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i have had a complaint from next that the birds are throwing the contents of his ash tray all over his decking my reply was to ether empty it or take it inside his reply was oh ok i don't think he likes nature as he has decked over half the garden and the rest is now plastic grass and last summer he complained the flowers in my garden where attracting bees John

some more of mine 37298 by john brace, on Flickr 37304 by john brace, on Flickr 37358 by john brace, on Flickr 37358 by john brace, on Flickr 37359 by john brace, on Flickr

i put out mealworms 3 times a day i go out at dinner time to 4 starlings sitting on the fence waiting for me as so as i turned my back they dived in most gone by the time i got to the back door John

back in the back garden the area between the feeders and the pond was lawn but i dug this up and put some spare slabs under the feeders before and after pictures garden by john brace, on Flickr garden by john brace, on Flickr plants from left to right helleborus double queen mixed behind that just starting to come up is a hardy geranium and a peony in front of that then a large bay tree and gooseberry bush under the feeders are pyracantha centaurea and a salvia with a rosemary and weigela at the back this morning i noticed that some of the holes in the bee hotel have been filled in in the last couple of days

some more of mine 37378 by john brace, on Flickr 217 must have been on of the last in blue livery 37217 by john brace, on Flickr 37244 by john brace, on Flickr 37255 by john brace, on Flickr 37262 by john brace, on Flickr

the front garden is already quit wildlife friendly front garden by john brace, on Flickr from left to right spiraea snow mound gets lots of small white flowers loved by insects pittosporum tenuifolium get to odd bird using it to roost in forsythia flowers early to get a prune in the next couple of days they is also a small Pieris that is not in very good health and next to that a small peony front garden by john brace, on Flickr from left to right Crocosmia or more commonly known as montbretia. berberis media red jewel in the back corner with euonymus silver queen in front the Berberis get berries the the birds like Mahonia charity flowers late on the other side of the garden is a large hydrangea FRONT GARDEN by john brace, on Flickr now last September Clare said she was tired of the hydrangea and could we replace it so out it came the branches have been cut up and left in place as a home for insects front garden by john brace, on Flickr

a stupid pigeon has just fallen in to the pond the water level is a bit low due to me not topping it up he bent over to drink kept going overbalanced and went splash n ow have a pound full of oil and feathers John

so at the end of April 2019 i put in a new pond a 70 litre preformed liner pond by john brace, on Flickr June 23rd after some planting the large plant at the back left is euonyumus fortunie emerald and gold in front of that is a potentilla round the pond is a bee and butterfly seed mix mainly of poppy's and Calendula along the right hand side is a fuchsia hellebore and a hardy geranium with violas along the front also to be seen is a lavender at the bottom left pond by john brace, on Flickr July 25th things have grown a bit and buzzing with bees and insects garden by john brace, on Flickr next the front gardens turn John

i have found on of the reasons the feeders are a bit quiet the blue tits using the nest box are getting territorial and chasing other birds off the feeders today i have seen the blue tits courtship feeding of each other John

not sure if that is my bad spelling or auto correct that's a very nice looking garden John

this started back at the start of 2018 when watching a nature program about how to help nature in your garden (may have been springwatch) so Clare the wife asked me if we could make a small part of the garden nature friendly (not that it was nature unfriendly) so the small area behind the bird feeders was to be made over so a trip to the garden centre to look for some plants first was a pyracantha as the blackbirds love the berry's (at the back of the picture below) the next two plants had to be bee friendly so we picked centaurea (middle of below picture) and a Salvia (front of below picture surrounded in netting to stop the pigeons trampling it to death) they where picked as they seemed to be the ones with the most bees on them in the garden centre garden by john brace, on Flickr now that is not the end of the story i then caught the wildlife gardening bug which has lead to a large garden make over next came a pond after seeing an a program about a pond in a washing up bowl so ta the start of 2019 this what i ended up with pond by john brace, on Flickr i was not very happy with this so the next chapter will be pond MK 2 Please feel free to add your own photos and ideas to this thread John

since lock down started i have been getting less and less birds to the point now all i am getting is the blue tits using the nest box plus the sparrows nesting over the road we have a large park just up the road so maybe with no one out they are getting lots of natural food? John

37101 by john brace, on Flickr 37101 by john brace, on Flickr 37104 by john brace, on Flickr 37109 by john brace, on Flickr 37116 by john brace, on Flickr

i have 65 sightings over the period 87-90 it was always on the Eastgate cement trains

31117 looking a bit sad 31117 by john brace, on Flickr 20077 by john brace, on Flickr odd one out 31215 with no head code box 31215 by john brace, on Flickr 31302 with extra grills for having an uprated engine for a while 31302 by john brace, on Flickr

ok a few more from me 37053 by john brace, on Flickr 37066 37262 37116 37066 by john brace, on Flickr 37069 by john brace, on Flickr 37083 by john brace, on Flickr 37095 by john brace, on Flickr

a few from me 37009 by john brace, on Flickr not all loco on works test train where spotless 37032 by john brace, on Flickr 37048 by john brace, on Flickr 37048 by john brace, on Flickr 37048 by john brace, on Flickr

Tesco have a large delivery depot at gatwick use both for store and home delivery john

sorry this post is off topic

a post that on topic

it's all go in the garden this morning both the pigeons and blue tits at it making babies John

went to Salisbury's tonight got everything we need except pasta eggs and tinned tomatoes John

been out in the garden all day doing some work had a robin following me around all day looking for an easy meal i think the birds have lookouts it is amazing i nip into the house for 5 seconds and the feeders are full of birds mind you the feeders are not so busy at the moment as i have been doing a lot of work in the garden of late due to wind damage the blue tits are still busy in and out of the nest box building the nest John

went shopping last night tried 3 supermarkets got a few odd bits but they all looked like they had been done over i have taken this morning off work to try and get some food before we starve John

today the blue tits have been taking nesting material into the nest box John