In early September we spotted a mid-sized hedgehog in the garden in the afternoon so knowing he was needing to fatten up to hibernate, I started to feed him daily by leaving a dish of cat food out.
This disappeared daily but the jelly was always left in a neat pile for me to clear up. He now has a feeding station made from a plastic box to stop the food getting wet and I find myself picking all the jelly from a large tin of cat food daily for him.
I did manage to hide some hedgehog pellets in the trolley when we went to the garden centre for some bird food last weekend. Mr pda didn't notice till he came to pay for them so I got away with it:)
Yesterday we decided to spring (autumn?) clean the greenhouse and when we got under the staging, found a mouse nest and just one mouse, I think.
After a silly half an hour with a pint beer glass and a piece of cardboard Ian's patience was running thin and he told me it had escaped...I don't believe him, he set two humane mouse traps in there last night.
We also found a tiny frog who I'd like to keep in there for the winter because he eats all the slugs...we found loads of slugs eggs too.
I can't put pellets down because if the frog eats the slugs that have eaten the pellets he'll die as well.
The biggest mystery has been the bird feeder hanging on a post in the privet hedge outside of my window filled with Wren food. It's always empty but I never see the wren eating it.
I just looked at it and saw some movement...there is one mouse inside of it and one on each of the perches happily eating away! Do mice live in privet hedges?
This is despite having three very fat, very lazy cats.
Pat
modified at Pat's request
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 16 Oct 12 at 10:04
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I remember once moored up near the head of the Brandon River, finding ourselves adrift in the morning because a coypu had gnawed through our mooring ropes.
They were brand new ropes, we assumed it was attracted by the linseed oil smell in the hemp.
Water rats were common then (1960s). Often one would pop out of its hole while we were moored, and would happily trim the lawn round the hole while we watched from the boat only a foot or two away.
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I used to know the Coypu trapper on the Norfolk Broads. Did such a good job that in the end he didn't have one,
The problem with coypu was that the dig a semi-circular tunnel in thee bank at water level. Wash from boats would then cause that section of the bank to collapse into the river. I remember camping by the river Bure when fishing many ears ago and finding a coypu in my tent eating my supply of Lyons individual fruit pies.
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Ah, pie trivia.
The Lyons Individual Fruit Pie was one of the Bakery Division's success stories. They were introduced in the mid 1930s and continued in production right up until 1968 when they were replaced with the Harvest Pie. It has been estimated that 2,000 million Individual Fruit Pies were made during this period. They were shaped to fit easily into lunch boxes. The pies came in 14 flavours: Apple, Apricot, Raspberry, Rhubarb, Gooseberry, Mince, Blackberry & Apple, Blackcurrant, Cherry, Orange, Peach, Pineapple, Mixberry and Lemon Curd.
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Yep, I used to take six assorted pies to last me through a night's fishing. Apricot was the best. I'm sure there was a strawberry and apple too.
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In 1978 lyons was replaced......
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Talking of pies there used to be a great pie shop in Reading that sold dozens of varieties of pies and nothing else. Anyone know if it is still there?
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Sweeney Todd's? goo.gl/maps/2Rcui
Last edited by: Focus on Tue 16 Oct 12 at 07:15
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Ah that's the place. Used to go in their from time to time when my daughter live that way.
Pie heaven!
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These fruit pie comments have indirectly caused a contribution to global warming and potential obesity. Having read the above, I casually mentioned to my wife a few moments ago that while the grilled salmon and side salad we had tonight was delicious, that a slice of apple pie with cream would have complimented it nicely had she had the foresight to purchase same.
I am now about to be on my way to Sainsburys to buy ( and I quote ) an apple-"copulating"-pie...
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I don't normally mention such things, but frankly Humph, that's the funniest thing I've read for days. Ta.
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I would also like to applaud a funny line!
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Pat
We've always fed our cats and dogs on dried food, Iams mostly.
Our last dog was a grazer, we'd leave her bowl outside with the food in it and she'd get through it during the day. We once heard a strange sound and found a hedgehog snoring loudly inside the food bowl. They're easily capable of crunching biscuits - saves all that messing around with wet food.
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Our cats have dried food too but don't digest it too well being old, so the hedgehog could have some of that but I quite enjoy making him a different meal each day!
Pat
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>> I quite enjoy making him a different meal each day!
How about Mr PDA?
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>> >> I quite enjoy making him a different meal each day!
>>
>> How about Mr PDA?
She likes animals because they eat anything cold straight from the tin without complaint.
MrPDA has the safety net of the transport caff.
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>> I just looked at it and saw some movement...there is one mouse inside of it
>> and one on each of the perches happily eating away! Do mice live in privet
>> hedges?
The Yellow Necked Field Mouse, Apodemus flavicollis, likes hedges, rural gardens, and buildings.
www.rentokil.co.uk/pest-guides/mice-rats-rodents/yellow-necked-field-mouse/index.html
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Most Common Meece will be making nests or moving in with you at this time of year, but what better place than down amongst the roots of a goodly thick Privet hedge, especially when theres a supply of tasty food just up the twig from you.
Also tis a fact that Troglodytes are quite social birds, and its not unusual to find up to 60 or more roosting together in one box during winter months!
www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/wren.htm
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I remember those coypu tunnels from the 1930s, CG, near Thurne Mouth. The animals must have been quite new arrrivals at that time. There was old footage included in a TV documentary some years back, which showed a copypu that came into a riverside cabin in the winter to get out of the cold. This was presumably not your trapper's dwelling. Mole catchers were (are?) used in the Fens to prevent damage to the emankments.
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I was outside just now, cutting back the cotoneaster that covers the front of the house. I spotted a beetle scuttling up the wall, hotly pursued by a lizard that had already lost its tail, hotly pursued by our cat.
Isn't nature wonderful?
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>>........hotly pursued by
Someyhing like in this clip
>>Isn't nature wonderful?
www.youtube.com/v/pd5BMP_41bI&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3
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Wildlife in the Fen - Cliff Pope
