the fat ball holder on the bird table so that the small birds could feed on it but then found that the crafty crows would take the top off,tilt it up and empty the fat balls on the ground and then they would fly off with the whole fat ball.
I thought that I would get round that when I made a mesh of string around the top of the fat ball holder so as to prevent them from falling out but I reckoned without the old Badger.
Anyway, I've now decided to hang the fat ball holder on a tree high and away from the Badger's reach!   BUT  what about those three Squirrels that regularly come here?       

[Bellringer]

Foiling the efforts of squirrels to get at bird feeders and fatballs is very frustrating and is usually unsuccessful. We thought we would beat them by hanging our's from the branches of our monkey puzzle tree. Now that's a tree that can be fairly lethal to the touch, but eventually and inevitably the squirrels found a way round it - they do however appear to tread rather warily though.

[Hugo]

My neighbour across the road solved his Squirrel problem quite easily.  He had a very tall bird table that was positioned away from where the Squirrels could leap from and he fixed a rather large plastic plant pot upside down on the pole of his bird table. Problem solved.       

The only downside is that they have come across the road to me where they know they'll get something to eat!     

[Bellringer]

My attention was drawn earlier to a commotion going on at the top of our rear garden. There seemed to be a 'milling throng' of various birds around one particular tree and so I ventured out to investigate. Among the bird noises I could hear was one occasional "squawk" but I wasn't able immediately to spot what it was.
And then I did spot a tawny owl just sitting there on a branch looking straight at me. I decided to quietly retreat and get my camera but he/she was not waiting and flew off in the other direction. First time I have seen one in daylight (in the wild) for a long time.

[Bellringer]

My wife has just shouted from the kitchen which is on the front of our house, and pointed out a fox stood there on our driveway. It then wandered out of the drive, down Henryd Road and appeared to head for Gyffin village.
Wildlife must be finding it very difficult - at present our thermometer shows -7C.

[Bellringer]

Had a beautiful pair of bullfinches earlier in our greengage tree. The male, as is usual with birds, was very striking with his blaze of red while the female was quite plain.

However there is a downside to them being in the garden because they feed on the fruit trees' new shoots and so this can result in a poor crop of fruit later in the year. Still it was nice to see them and come to think about it, that could account for us not having many greengage last year.