We have really had plenty of action in our garden recently. On Thursday, I went out to take a few photos of the birds, who have been feeding frantically recently. The finches are arriving in large numbers at the moment, as are the sparrows, but the first bird I saw on Thursday was this cheeky little Blue Tit...
Also seen were these sparrows at the other feeding station in our garden.
Some of you may remember that we created a small pond in our garden, in the hope that the wildlife in our garden would use it. The pond now looks much more a part of the garden than it used to and really fits in well where it currently is. Below is a photo of the pond as it was when we first created it.
We added some pond weed and plants to surround it. Below is a photo of what the pond looks like now.
However, whilst the pond might look a lot better and attract more wildlife now, we have found that there is a bit of a problem with it. The pond appears to be leaking water into the soil. We have to fill up the pond once every day or two, which really isn't right. The pond is quite shallow, so we originally thought that the water was just evaporating away. But just recently, the weather has been cooler and yet the pond is leaking just as much as before. At some point, we may have to create this pond again so that it stops leaking.
Enough of that for now. In the last few weeks, we have seen glimpses of a little Wood Mouse in our garden shed. I have no idea how it got inside, or when but its definitely made its presence known. My Dad first saw the mouse as he opened the top drawer in a chest of drawers in our shed last week amongst loads of shredded paper. I think it may have been starting to nest! Below are the photos of the drawer. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a photo of the mouse.
A view of the draw with the shredded paper...
A view of the draw with the shredded paper...I even found that part of a fat block for the birds being stored in the shed had been nibbled by the mouse! See the picture below.
Hope you all had a great weekend :)
8 comments:
Nice post Joe. The pond is looking good. Shame it's leaking and it will have to be disturbed, but it won't take long to settle again. I have had a Mouse in my shed too in the past so I now keep all food in sealed sweet tins or in the house. I still leave the shed door ajar so they can keep warm at night though :-)
Lovely pictures Joe. Your pond is looking good, I hope you can find what is causing the pond to lose so much water. We had mice in our shed through the last winter and yes, they will chew through anything that they think might contain food, they were chewing through plastic containers that contained bird food that was kept in the shed. I have stopped keeping bird food in our shed. We obviously had more than one judging by the smell every time we opened the shed door, the smell was eye watering.
Those little buggers will find a way in anywhere it seems! The pond looks great Joe. No clue what to tell you about it's leaking. Good luck!
The mice are a pain when they get into the bird food, we once had a sack of bird food and we didn't realise they were getting in the bottom of it...fattest mice for miles!
Nice to see the birds returning now.
I haven't seen the Goldfinches around lately. I wonder if they travel south for the winter? Some articles say they do and others say they don't. So I'm confused. But I'm still leaving their sock out. Your pond was looking good Joe. Too bad it's leaking. And those little mice can sure do a job on things. I see them run from the rock wall to under the siding here and I can hear them in the walls sometimes but I don't have any inside my apartment yet. And with all the nuts and seeds I have in here, so wonder they don't chew through the walls..Ha! Nice post Joe!!
Hi Angie, Lyn, Jayne, Goosey and Ginnymo:
Angie- Thanks, glad you enjoyed this. Yep, I'm sure you're right that it won't take the garden wildlife long to get used to the pond again. We try to keep the food sealed, but I suppose they could easily chew through the bags that contain them! :)
Lyn- Thanks, glad you enjoyed the photos. Interesting to hear your mouse story. The one in our shed hasn't (yet) started to eat a significant amount of bird food, but I will have to keep an eye on it!
Jayne- Exactly!! I really don't know how it got in, but it probably chewed through the floor ;) Thanks, hopefully I can get the leak sorted.
Goosey- Yes, I know what you mean. At the moment, the mouse in our shed doesn't seem to be causing us much trouble at the moment, but I can imagine that it could be a bit of a pain in the future. :(
Ginnymo- Thanks for the comment. Yes, hopefully, I can solve the leaking problem. We, like you see them running round the garden too. They are so very secretive though.
Helli joe,
How I found your blog I'm not quite sure.
I've also been interested in nature all my life and I also have a wildlife garden,it never ceases to amaze me the diversity of life that it attracts. This year I,ve had over 100 wild orchids in flower, I haven't planted them they've just arrived as if by magic.
Good luck with your new pond I'll keep visiting your blog to see how you're doing.
Your pond has come on beautifully Joe but what a shame about the leak, I hope you get it sorted out soon.
Your mention of the Wood Mouse reminds me that last winter I pushed a small mesh feeder into an old Clematis in the hope that Dunnocks and Wrens might find it. I was refilling it on a daily basis and one day spotted a tiny mouse sitting in it which I think was a Wood Mouse! So all the time I thought I was feeding birds I was in fact feeding a mouse, I haven't seen it since but the food still goes!
Lovely photo of the Blue Tit :)
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