Today may be the last day of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society’s annual Hedgehog Awareness Week for 2021, but for the survival of this species our awareness needs to continue. Nature websites and social media are full of valuable information, especially from dedicated carers and rescue centres who are happy to answer questions. Reading and… Read More Hoping hedgehog awareness continues
As 2020 comes to an end, so does Adobe Flash Player. After adding two more Reolink cameras this year, it was a nervous wait for Reolink to release a firmware update so we could continue to view gardenwatch footage captured when my PC wasn’t on. There was a sigh of relief when it appeared during… Read More Flash gone, fix for Reolink cameras
October 2020 has been a gardenwatch month like no other, without a single blog post. Later this month this blog heads into its 15th year and I could never have imagined it would have taken me back to my creative roots and drawing with gardenwatching as the inspiration. 31 days of daily drawings on subjects… Read More Gardenwatch #inktober2020
Rudbeckia Goldsturm and the perennial aster, Little Carlow were just glowing in the early morning sunshine yesterday. They may flank a slightly taller buzz series purple Buddleja, but they are currently the garden border highlights along with hedgehogs foraging below at ground level. I do love September. I know Autumn is knocking on the door, but I… Read More September highlights
Well almost, a good near 2nd. The loch view above, seen from one of the visitor hides at SWT Loch of the Lowes, is maybe missing from the garden but recent activity seen from my gardenwatch window, pretty well matched what I’d see from the observation window in the visitor centre. Garden focus had been… Read More Lowes at home
There was already an urgency in correcting information given on feeding wild hedgehogs in past blog posts dating back to 2007. A fairly recent awareness of metabolic bone disease in hedgehogs was something I felt a strong responsibility to highlight. Then, on the 30th of July 2020 the British hedgehog was officially classified as vulnerable… Read More Update on feeding wild hedgehogs
This post was published by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in July 2020.
A red squirrel sitting just two metres away puts a whole different spin on social distancing. In a positive way for both numbers of this endgangered native mammal and a gardenwatcher living with someone on the shielded list. A garden supply of peanuts benefited us both back at the beginning of July. Social media is… Read More Red squirrel sightings & sounds
It’s all well and good making wishlists for garden plants, but perhaps in this case I should have written this one in LARGE BOLD CAPS and pasted it everywhere from my PC desktop, paper blog diary to the calendar as a next year note. Ahhhhhh. I really wish I had. I truly do. This one… Read More Allium ‘Millenium’, the one for me
Damp mornings are perhaps not the best ones to go out with a camera but yesterday the garden didn’t disappoint revealing another new wildlife sighting. Refreshed foliage, flowers with raindrops and a soggy bee resting on a flower were to be expected, The final moult stage of a seven spot ladybird was definitely not. Research… Read More Soggy bee on allium for GBBD