Living next to a farm you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s not only birds who visit our garden… other regulars also include shrews, woodmouse, rats, rabbits and hares. We’ve also seen a fox in the field out back although from a distance & we’ve not yet been lucky enough to capture it on camera.
So I thought I’d include a “bird-free” post in my blog, dedicated to the animals mentioned above 🙂
I’m lucky that I run my own business and work from home every day. This means I can be flexible as to when I can take a break & go outside with my camera.
I actually have 2 workspaces… one is in the “snug” which looks out onto the side garden where we have the bird feeders, hydrangea shrubs and daffodils. This is also where we’ll shortly be planting a carpet of bee friendly wild flowers.
My other “main” office is at the back of the cottage and overlooks the fields and farm buildings. It can be a bit distracting when I see “things” moving out the corner of my eye… I just HAVE to take a look!
An added benefit (for us but not them!) of having the rabbits & hares close by is that we often have Buzzards overhead… and if I hear Buzzards calling then I just HAVE to take a look 🙂
This might also explain the skull – mentioned in this earlier blog post – we found when we were digging up the daffodil patch. We thought it was a rat skull but have since been informed it’s actually a rabbit skull!
We’ve recently spotted a woodmouse feeding with the birds under where the nut feeder hangs. I actually don’t mind rodents, so I won’t be doing anything to deter them. My logic is that as long as they have access to a food source outside then they’ve no need to come inside our house!
This shy mouse has been clever and is using a hole in the ground – where the bird feeder pole used to be – as a bolt-hole. So he’ll come out from behind the old tree stump, scurry to under the bird feeders, grab some seed & scarper back to the small hole to eat! You can just see the back of his head & ears poking out the hole in the photo below…
I’ve also seen a rat hanging on the nut feeder so my next mission is to get a decent photo of that, along with a shot of the tiny shrew that I’ve seen scurrying back & forth out back… watch this space 🙂
