I snapped this pair of magpies turning over my garden for insects this morning. I assume they must be a nesting pair, so maybe I’ll be lucky enough to see some babies later in the year-Two for joy right?
Has anyone else seen any interesting wildlife in their gardens this spring?
Love Sam x
I love to feed the birds so have lots of visitors, as well as all the little garden birds we have magpies, crows and woodpeckers. The magpies are lovely colours and have great tails but they steal eggs and even chicks from nests. These 2 pics are from my blog.
At the moment: - several builders, 2 concrete mixers…
Mid week next week they’ll be finished, I’ll replant my plants in the now raised flower beds, buy some plants for the pond and by the end of April there will be fish.
PS: also today - about 20 blackbirds, 1000 sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tit. long tailed tits, dunnocks, wren, pair of robins, chaffinches, song thrush
xx
I’ve seen the work being done via your facebook page, the end result will be worth all the upheaval 
I love seeing everything in the garden, I only have a small garden but I back onto fields I can see horses from my kitchen window and cows, sheep and a stream are all a five minute walk away. 
Lovely pics, Jan! I especially like the robin-I don’t think I have enough undergrowth in my garden for the songbirds to nest, so I don’t really worry about the depredations of the magpies. I’m sure I would if I thought there were some nests about! But what I do have an abundance of is slugs, snails, leatherjackets and other soil pests. so all predators welcome here at the moment 
Love Sam x
My garden is on four levels going upwards from the house so I can’t really see what’s there unless I walk up to it all. During the winter I just keep the bottom level looking pretty as that’s the bit we see and use. We’ve had a lot of blue tits and wrens and an abundance of magpies and pigeons and of course our usual constant nuisances of seagulls as we live by the sea, who seem to think it’s O.K to wander into the kitchen and eat the cat food. Frightens my cat to death!
Hedgehogs are just what I need, Joy! I suggested to my husband that we knock some bricks out of the bottom of that wall to let them in, but he wasn’t keen on that idea at all-can’t think why!
Love Sam x
Ooh yes, the seagulls. Some of the big species are really enormous up close-I once saw the disgusting sight of one swallowing a pidgeon-whole while I was walking through Weymouth town centre. I think your cat is right to treat them with respect!
Love Sam x
Lovely photos of wildlife! We have a tortoise called Toby and a rabbit called Dumpling living in our garden. Waiting for Toby to wake up from his hibernation, but here is a picture of Dumpling, who has also been an inspiration for my prints this month 
Aw thanks for sharing those pix! Dumpling is such a cute name too Will you post a picture of Toby too when he wakes up?
Love Sam x
I don’t have a garden, but I do have a window feeder for birds. Currently there are a pair of robins, a pari of blue tits and a pair of great tits that regularly visit, plus a pair of collared doves that I have to keep shooing away because they are too heavy and they hoover up all of the food!
I’ve just got an allotment (well, end of January) so been working on that!
I want a mix of veg & wildlife. So the part I’m most excited about is creating a wildlife pond (so no fish for me!) will be creating that in the Easter holidays and I’m very excited! Basically the whole back part of my allotment will be pond/wildflowers/places for frogs/toads and things to hide. I want to attract bees, butterflies, hoverflies as well as hedgehogs and whatever else fancies stopping by.
Everything will be happening over the 2 week Easter holidays from pond creating to hedgehog house building! 
We used to have hedgehogs, but sadly, the last one I saw was flat and on a skip 
We have or have had a lot of visiting creatures which I’m in the process of adding to my pinterest board https://www.pinterest.com/coatii/creatures-from-my-wimbledon-garden/
We try to garden to encourage wildlife by feeding the birds, not being too tidy, not trimming back shrubs when birds are nesting, growing flowers that bees and butterflies like, etc…
We have a pair of nesting blue tits who return year after year, they are so busy filling the nesting box at the moment. We have a resident cheeky robin who helps himself to the chickens food and will even hop into their coop. The local hedgehog rescue is just over the road, they have 120 that have been there over winter now they returned to from where they came. We dont seem to have wild ones any more but I think thats because we have badgers very near.
That sounds like a great plan! The more predators like birds and hedgehogs you encourage the more successful your crops will be! I want to get more hedgehogs into my garden, but the wall stops them from getting in.
Love Sam x
Hi Christine! I’ve followed your board. That pic of the blue tit is fantastic and I had to repin it to my Colours board. British wildlife is surprisingly colourful once it lets you get a proper look I’ve never been that tidy in my garden-but it’s mainly out of laziness! If I see a lizard or a frog I will try to take a picture of this too as this is a good time of year to find them.
Love Sam x
Yes I heard that badgers and foxes will eat hedgehogs. I’ve never had badgers living nearby, but my Mum has a set quite close to her garden and apparently they scare her dogs!
Love Sam x
We have lots of lovely birds - no wildlife other than that which is ok cos my house bunnies also enjoy garden time. Last April however a tiny squirrel (it had a very scrappy tail) found its way in to our lounge. It had quite a journey to get there - coming through the back porch, kitchen, dining room then corridor to the lounge. Bob managed to get a video of the little chap
Here is a Robin which is part of a pair which frequent my garden, a really quite obese Robin !
Took it with a long lens, after waiting patiently. It always comes to feed after I tidy the garden. I have had several generations of Robins since I bought the house. It likes the worms I sometimes find and throw them across to them. I also get foxes, other people’s cats, magpies, blackbirds, tits, and some wonderful beetles and insects.
Ron
I took these last year around September and were devouring my partner’s lillies I think,
and used to know the name of them Taken with a macro lens and a Metz close up macro flash unit. Blown up big, they look really menacing !
