Wildlife & Gardens

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by Sting, May 7, 2019.

  1. Three things to try, two depending on what's in your kitchen cupboard - they've all worked for me in the past:
    1. Coffee grounds and slices of orange or lemon peel - mix them together then spread around the flower bed. Cats don't like citrus and they hate the feel of coffe grounds on their paws.
    2. Vinegar spray - mix equal parts of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle, then add a squirt of washing up liquid and shake it up - spray around the flower bed.
    3. Plant lavender around the flower bed as well - cats hate the smell of it.
     
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  2. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

  3. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Meister vs Squirrel round 2. The half slinky technique.
     

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  4. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    We have a fairly young cherry tree in the garden and last year the exact moment the cherries were ready for picking the birds swooped in and took the lot, literally overnight. Much as it was awesome to provide for wildlife I wanted to try a few for myself, so this year I've been keeping a close eye on the colour of the cherries. Late last week I noticed our resident wood pigeons starting to take much more of an interest in the tree so took a gamble and took as many cherries off the tree as I could get to. They weren't quite red but a few days on a sunny window sill and they look great.

    Within hours of me taking them off the tree it had been literally stripped bare by pigeons, magpies, sparrows, bluetits and blackbirds.

    1-1
     
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  5. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    We bought a young cherry tree last year. This year our WPs did the same but also snapped half of the branches due to their big fat "cherry-and-birdseed filled" bellies !
     
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  6. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    Just noticed a horse chesnut has grown at the bottom of our garden where we are planning a shed. It's about 7ft tall, the roots will all be contained because it's grown in an old compost pile. Is there a market for it or you think someone will want it? Seems a shame to chuck it away.
     
  7. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Stick it on social networks. Someone will want a young tree like that.
     
  8. Bonkingbob

    Bonkingbob First Year Pro

    Just found my young habanero plants have pretty much disappeared with slug trails showing the culprits. Seems my cheap and cheerful blow away greenhouse offers no protection.

    My poor cannas are full of holes as well.

    I've tried slug pubs which do catch some, but not many, and been reading today that beetles will hunt them down at night. Has anybody tried and succeeded in drafting a beetle army in to get rid? I'm thinking of adding a mini rockery to try and attract some.
     
  9. Don't use pellets you can poison hedgehogs etc. Best thing I've found for slugs and snails is a small pond with frogs. If its meat they eat.
     
  10. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    Our frogs have come to a sticky end..
     

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  11. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Great picture. Sad to see what is happening with Aldenham Reservoir. A great place to see wildfowl during the winter passage. As usual property developers responsible for deliberately running the lake into the ground to try and get their own way.
     
  12. Have you tried copper tape? We have been growing lettuces like crazy, the slugs haven't touched them. Likewise a dozen tomato plants are coming to fruit without so much as a nibble.
     
  13. Snake, a delightful snack for a badger
     
  14. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Seen this before, your nan will end up eating a cow.
     
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  15. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    And you never know why.:(
     
  16. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Three peregrines in flight above Watford under dark clouds. What a sight. That silhouette and that call. Unmistakeable. Being mobbed by two carrion crows. Might have been parents with a juvenile. Typical never have a top notch camera with telephoto lens to hand when you need one.
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2020
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  17. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    It would appear from fellow members of the ornithological fraternity that a pair did nest at the YMCA roof after having been disturbed last season. They have raised two juveniles and explains the sightings around Watford and the Colne River running past Holywell. Those juveniles will not be with their parents for much longer though.
     
  18. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Had a new front lawn laid yesterday, and guess what?

    We woke up this morning to find the ******* foxes had dug part of it up YET AGAIN, just like they did when we had our lawn in the back garden laid last summer :mad::mad::mad:
     
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  19. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    @Filbert breaking lockdown again?
     
  20. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    No comprende? o_O
     
  21. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Filbert's moniker is the Fox. Vulpes vulpes.
     
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  22. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    Hence my eating from bins and loud sexual activity in front gardens.
     
  23. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    And prefering to dig up a WFC fan's new lawn than qualify for the champs league. B******s. Total utter b******s.
     
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  24. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    Could also be badgers.
     
  25. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    Smashing bunch of lads, badgers.
     
  26. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    No it's foxes, I've chased the little ****ers off a couple of time s already :mad::mad::mad:
     
  27. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Has a neighbour got the arse with you and decided to hammer frozen sausages into your grass?
     
  28. Hornpete

    Hornpete Squad Player

    Sounds painful.

    We put food out for the foxes every night. They're beautiful creatures that you might perhaps enjoy more if you accept nature and wildlife into your cold frosty heart..
     
  29. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Bugga that, they are welcome to go back to nature by all means as there is plenty of countryside around here.

    However, they choose to become urban foxes because it's far easier to scavenge in towns than it is to hunt in the wild. Oh! And of course there are always those well meaning souls who feed the buggas too :p

    We lived in Cornwall for 30 years on the outskirts of a small town at the edge of open countryside and we hardly ever saw a fox, but when we did they were far healthier specimens than the mangy looking ones we see he around here.

    That was because they lived a healthy natural country existence, hunting for their food and running around the countryside. Also small town country people DON'T feed foxes because they know it is better for the foxes not to not do so.
     
  30. domthehornet

    domthehornet Moderator Staff Member

    We have a flock of red kites who regularly fly over our housing estate. I believe they may be nesting in the grounds of Hartwell House which is nearby.
     
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  31. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Right near the release sites for these magnificent birds. Sadly there have been several instances of poisoning of them by individuals who can be at best described as utter scum.
     
  32. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Today I walked up to my local barber and had my hair cut for the first time since the beginning of lock down, I feel 10lbs lighter :D

    Anyway as I cut across my local park there was a huge flock of Seagulls flying around, it really was something like a scene from the Hitchcock film "The Birds". There were literally hundreds of them and they were really bunched up together circling, swooping and making one hell of a racket.

    I mentioned this when I was in the barbers, and someone said it was probably because the "Flying Ant" season has begun and they were probably after them as they tend to swarm, which was possibly why the seagulls were all bunched up together as they were probably feeding on a swarm of them.
     
  33. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Currently working from home and running through my extensive music library from 70s to present day. There's a baby blackbird in the tree outside my open window that's cheeping along in time to Calvin Harris at the moment. I initially thought it was on the track and I'd never heard it before.
     
  34. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    Got woken up at 3 this morning by a loud squeaking noise coming from the garden. There were three squeaky dog toys out on the grass; a ball, a rubber pig and a sort of rope toy/teddy thing. A fox was going between each of them jumping on them with it’s front paws and biting the tennis ball. Possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

    I started trying to shush it and clicked my fingers to scare it off without making a racket. It responded by picking up each toy and disappearing down the garden with them one by one. Left a turd in the middle of the lawn too which I narrowly beat the dog to this morning before she could roll in it and snaffle it down for breakfast.
     
  35. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    How did it taste?
     

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