As a rule I spend very little time looking at (or for) any wildlife in our small garden. But the recent Coronavirus situation has changed that. Working from the comfort of the sofa, laptop on knee, I can keep an eye on the feeders and what is happening in the garden. It has also given me chance to use some of my longworth trap to see what small mammals are helping themselves to the birdseed that has fallen out of the feeders onto the lawn. As the nights warm up I'll also get my moth trap back out; as I normally set off for work between 6 and 7 am, I don't get chance to check it when I'm in work.
Goldfinches are regular visitors to the nyjer feeder and to the teasels (which I sprinkle with nyjer each morning). Plenty of house sparrows are enjoying the Feldy Golden Balls, occasionally by the odd starling. Blue tits and long-tailed also feed on the Golden Balls, but do seem to prefer the peanuts. Dunnocks and wrens feed on some of seed on the ground, and a robin seems to favour the peanut butter - remember to use unsalted peanut butter. A pleasant surprise today was when I noticed a male reed bunting on the lawn, a very rare visitor to the garden.
Taking a coffee break in the garden, I often see various gulls flying over, raven most days and the odd wader - curlew, golden plover and lapwing.
So far I've only managed to trap wood mice in the garden this year, but in previous years we have also trapped field and bank voles, and have even seen moles on the surface. Butterflies this week have included small tortoiseshell, peacock, brimstone and small white. With at least two more weeks of the Lock Down, I wonder what else I'll see?
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