Ch.8 – Garden ticks

Index – Intro – Ch.1 – Ch.2 – Ch.3 – Ch.4 – Ch.5
Ch.6 – Ch.7 – Ch.8 – Ch.9 – Ch.10 – Ch.11 – Ch.12 – Ch.13

  1. The front garden
  2. The back garden

I first encountered the term “garden tick” in Simon Barnes’s “How to be wild”. Just for a moment I had a vision of some sort of tick like the kind that can cause Lyme disease – only to realise a few seconds later that we’re talking about ticks of the kind that you make on a twitcher’s list. Hence a garden tick refers to a list of birds seen in your garden. A bit like the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch. That’s the type of list I can live with, as opposed to the ones where people travel the length and breadth of the country to catch the rare lost bird soul.

The lists in the relevant links show the kinds of bird observed in or near either my front or back garden. As you can see, it’s a fairly humdrum list, which is reflected in my reported lists when I take part in the RSPB Garden Birdwatch. None of the “specials” happened to be observed at the time I was doing my part of the Garden Birdwatch. But then again, I don’t go to any great lengths to attract specials – coconut halves with fat and seed is as far as I go, and that in the winter only.

Still, I’m rather fond of the group of house sparrows that flits in and out of the bushes near the front, even though they’re not exactly “mine”, as they appear to find other places to feed and nest in other than my own patch. Or of anything else that turns up to liven up the greenery – and yes, that includes some of other people’s bugbears like magpies, wood pigeons or black-backed gulls.

The front garden

Anyhow, my garden is my pride and joy, not because of the way the borders are pristine and manicured, but because I’ve let it grow wildlife-friendly. Being a reluctant gardener at best, that’s not such an arduous task. The front garden, with its lawn that’s mostly moss and herbs, is surrounded on two sides by old christmas trees, various shrubs, and a crab apple tree. On the other sides is the front of the house and the drive to the garage.

Going clockwise from the house, the following shrubs / trees are encountered :

  • Hydrangea
  • Xmas tree #1
  • Xmas tree #2
  • Holly
  • Camellia
  • Azalea
  • Xmas tree #3
  • ???????
  • Pyracantha
  • Broom
  • Quince
  • ?Crab Apple tree
  • ?Hypericum
  • Fir tree

As for the birds, they can be grouped in four categories: daily visitors, regular visitors, irregular visitors, and one-offs.

  • Daily visitors: jackdaw, magpie
  • Regular visitors: blackbird, house sparrow, robin, woodpigeon
  • Irregular visitors: blue tit, chaffinch, goldfinch, great tit, long-tailed tit, wren
  • One-offs: great spotted woodpecker

The back garden

The back garden used to slope down, but has now been divided into a front portion which is mostly lawn (with some rose bushes and honeysuckle on the side), and a back portion that’s mostly left to its own devices (although I try to stay on top of self-setters and horsetail seedlings).

Bushes and shrubs cover most of the back fence, and part of both side fences, the fourth side being the back of the house. Starting from the left-hand fence and going clockwise, the following shrubs and trees are encountered :

  • ???????
  • ?Gorse
  • Pyracantha + Forsythia
  • Fuchsia
  • Forsythia
  • Fir tree
  • Rose bush
  • Clematis
  • Honeysuckle

There is also some heather on the divide between the lawn and the wilder part of the garden.

The same categories can be applied to birds as for the front garden.

  • Daily visitors: jackdaw, lesser black-backed gull, magpie, woodpigeon
  • Regular visitors: blackbird, collared dove, house sparrow, robin
  • Irregular visitors: blue tit, dunnock, great tit, long-tailed tit, song thrush, wren
  • One-offs: goldcrest, goldfinch, green woodpecker, grey heron, jay, kestrel

Index – Intro – Ch.1 – Ch.2 – Ch.3 – Ch.4 – Ch.5
Ch.6 – Ch.7 – Ch.8 – Ch.9 – Ch.10 – Ch.11 – Ch.12 – Ch.13

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