Don't you love the ballets the birds perform on the feeder? I love their perfectly balanced poses -- in this case, like a Valentine heart.
We get as many as three at a time, but I've seen more in the trees. The magpies and the starlings also like the suet balls. I haven't seen the little birds eat them much, but maybe they can't get past these linebackers blocking the way.
Here's what I did yesterday. It looks like a picture of nothing, but believe me, it's something.
See that tangle of brown growth atop the white yard waste bag? It's all old, dead blackberry vines (or "brambles," as the British so quaintly call them). I cut them out of that area just behind them and slightly to the right, next to the fence. I wanted to get that dead growth out of there to let more light reach the ground, where we have daylilies and bluebells. The poor daylilies didn't even bloom last year because they were so shaded out.
Cutting blackberries has to be the most miserable job in the whole garden. They fight back every step of the way, snagging on clothes and skin, drawing blood. I finally got them all cut up and packed away in bags for the rubbish guys to remove, but even though I wore gloves I am a scratched-up mess. I also cleaned out some other dead undergrowth (foreground) and pulled a bunch of ivy out of the bed at rear left, where the borage grows in the spring.
You can see how thin and muddy our lawn looks at this time of year. It's a sight.
There is plenty more to do, but we have a couple of months before anything starts growing again so I can pace myself. Dave and I have concluded that in our earnest desire to "re-wild" the garden we let it go a little too untended last summer. This year we're going to try to better balance the re-wilding with weed-pulling and trimming.
I don't see any sign that our burdock plants re-seeded. Maybe that's just as well. They were a fun experiment and certainly big and impressive, but a pain in the neck when they developed all those bristly seed heads. On the other hand, we have plenty of teasels.
Oh, and you can see my foxgloves, potted up and waiting out the winter at right. Some of them look better than others, and a few have died, but I think we'll still have plenty by the time we plant them out in the spring.
50 comments:
Yeah, I see the heart shape.
I didn't know brambles were blackberries. Blackberries have been a disaster import to Australia.
Blackberries are worse than roses. As the back of your hand touches a thorn, it ricochets in the opposite direction and you get a good and proper stabbing.
By the way, are you quite well? I've not seen a mention of teasels for so long. I think I will be sorry I wrote that.
LOL -- I posted a teasel photo on Dec. 21! Maybe you missed it. :)
https://shadowsteve.blogspot.com/2021/12/british-guiana.html
The thorns ARE a nightmare, though we have a rambling rose that also has vicious thorns. (I was dealing with it yesterday too.)
Instinctively, I don't like parakeets - at least when they are flying round English cities. To me they are to the air what American grey squirrels are to the land and the trees. Interlopers which despite what any "experts" might say adversely affect ecological balances that developed over many centuries. I am sure I would enjoy seeing parakeets in their native Australia - just not here.
I would love to look at my window and see those parakeets! I don’t remember any of the little birds going for the suet feeders when we lived in Connecticut. Then again, we had several seed feeders of all kinds for everyone else. I DO miss that. That’s an amazing job you’ve done in the garden. Too bad you don’t have an aloe growing somewhere for your own repairs.
Now I think I have to go cut back the bramble on the patio. It's suddenly everywhere. But it's been raining non-stop this year, so I haven't yet
I'm wondering why the Parakeets remain in London and have not spread out to other places. We don't have them down here in Brighton.
Briony
x
How interesting that you have parakeets in the wild. What's the story on that?
Be still my heart...I almost thought I was back in the tropics seeing those beautiful birds...Like Colette and Briony I wonder about their back story and how they got to London...
I absolutely love those beautiful parakeets. You are so lucky to have them in your garden. Enjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.
We have several bird feeders scattered throughout the yard, but we don't get as many visitors as you. Perhaps we need to change our food source to those suet balls. I'd love to see all those birds in the yard.
Such lovely parakeets! Glad to see them again. Your garden is a big job but it pays off with your blooming beauties! Keep up the good work!
I can understand Mr. P.'s wish that the parakeets were not there because of them not being native but at least they are birds, not pythons which are the nonnative species I would least want to see in Florida but which are very much here and making their way north from the Everglades where they have been hoovering up wildlife as big as deer. Ugh.
Sorry. Just a little rant about invasive species.
Those parakeets are darling and even if uninvited, a sort of joy with their brightness, their color.
I so admire you and Steve rewilding your garden but I suppose as with every type of gardening there will be learning curves. Forever. Or at least that's what my experience has proven.
My suet feeder is a large, two sided affair that takes flat pack suet fillers (bought by the dozen). It is squirrel proof and has no actual perches. Birds have to be able to either grab and go or be able to grip onto the small grid pattern of the cage. Predominantly sought out by woodpeckers (red-bellied, downy), but also visited by cardinals, beastly blue jays, nuthatches, finches, tufted titmouse and a slew of other birds. A periodic red-shouldered hawk or two (they are huge close up) have been known to sit beside it waiting for 'lunch.' Feeder hangs on the corner of the deck, near the heated birdbath and a hanging sunflower feeder. Two other feeders are farther out in the backyard filled with a mixed songbird feed. Let's just say we get a lot of birds. Just no parakeets.
