Tag Archives: vermin

Rats, Clutter and Politicians

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Jackdaw

It’s been a strange week for wildlife this week. Long-tailed tits have appeared nearly every day and we had a Jackdaw at the start of the week too. They are very occasional visitors to the garden, even though we frequently  see them overhead.  We have also had a Brimstone flutter across the garden twice this week (it may be the same one twice, of course) and today a Peacock woke up from some cranny in the conservatory and began to flutter round. Julia ushered it out and I hope it found some early nectar. There’s going to be a steady decline in temperatures over the next week so I hope it doesn’t regret its decision to wake up. Julia bought some wallflowers in pots from a roadside stall while she was out today, so at least we have some nectar to offer.

Then we had a visit from my least favourite garden visitor – the brown rat came back. We  will try more peppermint and see what happens. It’s weeks since we last saw it, so we aren’t doing too badly.

The rat came back but the rabbit did not return

I’m now looking for suitable trees for the conservatory – once I get a couple of small citrus in there I will definitely begin to call it the Orangery. At the moment it doesn’t even rate the title of Conservatory, as it is really just a glass lean-to where we are storing junk. Yes, It’s building up, despite our good intentions, but we are just about keeping up.

Though I have bought a few books they are all on Kindle, so they aren’t clutter and two of them were actually free. I had to pay 99p each for the other two, but I don’t mind that. It’s when you see Kindle books advertised for the same sort of price as a physical book that I have reservations. Kindle books are all very well but after the nuclear winter settles in the wake of the Third World War books will still be good for making fires and using as makeshift bedsheets. A Kindle will only be useful as long as the charge lasts. After that, it is just a very poor substitute for a plate. I’m just wondering whether to name the new axis of evil Trutin or Puump. Any thoughts?

I dream of attracting four birds at a time

Free seed and nature watch

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Julia had a quick word with the man we refer to as The Gamekeeper today.

Before you run away with the idea that we’re bankrolled by a rich farmer (as several local projects have stated),I’d better point out that we aren’t, and that we are very far from a sporting estate. Go somewhere like the Elveden Estate, as we did a while ago on our trip to Thetford, and you will see a big difference. Elveden is brilliant and clearly well-un and well-financed. You also have an immediate feeling for the generations of forelock tugging that have gone into making it what it is. No criticism, not (much) jealousy – it’s just like being in a different world compared to the chaos and cheese-paring that is my daily life.

Our shoot is run by a man who pays  to run a shoot on the land and, with a group of shoot volunteers, controls vermin, plants hedges and wildlife cover and does a variety of odd jobs around the place at weekends and in the evenings.

He’s more a nature warden than an old-fashioned type of gamekeeper, though he does make a hole in the magpie, fox and rabbits populations.

Considering that a fox killed 40 chickens in one night a few years ago, have trimmed the free range guinea fowl flock and ate Nelson the one-eyed cockerel not so long back, I don’t have a lot of sympathy with them. I wouldn’t like to exterminate them, I wouldn’t chase them to exhaustion and rip them to pieces with a pack of hounds but I don’t see that it’s my job to maintain the population by feeding them my poultry.

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Same with the rabbits – they are nice enough, but I’m not here to provide them with a banquet of salad every night.

Magpies – the jury is out. Some people think they are responsible for the decline in songbird species, some don’t.  They have certainly spread over the years, being common now in places I never saw them as a youthful birdwatcher. Like buzzards and curlews they were birds I only saw on holiday or visiting grandparents in the north-west.

Anyway, it was a fruitful conversation (to get back to the main subject) and he has offered us free bird seed for the winter, which is good.

He also told her that he saw a large group of young blue tits on the feeders a few nights ago, so at least someone has seen them since the nest box went quiet. We thought it was a bout time they went but weren’t quite sure. He also said he sees little owls at night – they roost on the rails of the fence that runs behind the feeder – something else to look out for!

Hatching egg report – we now have 5 so we are on stream to start hatching next Wednesday.