Life - and death - in a small garden...

As you may recall, Linda and I both enjoy gardening and we're both passionate about wildlife. Needless to say, then, our small garden is ultra bird-friendly: there are 10+ feeding stations with appropriate food according to the time of year. These attract good numbers of the usual garden birds, as well as others that come in from the surrounding farmlands. In the past this has included Turtle Doves: fingers crossed for May!

The main attendees at the feeders are less glamorous: Collared Doves, Wood Pigeons, Stock Doves, Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges are daily visitors, as are smaller birds such as Greenfinches, House Sparrows, Dunnocks and, recently, Yellowhammers. These, in turn, attract raptors. Every day Sparrowhawks take at least one Collared Dove, while a male Kestrel loiters in our large sycamore to pounce on smaller prey.

We haven't had a Buzzard land in the garden yet, but they pass across daily, so we live in hope!