Nicolette’s Wildlife Garden – Sharing:

 

Nicolette’s Wildlife Garden – Sharing: In gardens autumn colours


 have arrived, summer colours linger

 and even grow at the gallop

 Wildlife is seriously stocking up bounty for winter with increasing urgency.

Back in September, squirrels audibly reminded me to pick what hazel nuts I could ... by their trails of remnant husks and shells scrunching underfoot


. They have been squabbling loudly up the trees around the valley ever since.



Winsley squirrels are, of course, wild but not native – foreigners from N America. Our native red squirrels now only thrive in isolated sanctuaries 


Considering planting nut trees?


 This cultivated red hazel variety, Purple Filbert (Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’) with shining crimson foliage has bigger nuts, fewer dud empty ones than the wild... and squirrels prefer them too! I say nut trees as it takes two, they are self-sterile... but a free wild one in the vicinity does the job well as they produce large amounts of pollen over a long period.

The trick of sharing food with wildlife is to be ahead of the game... be aware how the season is progressing. Walk outside with your favourite refreshing cup of indulgence and as you sip, be in touch with Nature. Look around - the sky, the clouds, the signs of warmth, wet, cold... the ground... and the nuts! This is what wellbeing is all about, and you don’t have to pay to go on a special course in a special manicured place to escape stress and experience the calming effect of the natural world. Leaves (1), a commonplace flower sheltering a tiny snail (2), even a pavement weed


 can bring a surprise of colour!


As in the human world of gain, the watchful, the ‘wideboys’, the clever opportunists are on the case...


 

Here a magpie is checking out the fallen walnuts. These birds are clever corvids, along with their cousins, jays, crows, jackdaws, rooks and ravens. Like the squirrels, quick to spot a free meal, how to improvise and get round any obstacles... as with bird feeders...


Back in June


 the young squirrels were stuffing themselves so full of peanuts they could barely squeeze out through the ‘anti-squirrel’ cage!

 



It sits on a spills catcher tray which thus acts as an unofficial bird table for the small birds.






 The Squirrel Buster nut feeder is effective for making sure the tits, and woodpeckers get their share but pecked bits drop to the ground – great for ground feeding dunnocks, voles and woodmice, but inevitably available for larger rodents you may not welcome.



Our answer is a homemade catcher: an old, drilled tray suspended by garden wire, independent of the Buster...


Not only does watching wildlife in your garden bring a sense of real-life perspective and wellbeing, but it keeps you on your toes keeping one jump ahead of the ‘A’ level animals!


Photo info and credits: Nicolette Scourse. Smoke Bush, Cotinus coggygria (bees feed on its tiny flowers)

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