What is visiting your garden.

[kipper]

I woke up this morning at 2:45am for a pee, After climbing back into bed I lay there thinking about going a walk in a small wood on one of my shoots. Something tripped the sensor for my outside light. I climbed out of bed and looked out of my bedroom window. there was a very nice clean looking fox (vixed I think it was) just pottering about on my patio. I got the wife up to have a look at it. she was concerned for the safety of the kids pet rabbit but to my supprise the fox did not go anywhere near the rabbits hutch. I was supprised and releaved. Any wild life is welcome on my garden. As long as they dont become a pest or start doing any damage. I love to see wild animals and birds. What do you get in your garden???.

 

We get =

 

Squirrels every now and then. (unfortunately only greys)

 

the woodpecker has visited us a couple of times (the black and white one with a red cap)anybody now the name of these???

 

we used to get a hedgehog visiting us regularly. but not seen him for a while . the dogs bumped into him a couple of times .

 

we get a sparrow hawk hunting hear quite often. she keeps taking the ring neck doves starlings and the odd black bird. I took several snaps of her eating a starling on the hedge about 20yrds from our patio door. very nice looking bird.

 

and now we have a fox to add to our visitors list.

 

NOT SO WELCOME VISITORS = Magpies - rats and any light fingerd ******.

 

Kipper

[henry d]

Because of the rise in river level and the flooded fields/burrows,some of our neighbours have had rabbits in their gardens.I haven`t due to the ferrets.

[kiwi]

i have a big garden but no foxs in new zealand had a vist from a deer once should have shot it it killed one of my trees striped the bark off ,,, lets see , hedhoges , rabbits , black birds thrushers nz birds tuis harriey hawks finchers califorian quail possoms dam wild life thank god i own a shotgun

[arjimlad]

I looked out of the bedroom window last night and was surprised to see a hedgehog out at this time of year.

 

Hope he finds a nice place to hibernate !

[Stealth Stalker]

Kipper

 

It sounds like the Great spotted woodpecker from your description they're Britains most common

 

I also get them in my garden on the bird feeders I put out, I also get grey squirrels all be it not for long as they soon find a .22 pellet hurtling towards them, I've had 65 tree rats this year & the songbird popullation in my area is thriving

 

My brother in law who lives in Bucks was up with the baby early the other morning & saw a bloody great big deer 20 yds from his back door it was a good 6 pointer, un sure what make it was.

 

SS

[ChrisNicholls]

Foxes and badgers are regular visitors to my garden, the foxes can be at any time of day or night and it would be an unusual day that we don't see at least one in the garden. The badgers only ever come about an hour after dusk to eat the few peanuts we put out for them.

 

We get lots of birds too, all the usual suspects and also some Bullfinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches. We also get a few Indian Ring Neck Parakeets, the biggest surprise though was to see a cock Pheasant recently!

 

Not bad for a garden on the edge of town, the nearest shoot is about two miles away.

[Dunkield]

"What is visiting your garden in the night"

 

After 1 attempted break in, and one sucessful break in, I would say robbing b*stards

[Stealth Stalker]

Stuart P

 

My bro in law,s had 3 break ins in 6 months Burnham area

[Dunkield]

I feel for him, luckily, we haven't had any 'action' for a couple of years now, the attempted break in wouldn't have got very far due to the lessons we learnt from the first one, but it still p*sses me off

[Stealth Stalker]

How do you deter this? they picked up a plant pot chucked it in to the front bay window, didn't break just put a massive crack in it, that started the burglar alarm off, so they moved round to conservatory picked another pot up smashed through the door, then did the same through the main patio doors into the house.

 

They went straight for the big flat screen TV 2 of them were hanging off either side of the telly, they could'nt get it off. They left with nothing ******* scum bags. Its a good job I wasn't around with one of my guns!

 

Neighbours didn't see a thing heard the alarm tho

 

Kipper sorry to derail your thread, rant over.

 

I'm watching a great spotted woodpecker in my garden as I type.

 

SS

[Hodmedod.one]

I feel for him, luckily, we haven't had any 'action' for a couple of years now, the attempted break in wouldn't have got very far due to the lessons we learnt from the first one, but it still p*sses me off

 

Burglars should be classed as vermin

 

I took the family on a months holiday to the states. First morning over there, I got a phone call from the UK Police to say my house had been burgled, so it was straight back home.

 

The plods came around a few months later and told me that they 100% certain that they knew who had done it, but couldn't prove it.

 

They wouldn't tell me who it was, which is probably fortunate for both me and him as he would have been in a box and I would have been in jail.

[pin]

Every single morning I see grey squirrel out the back of my place, bloody things. Sadly I can't safely shoot them. Most nights I see and hear fox, same deal. Place is teeming with magpies too, but as much as I hate them I can't shoot them being a Geordie

 

Hopefully moving soon and on the "Must have" criteria is a better back garden arrangement

[dunganick]

most things besides deer. But ive seen them near my house (i live in the middle of a town)

 

phesants most years, badgers (dig the lawn up) foxes live out the back, no rabbits as yet, crows, magpies, birds of prey, doves, pigeons, wood peckers, some sort of rare small bird (parents keep on going on about it)

 

quite supprising for the middle of a large town

[kipper]

Sounds like most of you have got more wild life in your gardens than most wildlife parks.

