SPRING IS IN THE AIR

A couple of weeks ago it was all about winter storms, now spring is very much in the air.

Birds are singing, blossom is blowing wistfully in the light breeze and the sun is being supporting by warm winds to bring a little bit of heat to the land.

The daffodils are one of many plants providing colour to the garden. 

Unfortunately it hasn’t led to any activity in either of the nest boxes with cameras in, which probably means that neither will be used this year.

Of course it might mean that the birds know of a forthcoming blast of winter is around the corner and don’t want to jump the gun on the breeding season – it’s not something many people will be betting on though!

The cats are seemingly waging war on one of the garden’s borders, despite an influx of plants and shrubs.

Just today, a week after the last ‘collection’, another six ‘deposits’ had to be removed, before young fingers got hold of them.

There will only be one winner, and it won’t be the cats, but it looks like there will be many battles ahead before they are defeated.

I do wonder if the cats are making the birds nervous about nesting near the house and it’s something that is very disappointing if true.

Cat owners need to do everything they can to stop their pets killing and negatively affecting local wildlife. It is NOT the way of nature for domestic cats to ravage local populations of small wildlife.

Humans putting too many cats in a small area can be negative for the cats as well as the wildlife, so if any cat owners read this, please take note.

Now it’s time to cross those fingers that the cats stop leaving poo in the garden and the birds start the process of nest building.

AUTUMN RAIN BUT SUMMER TEMPERATURES

Heavy rain is affecting all of the country, but I wonder what it is doing to the wildlife.

One thing it’s doing to my garden is attracting lots of slugs and snails, plus encouraging flowers and plants to keep producing displays to attract the declining number of insects.

The birds have not been frequenting the garden much, which I presume is down to the amount of natural food available out in the fields, hedgerows and woods around my house.

Only the house and tree sparrows have been seen regularly and even the blackbirds and robins are conspicuous by their absence.

I hope the wet weather doesn’t flood out too many earthworms as these have suffered enough in recent years and they are the aerators of our soils, making sure it doesn’t stagnate. Plus they are food for plenty of other animals.

In the next week or so I’m planning to finish the harvesting of the crops, apart from the parsnips. I’m still collecting ripening tomatoes and have carrots, potatoes and runner beans all ready to be picked.

Once all the harvesting is done I’ll be off to get some horse manure and then mix it in with all my borders and hopefully this will help generate even better plants and crops for next year.