Going Through The Motions

We feed everything that wanders through our yard/garden, practically.  Here in England, we have grey squirrels, foxes, badgers, jays, starlings, woodpeckers, magpies, crows, tits, wrens, robins, pigeons, and other small birds, and feral cats and neighborhood cats.  I don't feed the deer but only because I have experience with them becoming a nightmare in the garden with little blessings of deer poop everywhere that never goes away or gets cleaned up.   Unfortunately, the larger birds have pretty much chased away the smaller birds but I have heard that there are fewer tits and robins and wrens around the last couple of years anyway.  I believe that is so because the first two years here, we had plenty of all kinds of sizes of birds.  Now we are low on all bird life!  And to my everlasting sorrow, no hedgehogs.

The cats that wander through have varied over the years.  At one time, we had as many as 6 coming and going during the day.  Now we are down to just two, one tabby and one long haired golden colored kitty.  The tabby will come up to be petted if I stand in one place long enough.  The golden cat is too skittish and never comes near me.

The squirrels are up and down the feeder and adjacent trees and around the yard all day long.  They race along the fence railing, jumping over the posts and fight each other for supremacy in the feeder.  When one of the cats comes into the yard, the squirrels scatter, run up into the trees and curse and curse and curse until the cat leaves.  I can always tell when a cat is in the garden because of the noise the squirrels make.

The golden cat has decided that a very good place to sit is almost directly under the feeder.  The squirrels have decided that if they want the peanuts, they are just going to have to race a bit faster to nab one and race away from the sitting cat.   For awhile, I don't think the golden cat was feeling well because she (no idea if male or female but she looks too cute and sweet to be a male) would just sit and watch the squirrels and never budge.  Or was she just luring them in for later???

Standing in the house one day, squirrels in the feeder and on the railing and suddenly a streak of gold as the cat races from the side of the house and up the feeder pole to land on the railing herself and swipe a paw at a squirrel.  Wowzer.  She had never done that before.  Since that day, I have seen her several times make a run at the squirrels, never quite catching them but almost giving them a swipe.  She then settles into her spot and the squirrels come and go again to the feeder with her just watching them.

I think it's all for show!  Nobody is hungry since there is food out for them to eat.  Today, the golden cat came running into the back garden and ran at a squirrel who jumped up to the railing and sat there scolding her.  Another squirrel was sitting on the ground just about 4' away from her.  She turned around and saw it and made a half-hearted run at it and I swear she could have caught it before the squirrel decided to leave.  It's almost as if they are playing tag!  Tag, you're it now you run away because I really don't want to have to go to the trouble of killing you and eating you. Yes, we are ancient enemies.  I am the hunter, you are the prey, but let's just go through the motions and be done with it. 

Disappearing Fish

We have a very nice pond in our back garden.  And we have 6 fish in there and looking very nice as well.  We had learned our first winter here that when it gets cold, the fish tend to sink down to the bottom of the pond and hibernate.  So we don't have to feed them and don't have to worry about them.  Our first year though, I did worry that they might not be getting enough air when the pond froze and I was right.  When spring came and the pond thawed, all of the fish came to the top gasping for air and they all died.  So we replaced them with the 6 we have now and next winter, I made sure to poke holes in the ice with this lovely golf club I had found thrown into the bushes behind our house.

Everyone told me that herons come and eat your fish.  I haven't seen a heron yet anywhere around our  house and garden but people kept telling me I would lose my fish to a heron.   About mid Oct, I finally decided to heed the warnings and put a net over the pond to keep any potential heron from stealing my fish and also to keep the leaves from falling into the water.  I left one end, about a foot wide, of the pond open because the neighborhood cats and foxes and badgers and squirrels all drink out of the pond.  There are water lily pads in the pond so I figured the fish could stay under the water lilies and out of danger or they would deserve to get eaten.  

Wow, talk about locking the barn door or tempting fate!  Our pond developed a leak and we were having to fill it, even after all the rain.  So our landlord came over to replace it and punched a huge hole in the lining to drain it.  I was standing by with two nets to catch my fish.  Pond is getting lower and lower in water level and so far I have only gotten one fish in my net.  Finally, the pond is almost empty and there are no more fish in there at all.  I go downstairs under the deck where the water is draining and there is one fish lying in the puddle there.  that's 2 of 6 and that was all!  someone, some cat, some heron, some fox, some squirrel, or some badger has come and eaten my fish, four of them.  OMG.  my net was too little too late.  

Once we get in the new pond liner and fill up the pond again, I am going to put the net over the pond right away.  I am still going to leave a hole for the wild critters and the neighborhood cats and hopefully these two fish have learned their lessons as to what can happen to their friends when they swim to the end of the pond.  yea, right.  maybe I'll make spring with two fish and maybe not.
 

