We've been surprised that there is so little visible wildlife here in
Sussex and Kent. Despite visiting two well-stocked gardens yesterday
and staying somewhere with quite a large, well-planted and treed
garden, we've seen few birds or bees and exactly one butterfly. Is this
down to this being mainly an arable area and past (or even present?)
crop spraying, we wonder?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon

We've been surprised that there is so little visible wildlife here in
Sussex and Kent. Despite visiting two well-stocked gardens yesterday and
staying somewhere with quite a large, well-planted and treed garden, we've
seen few birds or bees and exactly one butterfly. Is this down to this
being mainly an arable area and past (or even present?) crop spraying, we
wonder?

They have all migrated to North Yorkshire, or it seems that way in my garden
at present.

Mike

On 25/06/2014 10:11, Muddymike wrote:
We've been surprised that there is so little visible wildlife here in
Sussex and Kent. Despite visiting two well-stocked gardens yesterday and
staying somewhere with quite a large, well-planted and treed garden, we've
seen few birds or bees and exactly one butterfly. Is this down to this
being mainly an arable area and past (or even present?) crop spraying, we
wonder?

They have all migrated to North Yorkshire, or it seems that way in my garden
at present.

Still some wildlife around in Norfolk gardens too. Unless we're a
stopping off point on the way to Yorkshire!

We're also in an arable area Mike, where crops are sprayed just beyond
our back garden fence (wheat this year), but have been commenting here
that small tortoiseshells are thankfully much more numerous in the last
week or two than in recent summers, and the usual garden birds still
seem to be around. I counted seven blackbirds all after the ripening
berries in an Amelanchier the other morning, and we have a several young
ones running around the place today. I think they may be the culprits
who've been pecking around in my pots on the patio, scattering labels
and compost everywhere and making an unholy mess.

We're also getting a few more greenfinches again now, after a few years
of almost none, so hopefully they'll build back up in numbers again.
And Skylarks have been singing right over the field behind us for the
first time in quite a few years, which is lovely. Farmers are beginning
to leave uncropped/ untreated patches for ground-nesters, I hear.
Still no cuckoos though.

I've been finding trails of hedgehog poop here and there on the lawn
some mornings as well, so things don't seem too bad in our little bit of
the world.

--
Sue