Ups and downs of a wildlife garden

The past couple of weeks' ups and downs have been on the wildlife front.  Positives have been the brief appearance of a female blackcap, the first female we've ever seen here, and a very brief sighting of - could it really have been a siskin? - that would definitely be a first in this garden.  Also a garden warbler, probably on passage.  The long-tailed tits haven't been about so much, but a pair of coal tits are now regulars at the suet feeder.  And today Mr Blackbird brought down two well-grown youngsters to the patio, to feed them apple (the apple store is coming to an end but, even though they are half-rotten, the blackbirds love them!) and suet.

The nuthatches seem to have decided that the nestbox is too risky, given the interest shown by the woodpecker and the cat.  Instead they have set up home in the summerhouse roof, just above the nestbox; they've carefully sealed up all the other possible entrances with mud, and use the nestbox roof as a stepping-stone into their new pad.  We did wonder whether they were building a property empire (sub-letting?  granny annex?  his 'n hers?) but they no longer seem to be going into the nestbox.  At least they only have one brood, so they will be gone by the time we demolish the summerhouse!

Although I've only had the briefest of glimpses, the sparrowhawk is obviously around.  At various times we've had the wings of a female pheasant on the lawn (our resident male had three ladies at one point), a pile of partridge feathers (although our usual pair are still about, and today were enjoying a dustbath among my shallots) and yesterday a dead female blackbird (now buried among the gooseberry bushes).  Parts of the pheasant and partridge turned up in the compost corner, and the reason became clear when Ratty bolted down there one day when we chased him; he obviously has a den in the logpile right in the bottom corner of the garden.  I constructed this logpile, and the others in the bottom hedge, with the deliberate intention of creating a home for wildlife, but this wasn't quite the sort of wildlife I'd had in mind.  I suppose I shouldn't be particular.  Ratty is in poor shape; as well as being mangy, he seems to be deaf and to have limited mobility in his back legs, which is probably why he hangs out around here for easy pickings under the bird feeders (and the apple when the blackbirds leave it alone).  I feel bad about chasing such a sick creature, not least because he's so slow that I could actually catch him (which I really don't want to do).  Yesterday he was scratching about under the suet feeder when a neighbour's cat came into the garden; he neither saw nor heard the cat and I thought that the problem was about to be solved - but instead the cat focussed entirely on the Geum rivale by the pond.  The geum sprawls over a small pile of stones which is all that is left of my plans for a scree garden, and we discovered the other day that a field vole (at least one) has its home in there.  I had no compunction about the cat putting Ratty out of his misery but I rather like the vole and so, rather reluctantly, I chased the cat off.  Opportunity missed.

The weather, on the other hand, has stopped being up and down - it's been down.  Cold with wintry showers, including a spell of huge snowflakes today.  It wasn't cold enough for the snow to lie more than a few minutes, but it would have given a bit of a reality check to my sweet peas which were hardening off out of the cold frame.  I'm holding off planting them out until next week when the temperatures are supposed to creep up a bit.  The greenhouse heater has gone back on, although on sunny mornings the vents have been wide open.  Some of the seedlings have been pricked out; the propagator is currently rather empty, so I need to do some more sowing to make use of it.  There's a usable number of courgette, tomato, aubergine and red pepper seedlings coming along (probably rather more than I can accommodate, but at least I'll have a few spares if the slugs get too active).  All the salad plants in the old growbags have now been used, so the old bags can go out to make way for more growing space.

There's still a reasonable show of daffodils, although the early ones have been deadheaded.  A small number of tulips are in flower but the main show is still to come; the only pot in full bloom so far is the first one I planted which is 'Chato'.  This is a very strong pink, with large double flowers and a sturdy constitution; it's a bit lacking in subtlety but as it was a freebie I won't complain!  It's paired with Muscari 'Valerie Finnis', which is well and truly elbowed out of the way by the tulip and rather overwhelmed by the colour.  The little daffodils in two of the pots (I forgot to label them - are they 'Elka'?) are lovely, a very delicate pale yellow that would pair well with any colour - even Chato pink!

Tulip 'Chato'

Mini-daffodils

Up and down

April is delivering its usual up-and-down weather (mostly down so far).  A week or so ago I managed a lunch outside on the bench, but we're back in chilly and showery mode and I'm not even feeling much like working outside, let alone eating.  Yesterday we had snow, sleet and hail in the showers; I had been putting the sweet peas outside to harden off for a few hours each day, but yesterday I left them tucked up in the cold frame.  Today they're outside again; they will have to learn to get on with this weather sometime!  At least the east wind has turned so it's less chilly, though rather wet.

The garden is in its yellow phase - daffodils, cowslips, doronicums, celandines, epimediums - with a little blue and purple (grape hyacinths, brunnera just starting, anemone blanda, the first of the honesty, a few pansies from the winter bedding).  The first tulip to open was also yellow; this was one of the ones by the dining room window which I thought I had dug up, but three of them obviously escaped (need to decide what to do about them).  The little red tulips in the front garden are just beginning to open, and some of the ones in pots are well into bud.

The greenhouse is getting into spring mode; the bubblewrap has been removed, dahlias and freesia bulbs potted up and the propagator is on.  The gazanias, salpiglossis and ipomoea have germinated in the propagator and are now on the new greenhouse shelving; some of the tomatoes have sprouted too and will be removed soon.  Strangely, the old 'Gardeners' Delight' seed has germinated more quickly than the new 'Sungold' seed; why? 

The nuthatches are persisting with the nestbox, despite the woodpecker still showing occasional interest and one of the neighbourhood cats pawing the box from the summerhouse roof and knocking it askew (we carefully straightened it up again).  Ratty is also still about; it seems to have a hideout under the shrubs at the side of the patio where there's thick ivy as well as much (unintended) undergrowth, so a clearout there is planned when the weather permits.  However we've had a couple of welcome visitors: a brief appearance from a small warbler (willow warbler?), and a longer visit from a male blackcap.  I think we've only seen a blackcap in this garden once in the twenty-odd years we've been here.  He was probably on migration (as I expect the warbler was too), making a pitstop while on his way elsewhere; from Friday to Sunday morning he was a regular at the suet feeder and the blackbirds' apple (he loved the apple), then disappeared, presumably refreshed and refuelled for the next stage of his journey.  I hope he calls in again on his way back south in the autumn.

The song thrush is also still about (to the blackbirds' annoyance), probably nesting, and the bullfinches too.  The long-tailed tits must also be nesting somewhere near; they're also still coming to the suet feeder.  The robins love the suet but one of them isn't confident about hanging on the feeder; today, delightfully, it sat on the pole holding up the feeder while its mate passed it bits of suet as a present.