It feels like five minutes ago that we were baking in the never ending heat and dryness of the Summer, and wishing for rain. Then, as meteorological Autumn arrived on the 1st of September, Summer seemed to heed the calendar, ending abruptly and the Autumn weather arrived with a bang. We’ve so far had two named storms and a 48 hour stretch of rain. Following the rain, the lawn seems studded with orange. It’s going to be a good Autumn for fungi, if this year’s crop of Deceivers is anything to go by. I’m hoping that their cousin, the Amethyst Deceiver will put in an appearance under the hedge this year as it does from time to time.
After a fairly quiet and uneventful few weeks in terms of garden wildlife, this too has started to return. I was chuffed to see my favourite fluff-tastic flying lollipops, the Long-Tailed Tits arrive in the garden for the first time since the unseasonal snowy spell back in March. There seems to be a group of four or five of them that have teamed up with a couple of Blue Tits. It’s only having seen a Long-Tailed Tit feeding next to a teeny Blue Tit that I’ve really begun to appreciate just how small they actually are.
I’ve been keen to get some close up shots of Long-Tailed Tits since they started visiting the garden, so I was pleased that they’ve started to investigate the feeder nearest to the house, which allowed me to take photos of them through the kitchen window. They seem VERY interested in the kibbled peanuts on offer here.
This is the earliest that the Long-Tailed Tits have arrived in the garden – they normally turn up once Winter has properly set in. Do they know something that we don’t, I wonder – are we in for as cold a Winter as we had warm a Summer? I’m now just waiting for the Bullfinches to come back to the garden and then all our normal Winter visitors will be present and correct.
I’ve continued putting hedgehog food out nightly, but sadly no takers. Of the prickly variety, anyway. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the bowl had started seemingly emptying itself overnight, so I set up a trailcam and soon the culprit was revealed – our Field Mouse!
Up until now he’s completely ignored the hedgehog food, so I think the colder weather has urged him to feed up and lay down some fat reserves ready for Winter. I felt bad for him, so started placing a hazelnut or two in the entrance of the feeder every few nights. These seem to be going down a treat! He often picks these up and runs off with them, probably to cache as part of his Winter store cupboard, but sometimes he can’t seem to resist and eats them on the spot!
I hope this is somewhat closer to his natural diet than the hedgehog food. I’m still really hoping a hedgehog finds its way to us this year – I’d love to have them around regularly.
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