The Pickering's Wildlife Garden Blog 2021
Perishing, 9.30am, grey skies and a somewhat cool breeze greeted me as I arrived at the Pickering’s car park, and the thermometer said - 2. Why was I here, what madness had taken me? Ah yes, a desperation arising from a lockdown imposed house arrest, and a need to be in a reviving green space. There have been many social media reports of the police moving folk on who chose to take their daily exercise at this popular reserve, particularly when it transpired that they were none local, and in the short time I was ensconced in the nature garden I saw a police car visit twice. Bolstered by the belief that volunteers were OK to travel to their sites I decided I'd go and have a look at how our garden was faring.
I must admit it's not looking at its best, but then most of the plants are still a slumber and I'm hoping they will have survived another year. Perhaps this year we'll be able to tend to it a little more freely.
There were a couple of things heralding the approach of spring, the snowdrops I had planted by the tree were splendid, all on trend socially distancing...hopefully they'll thrive and spread out. And the lungwort, reliable as ever had broken bud, shining out to any passing brave early bees. I sprinkled some chicken manure pellets around the base of the plants, a little nourishment for when everything wakes up as it warms up.
No little bird friends joined me today, but I had brought some food with me so I set about filling the feeders. The seed feeder was in need of urgent attention, as it had become clogged with stale food at the bottom and gone mouldy, dangerous to anything desperate for a meal; there then ensued a 20 minute battle to release the feeder from its supporting metal pole. As my fingers turned to ice, and dexterity was losing to numbness I really wished I had a screwdriver to undo the blasted hose clip, alas a little nail file from my key ring utility tool had to suffice. Feeder released I headed home, the car heater on full blast.
For information...
https://www.bto.org/how-you-can-help/providing-birds/feeding-garden-birds/hygiene
I must admit it's not looking at its best, but then most of the plants are still a slumber and I'm hoping they will have survived another year. Perhaps this year we'll be able to tend to it a little more freely.
There were a couple of things heralding the approach of spring, the snowdrops I had planted by the tree were splendid, all on trend socially distancing...hopefully they'll thrive and spread out. And the lungwort, reliable as ever had broken bud, shining out to any passing brave early bees. I sprinkled some chicken manure pellets around the base of the plants, a little nourishment for when everything wakes up as it warms up.
No little bird friends joined me today, but I had brought some food with me so I set about filling the feeders. The seed feeder was in need of urgent attention, as it had become clogged with stale food at the bottom and gone mouldy, dangerous to anything desperate for a meal; there then ensued a 20 minute battle to release the feeder from its supporting metal pole. As my fingers turned to ice, and dexterity was losing to numbness I really wished I had a screwdriver to undo the blasted hose clip, alas a little nail file from my key ring utility tool had to suffice. Feeder released I headed home, the car heater on full blast.
For information...
https://www.bto.org/how-you-can-help/providing-birds/feeding-garden-birds/hygiene
