Seasonal Garden Visitors

Having  had such a brilliant year on the apple front, I find I still have more than enough supplies to keep the local blackbird population well fed through the winter months. It's vital to sort through your stash of apples during the cold months and remove any damaged or rotting fruit immediately - the well known saying about one bad apple spoiling the whole barrel is well known for a reason. Garden birds will be more than grateful for these at this time of the year. I find it's a good idea to put them in two or three different places in the garden as blackbirds can be very territorial and the strongest will chase away the weaker ones, but even the most dominant bird can only be in one place at a time, so others get to enjoy the bounty too. 

I think of pheasants as mostly seed eaters, but this hen pheasant came into the garden this morning drawn in by the apple bonanza apparently.

But as I was standing at the kitchen sink yesterday, absent mindedly washing some dishes, I was astounded to see two, yes that's  not one but two, foxes stroll along the fence line and cool as cucumbers, out onto the lawn directly in front of the window I was looking out of. Whilst foxes are common in urban gardens these days, it's very unusual to see them at such close quarters around here. Of course I was outraged at their audacity since I spend half my life trying to think of ways to outfox foxes, and after watching them for a minute, I opened the door and let Mo chase them off at high speed and in great excitement. Sadly I didn't have my camera to hand.  I've never seen two foxes together before, certainly not six feet away from me, but having read on John Gray's blog Going Gently, that January is the month when foxes usually find mates, I wonder whether these two were a prospective breeding pair - they certainly seemed to have something other than safety on their minds anyway.

The Road To Nowhere

This isn't a road, not even a track really, and it certainly doesn't go anywhere. It's just the side of a field between the rape crop and the hedge, but it makes a nice walk with the dog, away from the lane so she can run in safety without a lead. But the other morning I turned into the field and came face to face with a big healthy looking fox sauntering casually towards me.  I don't know why, buy it didn't seem to see me at first, and Mo was busy with her head down a rabbit hole, and it carried on sauntering towards me, until it was no more than ten yards away,  when it stopped and stared at me in amazement, as you might stare if say, the Bishop of Bath and Wells suddenly appeared in your sitting room without warning, and then it disappeared into the hedge. And all before I had the opportunity to nip back home and get the camera! Or even interrogate him about the reduction in the chicken population at Carters Barn earlier this year.....

Surprises, and Shocks

The draft text below was to be my next post but circumstances have overtaken me before I had chance to put it online. The foxes have come again and this time taken my two new pullets. Since all the gates were closed this time, they must have come round by the house; I am amazed at their audacity. It seems that once foxes know where the birds are, they will persevere again and again until they get in. I am going to have to be extremely careful if I am to keep them out. The two newcomers were in a quarantine ark, admittedly old and a bit tatty, but one that had housed two or three birds in various parts of the garden most of this year without any sign of trouble. But they simply tore off the wood at the side of the ark to get at the two pullets. I have had a chat with a local gamekeeper who has said he will be coming into the village this week to do some "lamping" which is his method of fox control.

 Thanks to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to post messages of support, it's great to get them, and it helps to know that people sympathize.

Two feathery Surprises!
Our lovely little grandson has come with his mum to stay with us for the weekend, and with all the paraphanalia one needs to have when travelling with small children, Claire still managed to find room in her little car for a large cardboard box containing a surprise gift for me of - guess what? Two beautiful point of lay chickens that she had got for me when she read about the fox attack last week! How sweet is that! And they look like really good birds too, one is a Light Sussex, a lovely old dual purpose breed known for its gentle nature, and the other a very smart Copper Black Maran, which I'm hoping will lay a lovely dark brown egg. I couldn't be more pleased, and I feel blessed to have my kind and thoughtful family always here for me.

The Fox Came

The fox came tonight and attacked my hen house. I've been keeping chickens and ducks for about five or six years now I should think, and during that time I think I've had three fox attacks, where I've lost stock. Tonight I failed to lock the birds up early enough, and at around ten o clock, David heard a great commotion and ran out with the dog, by the time we got out there of course the culprit/s had gone leaving a mess of feathers and dead bodies behind. Luckily the three Indian Runner Ducks were safe in their house, foxes have always gone for the ducks first in the past, but this time it was the chickens. Three birds were still safe in the hen house, of the remaining five one was cowering in a corner of the run, may or may not survive the shock, two were dead, one dying, had to be finished off, one missing presumed dead. I was particularly sad to lose my Red Black Auracana, a traditional breed, who was an old hen but still laying.

I had a smaller number of laying hens this year as last year I had concentrated on raising birds for the table  so now I'm down to just three or four hens, and three ducks.

It's my own fault, I should have been more vigilant. But it's a hard lesson.