Garden birding

There’s always something to do, see and hear during these times of not being able to get out and bird as you would normally do, says regular contributor and ‘Grumpy Old Birder’, Bo Beolens

Watching the wildlife in his garden has put a smile on the face of one Grumpy Old Birder

Lockdown birding advice from naturalists with large gardens surrounded by natural habitat is all very well, but most of you, like me, will consider yourself lucky to have a tiny urban lung that attracts fewer than a dozen species.

Perhaps, like me, despite your efforts, the tit-box has hung unloved on a wall for a decade and your cleverly hidden sparrow boxes were shunned and have now fallen off the side of the shed, and joined the heap of rotting prunings left for the bugs and slugs. Still, they should make nice shelters for frogs.

Moving here two decades ago I inherited a concrete garden. I’m on a hill and a previous owner carved out a chunk and constructed a garage with its roof two feet above the rest of the garden. We fenced it in, tiled the top and turned it into a patio.

Lifting some pavers we found two inches of topsoil over solid chalk! Hard work and help allowed us to create some narrow borders and in one corner, we dug out a rotten tree stump and replaced it with a fig, a cherry, a mock orange and another slimline tree, in a patch six feet square! Even this tight-packed corner has sprouted other shrubs, such as Elder, courtesy of visiting Woodpigeons. Luckily, one neighbour neglects the adjoining patch and a massive pyracantha gives us and the birds some privacy.

Pond life

One good thing we inherited was a pond, with two fish. A few years back we extended the pond and planted it with lilies and marginal plants. Then, a local birding friend donated some of the frogspawn from his Koi pond and, ever since then, we have had a crew of unpaid slug harvesters. This year, Hawkeye (Mrs Beolens) fashioned a barrier in the