Our nest box cam has revealed twelve eggs! Can’t believe that a tiny blue tit has produced such a large clutch.

A visitor to the fruit cage

When we moved into our house, there was nothing in the garden but lawn and patio, but we have managed to create a space that is both productive and wildlife friendly. We get hedgehog visitors, frogs, toads and lizards… often in the fruit cage, where they are safe from chickens (which will certainly eat frogs). The shed sits on concrete plinths with wet hollows between to provide habitat for amphibians.

Making use of the peanut feeder

But our most noticeable achievement is the bird population. The willow hedge provides food and perches for birds and we also have bird feeders both on a post and attached to the windows. We never used to see any birds in the garden and now we regularly have sparrows, dunnock, great tit, blue tit, chaffinch, robin, thrush, blackbird and starling, plus we see greenfinch, greater spotted woodpecker, goldfinch, wren, chiffchaff (I think) and this morning a jackdaw using a peanut feeder. We also see red kite flying over, but they don’t tend to come down very often. Whilst this list doesn’t include anything particularly rare, it does show how much progress we have made over the years. Our focus has not specifically been on creating a wildlife garden but we have incorporated elements that help in this respect.

It is very satisfying to think that whilst creating productivity for ourselves, we have also managed create abundance for other living things.