Nocturnal Garden Party

Our American nieces are budding Zoologists, fascinated with all sorts of animals.  On one shopping trip I offered to buy them each a cuddly toy.  I thought they would choose a teddy bear, bunny or other 'cute' animal.  They choose a stuffed fish each, one was a trout!   I knew then and there we weren't dealing with ordinary little girls!  The words 'natural habitat' entered their vocabularies very early in their development - astonishing!  So, you will see lots of animal photos here because the girls love them and we do too.

Not long ago, Jessica asked what kind of animals visited our garden so I'd like to take this opportunity to show a few of the lovely creatures with whom we share our garden.  Most of them are nocturnal so we seldom see them but if you know what to look for you can tell when they have been visiting.

In a previous post, I introduced our hedgehog, Mrs. Tiggie-Winkle.  She is very helpful in the garden, eating the slugs and snails that would ruin the plants.  I don't see her very often but I know when she has visited.  She leaves, how do we put this delicately, 'calling cards'.

The fox usually stays in the allotments and we watch him making his rounds early in the mornings and around sunset.  I have seen him stand on his hind legs and delicately eat raspberries off the bushes. Sometimes we hear him at night.  Foxes have a very distinctive cry.  He is very handsome. 

Badger is rarely seen.  He only comes out at night and is very secretive. He loves the peanuts we feed the birds.  He has excavated a large opening under our fence which is an 'animal highway' used by all the animals.... including our little Dust Bunny!

There are lots of little voles and mice that come into the garden to collect the sunflower seeds that have fallen out of the bird feeders.  They scurry about, taking the seeds back to their homes.  They must be very cautious and quick or the little black cat might catch them!  


It's lovely to think they have the garden to enjoy when we are asleep.... sort of like a nocturnal garden party!