Wildlife

[POMMReg]

We have a resident colony of near-feral cats that, fortunately, are too lazy and content to chase our bird visitors or our sizable population of anoles! We have two sizable pileated woodpeckers nearby, several red tail hawks and swallowtail kites in addition to our ever present little chirpy birds. I feed two visiting raccoons every night; last night they enjoyed some oatmeal creme pies!

Leaving half my garden unmowed again this year - anyone else do this(?).

[Paladin1962]

I consider our place a wildlife refuge so.... nothing gets mowed except the very front strip along the road in front of the trees. I hate mowing, raking leaves, bare areas.... I keep up with the condition of the trees out of safety concerns (we have widowmaker oaks that drop limbs without warning)

[philthehill]

It is important to leave some areas of the garden wild and I also leave rotten wood for the Stag Beatles.
Below is a photo of a huge Stag Beatle I came across in the garden which was so big I decided to measure it. Those are marked inches on the rule.

stag beetle.JPG (1.83 MiB) Viewed 425 times

At the moment deer are the problem eating my young plants, plus the leaves and blossom off the apple trees. Whilst I discourage the deer I would never chase them away.

[geoberni]

I was looking out of the rear kitchen window yesterday and I thought I saw movement in the little bit of leaf debris on the patio slabs.
It must have been a young shrew because it's body length was only around 3cm, comparing it to the debris it was scurrying around.
It then went onto the logs under the bush ....before disappearing amongst them.
A risky appearance of about 90 seconds or so for a little animal, as we have quite a variety of birds around, including starling, crow and magpie.
I didn't take it's actual photo as phone was in another room and I didn't want to stop watching it.

20250530_092701.jpg (2.24 MiB) Viewed 409 times

[Classiccars]

Wish we had such problems.

[POMMReg]

We have a resident colony of near-feral cats that, fortunately, are too lazy and content to chase our bird visitors or our sizable population of anoles! We have two sizable pileated woodpeckers nearby, several red tail hawks and swallowtail kites in addition to our ever present little chirpy birds. I feed two visiting raccoons every night; last night they enjoyed some oatmeal creme pies!

Leaving half my garden unmowed again this year - anyone else do this(?).

It rains for 49wks a year, yet 3 wks without constant rain england falls victim to drought, hosepipe bans & limited usage of water in homes....even worse since our water was sold off...

[Paladin1962]

My raccoon guest list has increased to four now.... word is getting around that we're a soft touch. I thought Britain was an island nation? Surrounded by water? Royal Navy and such? Or has your government taken leave of it's senses like some of our state governments and made it illegal to collect and store rainwater....

[geoberni]

It rains for 49wks a year, yet 3 wks without constant rain england falls victim to drought, hosepipe bans & limited usage of water in homes....even worse since our water was sold off...

There's not been a hosepipe ban since 2023, and that was only in the SE corner of Kent & Sussex.
There has been one introduced recently in the small village of Youlgreave in Derbyshire, after a two-month spell of dry weather. The village has had a private spring water supply since 1829 and the Youlgreave Waterworks Ltd have had to run pumps 5hrs a day as the spring isn't bringing enough water to the surface.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxk45jzdk5o

I thought Britain was an island nation? Surrounded by water? Royal Navy and such? Or has your government taken leave of it's senses like some of our state governments and made it illegal to collect and store rainwater....

Unfortunate all that water around us is a bit salty....
There's plenty of water, but the problem is we don't have a national distribution system. What tends to happen is that the places that have the most reservoirs have plenty and areas without enough reservoirs can get a bit short if the weather's too dry.
There's a good article on the Pro's and Con's of having a water network here: https://www.internetgeography.net/topic ... in-the-uk/

[Paladin1962]

Interesting read. It's ironic that a universal necessity, abundant in some places and scarce in others, generates such confusion among those empowered to deal with it. Just like our municipalities.

[Paladin1962]

Sadly, this morning I was the cause of demise for one squirrel incapable of making a hard and fast decision regarding his/her staying put, going forward, or going back. Going back was his worst possible decision, poor little chap. Stopping or swerving a Jetta at 60mph is not as simple as it may seem.

[les]

Yes very sad, he/she probably had young ones in the spring to look after. So probably more than one dies.

[Paladin1962]

Yes that bothers me as I don't like the harming of wildlife.

[les]

Yes, it can trouble the driver, as you have indicated, unfortunately some people don’t have that empathy.