 

I have been out and baged myself a grey tree rat this morning ( not from my back garden tho ) he is sat in a pan of water waiting to be snaffeld by the dogs tomorrow.

 

Oh well off to work now. Thanks for replies chaps.

 

Kipper

[SNAKEBITE]

The plods came around a few months later and told me that they 100% certain that they knew who had done it, but couldn't prove it.

 

They wouldn't tell me who it was, which is probably fortunate for both me and him as he would have been in a box and I would have been in jail.

 

Don't sound too surprised! The plod are flaming useless. Had you taken the law into your own hands you would have been an easy catch so they would have hauled you over the coals. Invest the isurance money in a couple of pro's to do a bit rework on the kneecaps if you ever find out who it was. Can't condone that sort of thing ofcourse but if the Chief Wiggams of this world did their job then there wouldn't a need for it.

 

On the wildlife front we have crows by the plenty and a couple of seagulls but that's about it. I reckon the cat's eaten the rest.

[darebear]

magpies. the odd greasy looking starling, spuggies, cats arent that daft, and we have a resident hedgehog. moose found it one night. i thought he was playing with a football in the garden then realised once i got outside, it was a hedgehog wrapped up in newfoundland fur (blows around like tumbleweed). i've seen this hedgehog walk past my lot and now they dont even seem to bat an eyelid. prolly learned some respect for the prickly little sod

 

 

o, and i forgot. bloody horrible spiders.

[hawkeye]

magpies. the odd greasy looking starling, spuggies, cats arent that daft, and we have a resident hedgehog. moose found it one night. i thought he was playing with a football in the garden then realised once i got outside, it was a hedgehog wrapped up in newfoundland fur (blows around like tumbleweed). i've seen this hedgehog walk past my lot and now they dont even seem to bat an eyelid. prolly learned some respect for the prickly little sod

 

 

o, and i forgot. bloody horrible spiders.

 

 

Dont forget and Scaffy

[Gully]

Good: Blue, great & coal tits, Pairs of blackbirds, thrushes (saved a blackbird chick from my cat last year) , robins. Green woodpeckers, nuthatches, a pair of buzzards circling overhead, badgers (every night after food) A tawney owl lives in one of my trees. Muntjack deer very occasionally.

 

Bad: Magpies, crows and jackdaws (the odd jay too but for some reason their colour mitigates the pestilence)

 

Targets: loads of woodies today - counted 10 but by the time I got to my air rifle and subtly opened the window they'd spooked and gone. Rabbits living under my shed. Grey Squirrels- always on the fence, can never get a safe shot in. Its not easy this hunting lark!

[Lord Geordie]

Toads and frogs mainly

 

The occasional visit from a field mouse which i try to leave food out for.

 

Everyone elses litter but mine

 

And an unwanted cat which i DON'T think will be back.

 

I had a prob with it digging up the borders for a **** so i rigged up an alarm gun. "you can see where i am going"

 

One day it arrived on cue about 10 mins after it's owner 5 doors up the street let it out and just as is squatted to take a dump i pulled the trip wire

 

You NEVER saw a cat leap a 6 foot fence as quick i swear and the SCREAM it let out lives with me till this very day i am STILL chuckling

 

LG

[digger]

chavs in hoodies trying to break into my shed,the neighbours cats and not a lot else.i kid you not in six years i have seen only two birds in my garden,a robin and a pigeon.every soppy sod on my estate owns a cat or five and moans about the lack of bird life

got plenty of magpies,crows and squirrels around but not much else.god i hate living here

[lurcherboy]

My dogs have scared everything off except for the sparrers and collareds.

 

No cats dump in my garden anymore

 

 

LB

[garyb]

Next door's cats.. Stray sheep from the field.

[Hairy Pat]

I've had a drake 'n' duck mallard for the last two years on the garden pond in the spring, quite amusing to watch because they land on the roof of the house quacking loudly checking the coast is clear, before they land on the pond. Up to 16 varieties of garden and countryside birds a day regularly in winter. A big brown rat in one of the composters and tree rats who live in a neighbourhood loft.

 

Pat

[Maori Haz]

We have: blue and great tits, robins, wrens,blackbirds, collared doves, parakeets, woodies, one or two ferals, the odd squirrel, crows (incld. jackdaws and rooks), once had a pair of ducks on a puddle when it flooded.

 

we sometimes get foxes, over the years some hedgehogs have been around, and a few frogs living in my greenhouse.

 

no more cats, seeing as our cat would have none of it.

 

we often find rats, mice and shrews, but only dead because of the cat.

 

we also get an array of finches, the odd starling and a few times a year flocks of long tailed tits, and in winter flocks of redwings. Sparrows are across the road aswell..

 

seeing as i live a pretty urban life its not that bad

[Ferret Master]

We get everything Harry said other than the parakeets, ducks and foxes. Last Winter when I had climbed up the rowan tree in the garden to take our Christmas lights down I had a large flock of waxwings land all around me and begin eating the berries oblivious to my presence. We also have Great Crested Newts in the pond.

 

FM