Batty for Bats

Seven years ago David and I began work on creating a wildlife yarden. We focused on attracting as much wildlife to an inner city walled yard as we could.

Yarden

Bird feeders were the first and easiest addition to the yarden and during late summer/early autumn the feeders are usually awash with different coloured wings and bird calls. From chattering charms of goldfinches and the happy chirruping of sparrows to boisterous gangs of starlings. The odd blue tit is seen nervously snatching away a sunflower heart as well as two delicate greenfinches who’ve visited among with the goldfinches. All this activity has caught the eye of several sparrowhawks whose presence in the yarden is a wondrous sight to behold.

Goldfinches Picture by David Evans

Starling Picture by David Evans

Female Sparrowhawk

About three years ago we put in a wash bowl pond. It’s in a sheltered spot so we don’t have dragonflies or damsels visiting but we did have a little frog for a short while.

Frog

Pond

Over the years we have planted shrubs and herbs which flower at different times of the year to attract insects. We even have the odd sapling tree, with a hawthorn being my pride and joy!

Common Wasp

Red Mason Bee

Honey bee

Honey Bee and Passion Flower

Large White Butterfly

Hellebore Flower

Swallow Tailed Moth

Red Tailed Bumblebee

Willow Beauty

Trying to increase the insect population means that other predators will hopefully move in. Imagine my excitement and surprise when I discovered that a bat frequents the area!

I know nothing about bats so here’s a few facts on them:

• There are 18 species of UK bat, with 17 breeding here
• They all eat insects and are a natural pest control for e.g. mosquitoes
• A pipistrelle can eat up to 3000 insects a night
• They use echolocation to find food
• They are indicators of biodiversity
• They pollinate and spread seeds
• Like the dormouse and hedgehog they hibernate
• The mating season is from September and females give birth to one pup around June in maternity roosts
• Cats and birds of prey are their main predators
• They are the only mammal that can fly

I wonder what type of bat is visiting? It could be the most common bat in the UK, called a common pipistrelle. I’d need a bat detector to discover the identity of our new visitor, perhaps I’ll add one to my birthday/Christmas wish list. :p

Have you got bats visiting your garden? What is your favourite bat?

Thanks for reading,

Christine xx

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day Twenty.

Day 20: For today’s Throw Back Thursday I will be returning to the theme of planting for wildlife as I did in 2015. 2016 saw me celebrate the summer solstice. In 2017 I showcased bees and in 2018 I walked alpacas.

Planting for wildlife can be so rewarding. My little yarden is five years old and has some wonderful plants for birds and insects.

Such as ivy, polemonium, crocus, salvia, hellebore, red campion, passion flower and delilah.

Salvia

Passion Flower

Red Campion

Polemonium

Crocus

Honey bee

Hellebore

What flowers do you grow for pollinators and birds?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

December Photo Challenge 2018 – Day Twenty-one

Day Twenty-one: Today is the Winter Solstice or the shortest day or longest night. It also happens to be a full moon and the Ursid Meteor Shower, but it’s forecast to rain!

For many the Winter Solstice marks the beginning of winter, however there is much to celebrate the coming of the shortest day as the days from here start to lengthen.

Throughout human history this day has been observed.

Germanic pagans celebrated Yule where boughs of evergreen plants such as mistletoe and ivy decorated homes. Candles and Yule logs were also used to bring light to the longest night.

The Romans celebrated Saturnalia. This was a time for feasting and good will to others where presents were shared and trees decorated. Sound familiar?

I have decided to celebrate the Winter Solstice by making a wreath from ivy and lighting candles.

How are you celebrating the Winter Solstice?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

Colour Bingo – Autumn

The first time I completed The Woodland Trust’s Nature Detectives – Colour Bingo, was in February this year, you can read that post here.

Since then, I forgot to participate in spring and summer. So I decided that I was overdue to do another one. I chose the glorious season of autumn in the hope of finding new variations of the colours.

The colours of the bingo are: red, black, white, grey, yellow, pink, cream, brown and green. Here’s what I came up with from my yarden for each colour.

The striking colour red features highly in the yarden this year. There are falling blueberry leaves, cotoneaster berries and ripening autumn growing raspberries.

Raspberries

Wet soil

Black is a hard colour to find. As it had been raining today I chose the black of wet soil. Not very imaginative I know, sorry!

White was a no-brainer. I picked the white of the late blooming dahlia. The hot summer of 2018 had severely stunted the growth of the dahlia, but I managed to get three flowers from it this year. Better than nothing!

Bumblebee on Dahlia

Grey Jasmine bark

Bee on honeysuckle

For grey I chose the bark of the jasmine, while for the yellow I selected the lone honeysuckle flower still soldering on.

Pink was an easier colour. I could have chosen the pink of the penstemon or the delicate flowers of the verbena but I decided to go with the successful sedum.

Sedum

Fuschia

The luscious petals of the fuchsia I chose for cream. This year has been the best showing of the fuschia. Perhaps the heat of the summer helped?

For brown I picked the brown leaves of the heuchera.

??

Ivy

The colour Green, as you can imagine is abundant in the yarden. The ivy plant I deliberated was the best to depict this colour.

There were also the colour blue and purple in the yarden. For blue I chose the lithodora blue, while the purple I chose the beautiful salvia mystic spires. My yarden isn’t complete without this autumn flowering shrub.

Common Carder Bee on Lithodora Blue

Honey bee on Salvia

Perhaps you too can join in the colour bingo? Let me know what colours you find?

Thanks for reading,

Christine.

This Weekend…

… is the RSPB’s 2016 Big Garden Birdwatch. For the past couple of years I have been entering my count in the hope of helping gauge the health of the UK’s wild bird population.

Once again this year, I will be looking out to my back garden for just one hour and make a tally of the feathered visitors who frequent my bird feeders.

If only the count was last weekend, as I had two very unusual visitors. Among the numerous Goldfinches, Starlings and Pigeons there was a female Blackbird eating invertebrates from the ivy and between the boughs of the Jasmine a Chiffchaff bobbed! The sighting took me by surprise but I was without camera so a video taken of a previous sighting will have to do!

Female Blackbird by David Evans

Chiffchaff by Rayh from: http://www.birdforum.net

Will you be joining in with the count?

Christine x