Nature in Caswell Garden

Well what a nice summer we have had and I think it's about time. As in the past few years it's not been good for the insects, which pollinate the flowers and are a good source of food for many birds which feed upon them and honey production is always better when the sun shines.

We still have rabbits in the garden which is a pain for the garden lover as they have been eating many crops that have been put out lead to some crops being grown in the greenhouse put of harms way. If you get up early in the morning you may get to see the rabbits and sometimes after dark by looking out of your window. We have voles in the garden which I have been told have been here since Caswell was built. These are shy mammals that run back to their hole at the first sight of humans but if you walk quietly towards their runs you may get to see them. There have been a number of birds in the garden from the common magpie, blackbirds, thrushes, robins, wagtails, blue tits great tits and house sparrows which all eat a variety of insects, snails and worms. And of course overhead there are a variety of gulls, Herring gulls and Common gulls.

Buzzards overhead are one of my favourites as you can hear them meow (cry) this can be heard a long way off. Also there have been swallows, house martins and swifts all catching insects for their young and the young in turn catching them for fuel for the long flight back to South Africa for the winter as it as been a good year for these birds with the best summer we have had for many a year and do hope they all make it back for next summer which I hope will be even better than this year.

It has also been a good year for butterflies there have been many cabbage whites of all types, and many tortoiseshell butterflies along with red admirals, peacocks, small blues, commas and coppers. Most of these seem to have come to the garden toward the end of the summer in October which is a time of hibernation for some of the butterflies like the peacock, the red admiral which over winter under log piles until next spring and out of hibernation to mate.

These are my own picture's taken in the garden at Caswell.

By Simon