Morris Minor Owners Club

Please keep your bird baths topped up, or some water container or bowl out for our wildlife!

Thanks

Good idea Chris. I’ve got a small pond with a gentle slope for anything to enter, Incidentally looking from the kitchen window the other day, I thought I saw something on the water surface just drifting, I thought I’d take a better look, it was a small winged insect of some sort, quite motionless. I put a finger in from under the water and retrieved the insect, it looked dead, when suddenly it flapped it’s wings dry and took off. It made my day ! Life in all forms, long may it be !

Me too....despite their bad press, never been stung by a wasp that I've rescued from drowning...

Despite all of humankind's machinations, Nature will win in the long run. Good on you for thinking of the wild things.

I'm letting my lawn/garden return to Nature, the native grasses and wildflowers taking over. "No Mow May" was a good way to get started.
After just one month, there's been a visible increase in birds and insects, plus a couple of pesky rabbits.

Tom M.

Just had a huge stag beetle land in the garden. I have seen them before in the garden and have provided several damp rotten logs in a shady corner of the garden for them to breed in. After the stag beetle landed it crawled off towards the logs. I believe they can smell the rotting wood from some distance.
A couple of years back I had an even larger stag beetle land in the garden. I did measure and photograph it. It was just over 4" long with its wings closed up.
Wild life - I am all for it
On the down side - the swallows who have always nested in the barn for over 25 years have for the last two years given the barn a miss. I do not know the reason for the reluctance to use the nests already built.

We have no lawn in our garden, front or back, but instead the garden is full of flower beds, plant pots, plants and flowers. None of our neighbours have much in the way of garden at all - just a neatly mown lawn and slabs/gravel. There are so many bees in the garden it has become risky smelling the flowers - I nearly sniffed one out of a foxglove the other day. However, we very rarely see any birds these days. We have a couple of bird boxes and in 12 years, with one exception, we have had oops I typed a naughty word nest every year except this year. We have bird feeders, bird baths and a small pond (all full of water). We see the occasional blackbird having a bath and a robin pays a visit now and then. Nothing tries to use the feeders other than a magpie and two pigeons, unlike previous years when we would get oops I typed a naughty word, robins and sparrows regularly tucking in. Rather puzzling, and a shame as we like seeing birds in the garden.

i went with 'no mow may' as well.i'm also letting part of my allotment 'return to nature'..however,the committee aren't very impressed

sid wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:25 pm i went with 'no mow may' as well.i'm also letting part of my allotment 'return to nature'..however, the committee aren't very impressed

We used to have a lot of wood pigeons; this year a pair of Rooks have nested in the treetop and do a good job of scaring them away. They're big beggars to drink from the pond though.

Thay need our help however small it is.

Winters are long but summers are glorious and rampant with wildlife.

We had a Bay Lynx a few months ago. its deer and duckling season now. And confused cat season all year round.

This is a feel good thread ! Thanks for all posts

Don't forget the rare Siberian hamster's...

Actually I had forgotten them. Now don’t spoil it Chris !!

Don't forget a bird table, ideally with a roof, mounted as high as possible, to feed birds, squirrell's & whatever during the winter months, they need our help, especially nowadays with so much development, hedges, shelter, habitat destroyed.

Nature FAR more important than chassis, body & engine numbers....

Oh no, not a book on nature pending!!

Nature FAR more important than chassis, body & engine numbers....

I quite agree!

Oh no, not a book on nature pending!!

One down side of bird feeders and bird tables is that they do encourage vermin which picks up and eats ground spill. The blighters were even spotted climbing my apple tree to get at the fat balls. They even overcame the top shield/baffle which was supposed to stop them getting at the fat balls.
I have now stopped feeding the wild birds but there are plenty of seeds and berries in the fields and hedgerows around me even in winter. There must be plenty of minor vermin around as the Red Kites and Barn Owls appear to be plentiful and hunt in the fields behind the house. Wild partridges come into the garden and eat the clover seeds.
One of the bonuses of living in the countryside is I daily see plenty of wildlife including deer.

yes there's seems to be an abundance of deer about,going by the number of dead ones at the side of the road

Yes if people drove as if in moggie maybe there would be less death on the roads. Everyone seems to be in a rush as there cars are able to go faster so they think that's what they should do .I have always enjoyed the look of cars not the speed.There again speed can be OK if you know what you are doing.Sadly most think they do but font

Feeding seagulls outside Costa earlier (family on the next table left food), believe it or not, don't think my actions were appreciated....