Saturday, October 17, 2015

Autumn days

I can tell that it's definitely  becoming more autumnal these days. Not just because  the weather is getting
 colder and the evenings darker. Or because the clocks  have to go back very soon, but because of the extra number of jobs I need to do in the garden to take care of the wildlife and birds who live there.

I've just come in from  sorting things out and making sure that everyone is fed and looked after.  The jobs I had to do included:

1.  Putting down clean straw for the hedgehogs to drag into their  hog boxes to make cosy safe nests for the winter.
(We make sure the hedgehogs have these safe dens so that they don't burrow into any prepared bonfire planned for Bonfire Night)
2.  Clean the water bowl and refill it with fresh water. (The Hecks seem to have been washing their paws in it or something to make it so muddy!)
3.  Clean the plate and replenish it with special hedgehog crunchies for nourishment for the hogs so that they don;t have to go too far in the cold nights to forage for food.  We know there is one very small hedgehog there who will need to be well nourished so that he can be  string enough for a winter's hibernation.
4. Clean the bird bath, disinfect it and fill it with clean water
5. Clean the bird table and disinfect it - apparently too many birds are being killed by germs in the actual bird tables etc.
6. Put out suet cakes and fat balls for the birds who prefer to feed higher up
7. Soak the mealworms in  warm water to make them more enticing to birds (and the hedgehogs if they want some!)
8.  Put seeds and nuts in the ground feeder for birds like robins etc who prefer to feed on the ground.
9. Drain the soaked mealworms  and put them into a ground placed feeder.
10. Put some peanuts out for the mother and baby squirrel who would otherwise steal seeds
etc from the birds.

Phew!

Then I came indoors to feed the cats to make sure they didn't  ruin my good work by taking over the bird table as Charlie used to do! (He's a bit too big to do this now  - but  Ruby can still fit on to the bird table with ease>)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sounds like wildlife haven in your garden, Kate, how very lovely :) xx

 

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