Apologies for the lateness of this - the summer has really been getting away with me! Between starting a new job, sorting out the allotment, the house/garden, uni work and park stuff - I've been running round like a three-headed chicken putting out [metaphorical] fires. So, yes while it's technically now July [?!?] this is a quick [ish] catch of things that happened all the way back in May [of which there were many things] and its a really good job I took a lot of photos as I barely remember half of it without them. And so, without further adieu:
The standout feature of May was that it was [apparently, retrospectively] summer. Although we did not know this at the time; we probably mostly assumed that the bulk of summer was still to come...
So the lovely warm days brought the squirrel chicks out, cavorting in the garden like apprentice acrobats, exploring all nooks and crannies. It is quite delightlful to watch their antics; when they encounter an empty plant pot blowing in the wind; or accidently falling in the pond after mis-judging a jump or digging up some relatively fragile plant that was slightly expensive....It takes a while for them to realise that the garden doesn't come pre-filled with nuts and that they are only found in the lawn or plant pot because someone else has buried them there.
This year we had 2 chicks, one more confident than the other; with the latter prefering to hang around mum in the hope of free food. Mum meanwhile was doing her best to throw the chick off and leave her alone! She looked quite stressed, so I always gave her some nuts when she appeared at the door. What was interesting is that since May, the two young squirrels have ganged up and are hanging out together - its really unusal to see this, as normally they split up over food scarcity. Clearly there's not a food shortage issues here, either in our garden or in the street.
In other squirrel news, there's a new 'stud' on the block. Definately a descendant of Half-tail as it's very similar in looks and maintains the rugged, lumberjack vibe.
Whereas squirrel mum is desperate for her chicks to leave, magpie mum is quite ferocious in protecting her offspring from [percieved] threats. Reports up and down the street of a magpie targeting starling chicks; I intercepted her taking down a sparrow [which fortunately survived]. Interestingly she was not killing for food, so it must have been either an intimidation tactic or she was stressed about food competition. We have unfortunately lost the odd sparrow to cat predation, which I'm much less happy about [but that's a rant for another day].
We were concerned there weren't going to be as many starlings as there were last year [50 birds]; what with the magpies and potentially breeding slightly later - although this rectified itself by the end of the month. We counted about 50 birds again this year, so while unfortunately there's no increase, we've not lost many either.
May's big project was expanding our BBQ area with some slabs [which the neighbours were giving away for free] and moving around all the 'furniture' along the back wall of the house to make room for a secure storage box. This used considerably more sand than we were expecting and was the project that 'Gary' assisted with. Kudos to Matt who had considerably more patience than I did [once again] to ensure all slabs were in fact level and not just flat.
Placing the slabs left us with two earthed 'squares': one which was planted up with some self-grown ferns and a beautiful blue clematis. The other was a bit more of a challenge. Being north-facing and completely flush with the side of the house sunlight would be a bit of problem; the other problem being what ever was planted would have to cope with the heavy foot traffic of hedgehogs, as well as the rest of the menagerie. Solution? Build a custom-made hedgehog lodge, with a roof ramp for hedgehogs to safely access the patio step and a small hide to stow away from predators or if its raining. I used some leftover clover turf [from edging the back patio path] to bind the sides together and create a wee corridor for polinators and insects [or a buffet for the hedgehogs - depending on how you look at it]. Installation took less than an hour and [after a ribbon cutting ceremony] was being used that same night.
In other news: we've been putting out live mealworms for the birds [its great for young chicks] and so that has attracted many different species, including a pair of siskin! Which naturally flew away before I could focus my camera.
I finally got round to removing more of the enormous sprawlling cistus/rock-rose bush; opening up considerably more growing area that crucially gets the sun all year. So far I've planted some gorgeous red and yellow brooms, 'tangerine twist' geum and some phacelia [which not only nitrogen fixes your soil but produces amazing lilac flowers that bees adore] - what's not to like?
In the front garden, the ox-eye daisies are doing amazing [i.e. taking over - let me know if you'd like any], the bugle is looking fantastic and the wild thyme is flowering in the front path.
Below: Red campion, Bugle, Allium, Camassia, Dandelion
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