Feed the birds

I'm sat in bed typing this (int tech brilliant). Out of the North window, I can see next door's pine tree. Up the top is a Great Spotted Woodpecker. This happens a lot. I love this house.

Back at the old house, we tended not to feed the birds. It sounds heartless or irresponsible, but I'd heard they can become dependant on food sources & starve if their main supply dries up. I couldn't cope with the pressure - the risk of birdie blood on my hands just cos we had the audacity to go on holiday.

That's not to say our old garden lacked birdlife. The blackbirds were more than happy to scrabble through the compost & puncture the lawn. & then there was that time I was serenaded by a robin. We once had a sparrowhawk swoop all the small birds that were hanging out on the red hot poker one morning. We were one of the few gardens on the street with mature trees & shrubs, so we offered plenty of accommodation.

But that was the old house. The new place overlooks a wood & is hopping with birds most of the time. There's no point trying to hold a conversation with me if we're overlooking the South Lawn cos I've developed a bad case of Twitcher's Tourette's:

Oh really, that's fascinat... NUTHATCH!!!

Table for 4?

To get a better look at all those feathery critters, Hubby bought a seats-4 seed feeder. I was surprised by this move - he'd hitherto been firmly from the 'If it's black & it's a bird, it's a blackbird' school of ornithology. But he says that the quantity & variety of birds at the new place has piqued his interest.


The new feeder was instantly mobbed - they emptied it in 2 days flat! What does that mean? Surely there's not a food lack situation on the fringe of the woods. Was it a bumper Spring for chicks?

Fortunately, I've been able to dismiss the starvation theory completely - the neighbours have 9(!) feeding stations, so no one's going hungry. This gives us the leaway to be a bit more sporadic in our provision without getting all fretful about it.

After the success of the seed feeder, I buckled & bought a peanut feeder too. Both hung in the Laburnum all Summer & Autumn & proved very popular. But last week we removed the tree, so the feeders needed a new home. Some friends made us a bird table as a house warming pressie - time to press it into serious action.

Bird table house-warming pressie

As well as the 2 shop-bought feeders, I've had a go at an old school, half coconut shell affair. I've been a bit wary about the whole feeding-cow-fat-to-birds thing, but the RSPB reckon it's ok (with caveats). Their recipe is 1 part fat to 2 parts seeds - looks alright, doesn't it? Like a health food bar. But with hidden lard... hmm... starting to feel bad again... This bird feeding thing is a minefield.

The old coconut shell came with the house...

The coconut shell appears to be a bit challenging for the small birds - some have worked it out but the shop-bought tube is still most popular.

A visiting Coal Tit, captured in incredible blur-o-vision.
The only little fella brave/hungry enough to hit the seed feeder while I was sat next it.

I'm going to stop agonising now, & just enjoy our visitors.

Appendix: Rollcall

Since moving in, we have seen in or from the garden - if they haven't landed in our garden, they are marked with a star (*):

• Blackbird
• Blue tit
• Bullfinch *
• Buzzard *
• Chaffinch
• Coal tit
• Dunnock
• Goldfinch
• Great spotted woodpecker
• Great tit
• Gulls (assorted)
• Heron *
• Jackdaw
• Jay
• Kestrel *
• Magpie
• Nuthatch
• Pied wagtail
• Robin
• Starling
• Woodpidgeon
• Thrush (can't remember which one)
• Tree sparrow
• Wren

Mouldy trees, part 2

In October, tree surgeons lowered our South Beech Hedge & gave us some advice on the ailing trees in the South Lawn. This month, they came back to trim back the North Leylandii hedge & to take the poorly trees down... :(

Rip it off like a plaster

As I posted last time, since the triage trim the trees had taken a turn for the worse. Every time I looked at them, it made me sad to know they were dying.

Whereas every time I looked at the Leylandii (every morning - they're part of my breakfast view), they seemed to be taller. I have literally been watching them grow, swamping the oak & the birches at either end of them.

In both cases, I thought it best not to prolong the agony:

1. The sooner the Leylandii are curtailed, the easier it will be to maintain them in the future.
2. The sooner the dying Cherry & Laburnum are out, the sooner we can get in something healthy. 

But it would appear that these thoughts were mostly in my own head... apart from contacting the tree surgeons for a quote, I definitely did that bit out loud. But crucially I hadn't really chatted to hubby about it... well, I might have, but he was probably jet lagged at the time so it doesn't count.

So it was a shock to him when I wanted to discuss the quote. Whilst he could see my logic was sound, it was all a bit, well, sudden. He's suspicious of pruning at the best of times, & we're still getting used to the open, bordering-on-exposed feeling from the lowered Beech Hedge. Removing the 2 ill trees will remove our last bit of cover to the South.

But fair play to him, in the spirit of "Do something rather than do nothing", he agreed, & so I mobilised the troops.

Nice day for it

I'm on my Xmas hols now (woop!) so I was home the day the tree surgeons came. We confirmed we were dropping the Leylandii by a third & the 2 sick trees were coming out completely. Unfortunately, these guys don't offer stump removal so we've decided to save that cash for now - we might have them ground out later, when we're feeling more flush.

I left them to it, heading out walking with a mate - after, that is, she'd asked them to quote for her too ;) We weren't out for long though. The plan was to take her dogs to the top of Simonside crag, but it was soooooo windy we stuck to the shorter route along the forest paths.

When we got back, most of the chainsaw action was done. The guy up the top was swaying all over, & loving it. He still had all his limbs by the end of the day too, which was nice.

The Laburnum is certainly pretty on the inside...
Does that make me sound like a homicidal maniac?



Revamped log pile topped up with all the new off-cuts

Too much?

Neither of us go to the hairdressers very often, mostly cos of that feeling when you leave & you realise they've been a little enthusiastic...

As a species, we like to kid ourselves we're logically beings. But really, we're a seething vat of emotional soup with a gift for plausible post-rationalisation.

Now you see 'em...

As sad as it was looking at dying trees, it's really bare out there on the South Lawn now... :/
Hubby summed it up: The heart's gone from the garden.

Fuck.

The Laburnum is the biggest miss - hardly surprising as it was slap bang in the middle.

What to do, what to do? Have I already done too much...?

Moving forward

Playing with trees is always a long long game, & I need to keep this in mind. 

The logic is still sound: they were dying; sooner out, sooner replaced, sooner something beautiful & healthy. So rather than dally with the ultimately useless regret that's creeping around in the shadows of my mind, it's time to get busy deciding what trees we're going to plant next year, whilst gazing at the extra splash of deep blue Northern sky afforded by the shorter Leylandii.

Crap photo alert. The sky was blue, honest.

Anyone got any suggestions for medium sized feature trees for a South facing lawn on clay soil with intermittent drainage issues? Am I sounding panicked? :/