Dragonfly

Beautiful Broad Bodied Chaser dragonfly around the pond yesteday and today. Photos to follow .

Barn Owl

Seen a barn owl on two occasions recently - most recently last Monday (26 May) on the fence post behind the greenhouse. Excellent view. Not seen since, despite looking.

Sowings & plantings - 11 May

Carrot Amsterdam Sweetheart, 2 rows, D1
Beetroot, 2 rows, D2
Calabrese (bought as plants) 12 plants C1
Lettuce bought as plants, 10 plants, C1
Cos Lettuce bought as plants, 10 plants, dining room bed
Runner Beans Polestar, sowed, B1

Little owl

... heard in garden weekend 8 & 9 May, evenings and during the morning.

Barn owl

Barn owl in the garden tonight; lovely view.

Turaco

Our Turaco came even closer on Sunday evening:

Sparrowhawk

Heard sparrowhawk calls from far end of garden this afternoon - I reckon nesting in neighbour's garden. A fine male landed in the garden while we were having tea - we think he caught something.

Pond planting

Planted the following in the pond today: hippuris vulgaris, mimulus tingens, Lysichiton camtschatcensis and Equisetum scirpoides. Also Nasturtium aquaticum on the bank.

Planting the pond

On 10th April we planted submersible plants in the pond. They were a water lilly Paul Hariot, Mare's tail Hippuris vulgaris and Scirpus cernuus. We then discovered a small tear in the butyl liner which I mended with Adheseal.

On 11th April I found a number of tadpoles dead in one side of the pond (seperated from the main budy of water due to low water levels. I am sure the repair liquid did not come into contact with the water, so I can only think that the algal growth poisoned or suffocated them.

I now need to complete the edges and plant up.

Wednesday

First entry: doing some exercises in the kithcen I saw - not a lot. Bright morning, but only blackbirds, chaffinch, great tit and phesant around the feeders (which is the only part I could see). But did remind me that seed feeders need filling.

Introduction

We have a lovely, wild, unkempt garden in the north-east of Hampshire. Around the garden we have:

• a vegetable patch,
  
• a pond in which I have just replaced the liner,
  
• a grass area for trampoline and games (although grass is usually too long, and ground to bumpy, for ball games),
  
• a twin line of trees (mostly white poplars, some willow and hazel interspersed with a few small top fruit),
  
• a sloping grass area,
  
• a patch we are digging out with the intention of hard landscaping into something special,
  
• a greenhouse with adjacent autumn raspberries,
  
• an ageing fruit cage,
  
• and a grass area at the rear of the house, with hammock.
  

Our bungalow is in the centre of this lot.

We feed the birds with seed and nut feeders, a bird table, and plants such as firethorn for berries. We leave seedheads such as evening primrose and teasel over winter for the goldfinches. However I have had to remove much of the ivy from the house, despite its food and nesting site value, because it made the route into our attic too easy for the rats (who now seem to be stranded inside the house).

I intend to use this blog to record details of what we do for wildlife as well as the wildlife we see in the garden.