Garden Birds

I’m always reading that the common sparrow is getting to be very rare but in my garden we are swamped by them, and it was just the same in my old garden. Not that I’m complaining though, they are dull compared with most birds but they do have cheery personalities and I’ve noticed that the sparrows here are a lot less argumentative than the Kirkcaldy sparrows who often got into noisy chirping fights with rival squads of sparrows.

garden birds 2

Look a bit closer and you’ll see that there are well camouflaged sparrows in there, it’s an old wash-hand basin covered by a black bin bag. The birds use it a lot and I probably won’t bother to make a pond for this garden as I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a lot of midge larvae in the basin. I don’t really want a big pond full of them.

garden birds 2

I remeber being told as a child that robins only got their red breast feathers in the winter but in Fife there are red breasted robins around all year. This cheeky chappy stood on my garden bench surveying the place for ages last Saturday.

Garden birds 3

In fact the bench is used by the birds far more than it is used by me. I occasionally flop onto it to have a rest from weeding and to straighten my back out. But as you can see it’s a favourite spot for the sparrows too.

Garden birds 7

Sparows and robins – not very exciting I hear you say but I swear to you that I saw an eagle circling around and calling in a high pitched tone today on my travels, but did I have a camera or binoculars? Did I whack. I’m going to have a look for it tomorrow though as you never know your luck!

My garden in August

Katrina's garden

Above is a photo of part of the back border of my garden. When we moved here just 18 months ago there was nothing here except grass, very rough grass at that, but already I’m having to move some plants as they’ve outgrown their space. The lilies in pots are the ones which I grow to put into any bare spots in the border but I didn’t have any gaps to fill.

lily

Above is a close up of a lily with a salvia creeping in. I took these photos in July when everything was looking its best but it’s still quite colourful now, considering we’re reaching the back end of September.

irises

The irises are completely over now so this is a nice reminder of how lovely they were, I must get some more iris bulbs.

clematis

The clematis is beginning to twine around the trellis of the garden seat, it has flowered quite well but the honeysuckle which I planted at the back of the seat hasn’t flowered at all yet – maybe it will next year.

rose

This rose opens up very pale pink tinged with deeper pink as you can see, but as it ages the colour deepens. I really must dig through my plant labels to see what it’s called.

obelisk + sparrows

My garden is still very much a work in progress, as every garden is, the obelisk above is one of the more recent additions. I love the way the birds claim everything for themselves as a handy perching place. When we first moved here there were hardly any birds visiting but as soon as I started planting things they came in to have a look and see what was going on. I have sweet peas planted at the base of the obelisk and a Tayberry bush winding around it.

pergola + obelisk

If you look closely at the top of the fence you can see the birds sitting there, looking like they’re waiting in a queue, taking their turn
sparrows

to enjoy a good dust bath.

orange lily

I’m looking forward to the time when the fence is more or less covered by climbing plants and shrubs, the plan is for the garden to sort of blend in with the trees on the other side of the fence, which is a wild area leading to a woodland.