(1) The value of wildlife gardens And so we come to a new gardening year and more opportunities for making our own small or large home patches welcoming to wildlife. We will get to what has been happening in this garden shortly (snow mostly ) but it’s an opportune time for us to pause [...]
A Good Year Thus we come to the end of another year of wildlife gardening in our small suburban "nature reserve". We have enjoyed telling you, week by week, what we have done and seen and enjoyed and we know from comments received that many readers of the journal have found something to interest [...]
You will be receiving this on Christmas Eve … whether you pause to read it immediately is another matter but whether you do or not Jean and I wish you all, gardeners, wildlife gardeners or just occasional visitors, all the best for Christmas and the days and months that follow. Apart from one faithful [...]
Well, that’s is finally that. A small fall of snow last Sunday followed by a mid-week twenty-four hour dump and we think we can say that the gardening season is over and now we can just look forward to welcoming and commenting on the visits by our birds and squirrels and other neighbourhood creatures. The [...]
Last Sunday overnight rain turned to snow by Monday morning. Not much, but the first of the winter and well distributed with the remaining leaves carrying small loads of snowflakes … the leaves were still on the Acer japonica (now almost gone at the end of the week) and the white snow on red [...]
A mostly sunny and unusually warm week turning to cloud and some rain on occasion. The seed in the feeders has started to go down again due to the resumption of feeding by the usual suspects such as Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals - lots of them - Black-capped Chickadees and House Finches, the latter [...]
The week started with NO Japanese beetles being found and fingers crossed that their season had finally come to an end … it also started with a Bay-breasted Warbler in one of the Rowan trees. Good auguries for the week to come. Monday produced Warbling Vireo, Magnolia and Black-throated Green Warblers and … a [...]
Spring is advancing as it should - perhaps a bit cooler and wetter than the norm, but that is good for the garden plants at least. Bird migration has been somewhat retarded but at last the Warblers and their chums are coming through and some of them are dropping by the garden to say [...]
The birds are returning and flowers are popping up. March both came and went like a lion with seemingly unending bouts of heavy snow interspersed as the month went on with rain … such a disappointment when there was a warm thaw, albeit brief, in the last few days of February. This week followed [...]
Quite the week for snow as winter finally starts to show signs, albeit very slight signs, of heading towards the end of its run. Days are notably longer and the sun is higher in the sky each morning. All that and it's been a good week for birds ... there are photographs below: Along [...]