Windy for Indy

It was very windy last night, and many of the leaves came down, so that the trees across the road from us have lost many of their leaves, and the lawn and the garden and the road are covered in leaves. It would be ideal nesting material for the hedgehogs, if they hadn't already disappeared, we hope safely into hibernacula for the winter.

The disappearance was so quick we still have a worry that something happened to almost all of the local hedgehogs, but we hope they are all right.

The wind blew the boiler room door open, so we got a better view of Indy going into 9f (left). We were worried the extra accessibility might frighten him off, but it didn't seem to bother him. He left the area for a couple of hours and then came back about 4am this morning (which would have been 5am if we hadn't put the clocks back). He didn't eat as much as he has the last few nights.



The visitor is still coming, surprisingly. He came in through the ATM and went out under the decking within three minutes flat, before returning back in under the decking about a half an hour later, but at least this time on his way back out, he decided to made a detour to the lawn feeder for a brief snack and quite a lot to drink before heading through the ATM into the alley.



On the bird front, the starlings were back in force this morning, two brief visits with probably about forty birds descending on the garden for a couple of minutes, clearing up all the mealworms in the hedgehog bowls. We had three blackbirds on the front lawn, and one in the back, the first blackbirds we've seen for several weeks.

The camera we have looking over the garden has quite spectacular views of all the starlings, but the video compression can't cope with the speed the birds move at, so we will try it on the DVD recorder, since it now seems redundant in its task of monitoring the hedgehogs on the patio.

A change from the hedgehogs

We love the hedgehogs, but we also feed the birds - it was probably the bird food which attracted the hedgehogs. We have a number of regulars, and they have lots of entertaining behaviour. Although we had a few heavy showers today, we had some sunny intervals, and this young blackbird took full advantage of the weather to do a spot of sunbathing on the lawn...



...as did this rather bedraggled looking dunnock. They do like to fluff their feathers up.



This young Pied Wagtail started visiting a few days ago, although we've had an adult here most of the summer.



The family two doors away had a family of blue tits raised in their nestbox and we have started to get a few visits, usually when no other birds are about



The starlings tend to monopolise the garden when they are around. This young chap is just getting his spotted waistcoat. He seems to be a late baby as most of the other starlings are much more advanced in their plumage. Things have quietened down on the starling front - we just get a flock of about 20 around 6:30 am. This is much quieter than when we had over 20 hungry babies arriving with parents at just after 4 am. It seems many people don't like starlings because of their aggressive behaviour, but we find them great fun to watch, particularly when they all drop in together.