Wild flowers

I deliberately allow a few uncultivated plants to grow in the garden, particularly around the small pond and under the trees. There are some plants that I've introduced to the garden, such as the meadowsweet and cowslips, but a lot of others have found their own way into the garden, some more welcome than others.

The most invasive of these are the creeping buttercups, which while they look pretty would, have found their way into every flowerbed. Other less than welcome plants include the sticky weed (aka cleaver or goose grass) and the bindweed, both of which will climb up and overwhelm other plants in the garden if allowed.

Growing at the base of the Silver Birch is hedge woundwort. While it looks a little like a stinging nettle it doesn't sting, the flowers are a reddish purple and the plant has a distinctive smell.


Another flower that has found its own way into the garden is Herb Robert. It doesn't have deep roots and will grow in the shallowest of soil. It is a type of geranium, related to storksbill.


Around the pond are some patches of white clover that the bees seem to like, and hidden among some taller plants the small yellow flowers of lesser trefoil. In the lawn at the front of the house the usual daisies and dandelions manage to flower when the the lawn hasn't been cut. Occasionally I'll miss a weed in the flower beds, such as the prickly sow thistle.

Willowherb species haven't quite flowered yet, while other plants such as the wood avens that grow around the front of the house along with forget-me-knots have already finished flowering.


I'm not all that good at identifying all the plants that grow in the garden compared to identifying mammals and birds, despite the fact that unlike they animals they don't run or fly away. I suppose this is partly because there are so many different species of plant, and not all of them are native British species. The following is a short list of some those I managed to identified today:

• Herb Robert - Geranium robertianum
• Wood Avens or Herb Bennet - Geum urbanum
• Creeping Buttercup - Ranaculus repens
• White clover - Trifolium repens
• Hedge woundwort - Stachys sylvatica
• Cleavers (Goosegrass or stickyweed) - Galium aparine
• Silverweed - Argentina anserina
• Welsh poppy - Meconopsis cambrica
• Forget-me-not - Myosotis spp.
• Common daisy - Bellis perennis
• Prickly sow - thistle Sonchus asper
• Dandelion - Taraxacum officinale
• Lesser trefoil - Trifolium dubium
• Common mallow - Malva sylvestris
• Willowherb - Epilobium spp.
• Cowslip - Primula veris
• Meadowsweet - Filipendula ulmaria
  
• Dock or sorrel - Romex spp.

Making nature count

Almost a year from when I last saw one, a bullfinch came to feed on geraniums in the front garden.

The photo is taken using through the window of the living room. The camera complained about possible handshake if I zoomed in too much, so I'm quite pleased with outcome considering.




Saturday morning I noticed the peanut bird feeder was lying on the ground empty. My first thought was that it could be rooks, but when I went out in the afternoon I discovered the more likely culprit sitting on under the tree, peanut in its paws - a grey squirrel. I've never seen a squirrel in the garden before.

This week has been the RSPB's 'Make Nature Count' survey, so on Sunday morning I spent an hour watching to see which birds would visit the garden. The wren is the best singer, loud and beautiful, unlike the sparrows, which are just noisy.

A couple of dunnocks made an appearance - they don't feed on the bird feeders, presumably preferring insects.


In the end there were eight different species that I observed during the hour. The damp weather seemed to be keeping some of the more common visitors away. Although I could hear the wood pigeons none came, and no sign of swifts, swallows, house martins or starlings.

The final count:
House sparrows - at least 8 at once.

• Goldfinches - 6
• Chaffinch - 1
• Dunnocks - 2
• Wren - 1
• Blackbird - 2
• Collared doves - 2
• Jackdaws - 2

Garden birds

Normally it is quite rare or me to spot a wren in the garden, but today there was one hopping around and singing loudly. Eventually I spotted that it was building a nest in one of the nest boxes in the garden.

As usual, there were several goldfinches attracted by the niger seeds, and lots of house sparrows on the other feeders. A solitary greenfinch, another of the rarer visitors to our garden, was feeding on the peanuts.

There are often wood pigeons and collared doves in the garden, but today there was also a pair of feral pigeons. I don't think I've ever seen feral pigeons in our garden before.

Some of the blackbirds in the garden seem quite tame. They'll spot when I'm doing some gardening and come over in the hope that I'll unearth a worm or some other invertebrate for them to feed on. I don't know if any blackbirds are nesting in the garden presently, one did build a nest but it appears to have been left unoccupied.

Having said greenfinches are a rare visitor to our garden, five have just visited the feeders, joining the goldfinches at the niger seeds and the sparrows on the other feeders, as well as feeding on the peanuts.



There was also a jackdaw eating seed from the bird table, and a coal tit has been making frequent visits to one of the bird feeders.