We Need More Rain At Yew Court

Here at Yew Court we are getting worried about the lack of rain. Apparently in our area we have only had about 10% of our normal rainfall.

Everything is very dry and the lawns are going brown. Richard has been watering the garden as much as possible but being on the water meter it is too expensive to water the lawns as well.

It keeps threatening to rain and when we do get rain it only seems to last for a very short time. Oh dear I hope we get a good long downpour soon!

The birds have been busy in the garden lately. There has been a lot of activity with nest building and we have some blue tits nesting in the nesting box again. We have seen baby blackbirds being fed by their parents and also some young bullfinches. I love to see all the birds in the garden.

We always make sure there is plenty of food for them and hang up high energy fat balls as well as putting out bread and other kitchen scraps. We also have lots of starlings and they are nesting too. As soon as I put out any food they are soon around collecting big beak-fulls and flying off to their nests and then the next minute they are back for more.

On the work front, I have made a website for my online local business consultancy work where I hope to help local business have an online presence. I am also making a website for my brother's new business.

Also I put a new theme on Richard's photography website which we are both very pleased with. It looks much more professional now and displays his photos much better.

More brownie points for me I think!

Autumn at Yew Court

Here at Yew Court the summer has drawn to close and autumn is here. There weather is turning cooler, although we are still having some sunshine during the day. One of the things I love to do is feeding wild birds in the garden.

I love to watch the different variety of wild birds in the garden. We normally have blackbirds, starlings, sparrows, doves, robins, green finches, blue tits, great tits and cole tits. Also the occasional wood pigeon and sometimes a magpie. The magpies don't often come into the back garden, although I have noticed a few in the front garden.

Just lately we have began putting high energy fat balls out for the birds as well as the usual bird seed and nuts etc. The small birds really enjoy the fat balls, especially the blue tits and great tits. We normally put the fat balls in a cluster of 3 so they are easy for the birds to land on.

We have also had a young starling land on the fat balls to eat them. They are a bit on the large size but they usually manage ok. I really like starlings, they are so comical. This year we have had a family of starlings come to the garden for food. They usually come in a gang of about 7 or 6 youngsters. They strut around the lawn looking for insects after the rain and they also love to bathe in the water containers we have around the garden. They are very entertaining to watch.

I think feeding wild garden birds all year round is very important, especially during the harsh winter months when live food is scarce. I feel very privileged to have so many beautiful wild birds come and visit my garden.