My Garden Wildlife

I have a wide and impressive range of birds visiting – honestly you wouldn’t believe I’m so close to the centre of a major city…

My bird list is as follows:

Starling
Wren
Blackbird
Song Thrush
House Sparrow
Blue tit
Great tit
Long Tailed Tit
Coal Tit
Dunnock
Garden Warbler
Chiff Chaff
Willow Warbler
Blackcap
Crow
Magpie
Jay
Swift (overhead)
Buzzard (overhead)
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Chaffinch
Bullfinch
Robin
Redpoll
Waxwing
Tawny Owl
SparrowHawk

In addition to this we also get:
Grey Squirrels
Mice (house and wood)
Hedgehogs
Red Foxes (their den is in my neighbour’s garden)

I hear there are Badgers nearby somewhere, but this could be hearsay.
Song Thrush in the snow.

Wren

Charm of Goldfinch

Jay

Mr & Mrs Bullfinch

Mr Bullfinch

Fledgling Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Fledgling Blue Tit

Goldfinch

As well as the birds and mammals, I endeavour to attract as much insect life as possible, especially the pollinators; Bees and Hoverflies.

Blue Mason Bee

And other gardener’s friends that help keep down the aphids; Ladybirds and Lacewings.

Last but not least, the Butterflies… No garden is complete without Butterflies fluttering around. Being an old romantic at heart they are a must have, and the garden feels dead without the insects going about their business and I dearly miss the Bees over the Winter months.

Butterflies I have seen in the garden are:

Speckled Wood
Peacock
Painted Lady
Small Tortoiseshell
Orange-Tip
Large White
Small White
Green-Veined White
Small Skipper
Large Skipper
Small Copper
Suspected Wall
Meadow Brown
Gatekeeper
Red Admiral
Comma
Ringlet
Holly Blue

I also get a lot of Cinnabar Moths, thanks to the plentiful Ragwort around the garden.

Small Skipper

Large Skipper

Small Copper

The summer of 2011 was exceptional for the flutters; especially the Gatekeepers as I would regularly have at least 20 around the garden.

Of course I also have other wildlife, and even had some Grasshoppers in the garden in the summer of 2010.