Evil Lurking - Gnomes in Danger

                      You would think that if a back garden is full of wonderful nuts and suet and mealworms and such, that the squirrels and magpies and wood pigeons would be happy.  Plus the stray cats that wander through the garden.  There's always some cat food or fox food out for them and the foxes and badgers.  I feed everything that wanders through my house or garden, two feet or four or wings.  I try to keep them all happy so that (1) my cats can see them from the windows and enjoy the spectacle, (2) I like to watch them all, and (3) if they are full, maybe they won't eat each other!

                       My fish pond provides water for almost all the animals.  I have seen cats, squirrels, pigeons, jays, crows, starlings, and foxes drink from it.  Most of them are quite content to not bother the fish who I think have gotten smart enough to hide under the lily pads when there are shadows lurking above.  Around my pond I have a number of garden gnomes.  They aren't super special gnomes (my two antique gnomes live close to the house so they don't get knocked over), but just your average gnomes with a few of them holding solar lights.  There is a ledge around my pond and none of the gnomes are standing on the ledge but are all slightly back from the ledge and on the deck itself.

                    Apparently this is not a safe place no matter how far back I put the gnomes.  For several days I have seen a vague red shape at the bottom of the pond but the water isn't quite clear enough most days so I couldn't tell what it was.  Today I suddenly realized, as I counted my gnomes, that it was one of the solar gnomes, sitting on the bottom of the pond, doing an impression of a frogman with a lantern!  Shades of evil squirrels or pigeons or cats or whatever.  Some four footed creature has knocked a gnome into the pond again!  This happens ever so often which is why the gnomes are moving slowly away from the pond each time I fish one out again.  Dang it because it was a solar gnome too and his lantern will probably never light again.  Those little four footed demons who, for some inexplicable reason, must hate sharing the pond space with inanimate objects that smile at them.  The only way to get one into the pond it so nudge it forward until it touches the ledge and then push hard to get it to topple over and into the pond.  And for some amazing reason, the gnomes always land on their feet so they are standing in the pond beneath the surface waiting for rescue.  Poor gnomes.   This one took several days to rescue.

              But I am generous in nature and spirit and will not punish my four footed freeloaders because they still are fun to watch.  I'd just really like to catch one in action to see who is pushing the gnomes into the pond and how exactly they are doing it.   There is some evil lurking in the back garden.

Crows hate magpies

Crows REALLY don’t like magpies

           

            Sitting in our conservatory yesterday reading and watching all the activity in our garden.  We have a couple of big crows that come in to eat whatever they like apparently and usually they like whatever the magpies are having.  Although when there is food out for the badgers, the crows go for that.  Yesterday I noticed that as soon as a magpie showed up in the yard, the crows would come from wherever and swoop down on the magpies and chase them away.  The chase would go on from tree top to treetop until we could no longer see them flying.  As soon as a magpie came back, the crows would fly in on attack again, dive-bombing the magpies.  The magpies are well aware of the animosity the crows hold for them and take off when they spot a crow.  Luckily for the magpies, the crows don’t hang out very often or the magpies would have to find another place for freeloading.

            The babies are all big enough to be out and about now.  Last week I saw a Greater Tit mom still feeding her baby.  This week the baby had flown to the suet feeder and was helping himself.  The mom flew to the feeder too (could have been the dad).  They were on opposite sides of the feeder and the bigger bird (which is not bigger by much but has the adult plumage) hopped around until it could reach the smaller bird and then pecked its foot until the baby left.  Guess mom wasn’t ready to give up her baby feedings yet or once you start eating on your own, that’s it, you’re out!

            Other babies that are out are the squirrel babies.  Again, not much difference in size now between the babies and the adults.  Yesterday there were 7 squirrels running around the yard after the peanuts.  One squirrel was sitting by the wheelbarrow gnome chomping down on the peanuts when a baby came along timidly.  Baby had good reason to be timid as the bigger and older squirrel immediately chased him away.

            The only parents and babies I have seen cooperating for food have been the two mice.  They will both hop into the wheelbarrow gnome and sit there and eat peanuts together as fast as they can because as soon as a squirrel sees them, ATTACK.  But the mice are quick and agile and when the older squirrel was chasing the younger squirrel away from the peanuts yesterday, the mouse ran out and grabbed some peanuts and was gone before the squirrel knew it.  Gotta be fast to live in my garden!

            There is a black and white cat that has discovered that the garden might be a place for a meal.  So far he hasn’t caught anything except our cat’s eye, who rushes to the door and growls and smacks the door.  Puff is defending the home front.  He usually manages to chase the cat away (although that’s usually at about the same time the cat sees us).  Puff is then so exhausted from his work that he sits and collapses at our feet while we praise him for doing such a good job. 

