By the time you read this the clocks will have changed and it will be too dark for us to have our tea in the Wendy House, down by the wildlife pond. Although its been a funny old summer, with some days too hot, and some too wet to go down there, we have made good use of it and had some interesting visitors, two- legged and four.
The most regular are the wood pigeons and the blackbirds, who also seem to like a drink at about 4 o’clock. The pigeons often land on the Wendy House roof, then stomp around as if they are wearing hob nail boots before flying to the pebble beach and having along drink. They take no notice of us, even when the doors are open.
As the reeds in the pond and the shrubs and plants around it have grown to provide more cover, so the number of users has increased. One hot afternoon we were having 40 winks after tea when there was a faint rustling in the reeds. I opened one eye to see a fox leaving the waters edge. Foxes miss nothing, and it looked straight back at me. We didn’t move and watched it carefully make its exit, always keeping an eye on us. Foxes seem to know whether you have a gun or not. If you are not a threat they just lope off, usually stopping to have a good look at you ,before going on their way. Another visitor has been the grey heron. I am not keen on foxes as they have killed all my bantams in the past, but David is not keen on herons as they have had more than 3/4 of his fish from the ponds by the bungalow. Fancy fish are not allowed in the wildlife pond though, and I rather like the chance to see such a big bird at close quarters. With its huge wingspan it is quite a sight as it comes in to land only yards from your tea table!We could see all of the black markings on its long neck as it carefully picked its way through the grasses at the back of the pond before slowly wading in. I was surprised how well camouflaged it was against the bulrushes. They are patient fishermen, waiting to see something move and then stabbing down into the water with their dagger- like bill. As well as fish they also like frogs and newts, but I think we can afford to loose a few of those. Herons always leave a grey film on the water when they have been in a pond and I believe this is from the powdery down that they have on the sides of their chests to clean any head or neck feathers that become slimy or fish scaly. Our visitor gave us a nice preening display before our dog got up for a scratch and disturbed it.
When ever we have human visitors down there we never see anything; too much chatting I suppose!
Wendy Bathurst