Weedon’s World
Over the years, Mike has been lucky enough to enjoy some great wildlife in his own garden
Mike remembers all the great wildlife that has visited his garden
Regular readers of this column will be well aware that I live in Peterborough. To be more precise (though, no stalkers, please), I live in a part of the city called West Town, which is pretty central, but west of the main railway (the East Coast Main Line). Our house is about a mile from the cathedral and less than a mile from the River Nene and Peterborough’s rowing lake (the latter two substantial bits of water having a bit of an influence on what is possible, bird-wise, in our neck of the city).
And, don’t tell my dear wife Jo, but one of the reasons I wanted to move to our house ( back in late 2000) was because it was 300m away from nesting Black Redstarts (which I thought might come and pay us a visit, but never have).
Of course, Peterborough is a small city, and having moved from London, it felt almost village-like when we first came here. It is very easy and quick to get into countryside from anywhere in the city. Hence, in homage to David Lindo, I like to (occasionally) call myself The Suburban Birder (I don’t really, though, except to gently tease David).
The real reason we chose our first house (20 years ago, when houses were almost affordable), was the garden. I do love a bit of garden birding. For odd historical reasons, involving the selling of allotments to adjoining residents in the 1950s, our house has a larger than expected garden, with two extra bits tagged onto the original plot, making a curious L-shape. It is not huge, but larger than you may guess from the street.
And the nearby allotments were also a great asset when we moved in, bringing birds such as Linnets and Whitethroats to our yard, in the summer, and Reed Buntings and the occasional Pheasant in the winter. Sadly, the self-styled ‘UK’s greenest city’ decided to sell off the allotments for housing; and instead of having a local ‘lung’(and source of birds), we have one of those tightly-packed garden-less estates of hundreds of houses just a few gardens to the west.
So, we don’t quite get the birds we used to, visiting our back yard; but I mustn’t grumble, as our garden has done alright over the last couple of decades (for a ‘city garden’). Highlights of the 89 species I’ve recorded, have included eight species of warbler; Spotted Flycatcher on a few occasions (including a very late one in October 2010); a flushed Woodcock flying past my knees and winter Waxwings on a couple of years. Other flyby birds have included fenland specialities such as Golden Plover, Wigeon, and Whooper and Bewick’s Swans. Hobbies and Peregrines have been regular in various years, though these days, Red Kite is the most frequently seen raptor. Once, I even looked out of our bedroom window to see a juvenile Goshawk flying over the garden!
We (or more precisely, I) have had Crossbill and Tree Pipit over, in summer, and on foggy mornings have heard the calls of Curlew and Greenshank; and at night, I have heard and even seen (once) a Tawny Owl flying straight down the garden.
We have tried to make the garden as good as possible for wildlife, with the planting of lots of native bushes/ trees and the digging of a couple of ponds being our best ‘gardening’ contributions. There are Frogs and Toads and Smooth Newts galore, and I have seen 21 species of butterfly and 15 species of dragonfly; and the garden is often visited by Hedgehogs, Foxes and even a Muntjac, for a spell.
Lockdown, particularly the first one in spring 2020, gave me a new appreciation of our garden, when the quiet nights (remember when people didn’t go out in cars, much?) brought even Water Rails calling, as they flew around our party of the city, on three nights! And, as I was more frequently in the garden (now I was working from home), I got to enjoy the visiting warblers (including Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat in the summer); and best of all, a crazy family party of more than 20 Long-tailed Tits swarming over the garden.
Although their nesting site has long since been flattened and there is now a park by the city’s prison, I hope to have a visit from a much anticipated Black Redstart one day, perhaps appearing on our roof or fence. Who knows, perhaps this will be the lucky year for The Suburban Birder?
WE HAVE SEEN 21 SPECIES OF BUTTERFLY & 15 SPECIES OF DRAGONFLY
Mike Weedon is a lover of all wildlife, a local bird ‘year lister’, and a keen photographer, around his home city of Peterborough, where he lives with his wife, Jo, and children, Jasmine and Eddie. You can see his photos at weedworld. blogspot.com