I love my garden.  I’ve never been a birder but now I get all excited when I see a new bird and try and look up to see what it is.  Some birds don’t come very often.  Today the woodpecker was out there for a while, taking a break from pecking wood it seemed.  It’s always interesting to sit and watch the garden and see the action.

Mean Squirrels

Mean Squirrels

            Everything gets fed in my garden and I mean everything from the squirrels, birds, foxes, deer, crows, cats, dogs, bees, badgers, hedgehogs (hopefully, haven’t seen evidence yet), people, fish, and just about anything else that runs through the garden gets food of some sort.  Sometimes it’s a little tricky spacing out the food bowls and feeders so that unfriendly sorts do not tangle up together.  I think we do a fairly good job of it though and most of the animals are happy and love running around the garden and it’s quite fun to watch them.

            That said, I have some very mean squirrels in the garden.  They are very good at stealing the birdseed and such.  I put out peanuts for them but when the peanuts are gone, they come after the seed and I have had to put out new feeders because they have chewed through all the plastic ones.  They’ll even sit in the bowls and eat the mealworms which did surprise me a bit.  Now they have stooped to a new low in meanness.

            I have gnomes in my garden.  I love my gnomes.  They stand around the fish pond and watch the fish (although the fish are still missing in action, hiding in the muck) and watch the lily pads grow and basically are not bothering anyone.  Four of my gnomes were solar light gnomes.  They have been in the garden for a long time and finally we are getting enough light, some days, for them to glow at night. 

            The squirrels though!  Mean critters.  If I have not gotten out there in the morning with a fresh batch of peanuts, they are going over and kicking the gnomes into the pond!  I have had to pull out gnomes from the pond several afternoons.  Once in the pond, the solar gnomes don’t work so very well anymore.  There is a gnome with a wheelbarrow too and he gets peanuts in his wheelbarrow every day.  By the early afternoon, his wheelbarrow is empty.  By the early evening, the squirrels have kicked him over.  I have had to move all of my gnomes away from the pond because they can’t swim.  The wheelbarrow gnome has to fend for himself.  The squirrels are going to have to learn to play nicely with the gnomes or they are going to find less peanuts out there, not more!

My Backyard-Back Garden Polo field

     I know little to nothing about polo other than it's played on a large field, on  large horses, and a small ball or something is hit with a stick.  Not having royals in the U.S. riding about playing polo and being in the news, the best I have is watching "Pretty Woman" where it seems that the break is used to go onto the field and stomp the divots back into the ground.   "Divots" seems to be a polo or a golf term, a piece of dirt and grass dug up by the golfer or the horses hooves.

     My backyard or back garden as is the term to be used in England, has many divots but I've yet to see a golfer in my garden or a horse playing polo.  My divots come from the squirrels.  I have been in the habit for many years of feeding anything that wanders through my garden.  This includes but is not limited to: squirrels, birds, mice, groundhogs, badgers, foxes, deer, cats, dogs, moles, voles, shrews, etc. etc.  In the U.S., it was usually cats and dogs and birds and opossums, skunks and raccoons.  Here in the U.K., so far it has been deer (who ate my tulips so they aren't getting any more), cats, birds, a couple of small mice, squirrels, and I am hoping and hoping to get badgers and foxes and hedgehogs but haven't had any luck with the last three yet.  I've been told that the badgers and foxes will really dig up my garden but couldn't prove it by me yet.  What's causing my garden to look like a polo pitch (field?) are the squirrels.  They are busy burying the peanuts I've put out and then busy wandering around looking for the peanuts they have buried.  I don't think they have much luck because every morning, I find a lot of new divots in the garden but no peanuts.  I watch them through the back window and they run from spot to spot and furiously paw in the ground to get a small hole and NOPE, no peanut in there so they run a foot or so and try again.  I know they are looking for the peanuts previously buried because they've eaten all the new ones put out every morning.

     So each morning as I go out to put out new peanuts and meal-worms or whatever I am doling out that day, I am busy stomping divots back into the ground.  I feel very posh doing the divot stamp.  Julia Roberts did it quite earnestly and lovely in "Pretty Woman".  I am wondering though, where is my handsome young polo player to take my shoes and clean the mud off of them??  I'm sure my hubby would do it but he's already gone to work.  Maybe I'm in the wrong neighborhood for polo players.  Maybe I should be looking for the fox and hound riders.  Maybe I should quite feeding peanuts to the squirrels.  nah.  ain't gonna happen.  too much fun watching them scamper and stomping divots.  guess I'll have to clean my own shoes.