Those parakeets are such beauties. I love that heart shape.
Yesterday was the first day we went out into the front yard garden to cut away all the winter crap that's been growing like mad in the rain. It felt so good to be out there on a sunny day, pulling weeds and cutting back the ferns. I thought of you!
Those ringneck parrots are beautiful. They are native to India and parts of Africa, and can survive further north than most parrot species. The pet trade has a lot to answer for. I imagine the worst damage they do is raiding bird feeders, unlike domestic cats left to prowl outdoors, and kill songbirds.
These birds aren't native to Australia....you're thinking of budgies.
The most common bird at my feeder is cardinals. Green for you, red for me. My daylilies didn't bloom last year either but because of the arctic freeze that hit us in February. Very cold right now and windy. Went from 80 or above yesterday to 32 this morning when I got up. Some of my easter lilies got trampled while the deck was being built but I think they'll recover.
I am surprised the parakeets are so far north. I admire your dedication to your garden. I don't have that dedication!!
When I was a kid, we had blackberry bushes and I remember how hard they were to trim. Now we have bougainvillea. I had several of those when I lived on the other side of town. I could never trim them without a few scars.
I love seeing those birds in your yard.
Blackberries are a scourge. The Seattle area is covered in them. The rail people spend a lot of time spraying them with poison along the right of way, and the blackberries spend a lot of time not dying. I think they are to Seattle as kudzu is to the south.
I'm always quite entertained watching our bird feeders. So much drama! I only put out black oil sunflower seed, but it draws quite an interesting variety, both on the feeders and beneath them. I'm not sure I've ever seen a parakeet outside of a birdcage! Does Olga ever bother the birds?
Like Mary, that is how our suet feeders were in Minnesota - the woodpeckers especially loved them. We even had pileated woodpeckers come. It was almost impossible to keep the feeders filled once the snow set in. The only feeders we have here are hummingbird feeders. They have year round action.
I still find parakeets to be 'alien' in a UK setting - it will change in time I guess, just as many plants we now classify as native were once considered 'exotic'...
More broadly, after an unexpectedly difficultly December - as much logistical as anything - I'm finally catching up on some of my favourite blogs to wish their authors a happy new year and say thanks for reading and commenting on mine. Yours has been a new find for me this year - and a pleasure - I look forward to reading more.
Meanwhile, I hope next year brings us better times and plenty of words (and pictures) to inspire and entertain.
Best wishes
Mark
Those photos of the parakeets made me smile - so lovely! I really need to clean out the wildflower bed, but I feel quite disinclined to do manual labor (as per usual). Hopefully I'll get my act together before spring so the new flowers will have somewhere to grow!
Happy New year, Steve! I am glad there is you.
We had budgies for years and I can't imagine them surviving outside. I have often thought I would like bird feeders; I love birds but don't know enough about them to get the right seed/suet.
Where I come from, parakeets are tiny birds not these giant long-tailed creatures. Are you sure they're parakeets? Whatever they are, they're gorgeous. And congratulations to you on all your yard work. I can't even bring myself to bend over to pull a weed.
I don't really know the difference between a parrot and a parakeet, but the RSPB calls them parakeets:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/ring-necked-parakeet/
Apparently these are originally from India and Africa. I understand what you mean, YP, and I worry about their effects on other birds that nest in hollow trees, like woodpeckers. But the RSPB doesn't seem hugely concerned, and in fact the parakeets are legally protected in the wild.
The are so big and colorful, unlike anything else out there at the moment!
They're such vigorous bushes -- to a fault!
Yeah, I don't know! They seem to be concentrated in and around London, although apparently they do range more broadly across the country at certain times of year and have been seen as far away as Wales and Yorkshire.
Same old story -- released pets that have colonized the local environment. Apparently they've only been heavily breeding here since the 1960s but they're well established now.
They ARE beautiful if you don't think too much about the invasive species aspect of the story! They apparently come from pets released decades ago.
I do enjoy them! I was glad when they came back to the feeders.
We do a variety of foods -- suet balls and suet bricks, seed in another feeder and peanuts in yet another.
We do enjoy it, as much as we grouse about it. :)
Florida is pretty much the Holy Land of invasive species, isn't it? I may be wrong but I wouldn't think a python would do well in areas that freeze in winter. I bet they'll stay pretty much south of Gainesville.
We have feeders for those suet bricks too, though I don't have any out at the moment. Our feeders definitely get a lot more activity in the winter, though they're busy year-round.
Tidying the stuff that's died back in winter is the first little seasonal activity that hints at the eventual arrival of spring.
Yeah, I'm sure whatever the damage the parakeets do, it's nothing compared to domestic cats. (Especially here in the UK, where cats are usually left to wander outdoors -- which drives me crazy!)
I would think as long as the lily bulbs are intact they'll be fine.
They're all over Europe, apparently, but we in the UK have the distinction of having the largest naturalized population.
Oh yeah, bougainvillea is harsh! Those thorns are really long!
I've heard they're a huge problem in the Pacific NW. I guess the climate there is very much like ours here. Every now and then the big clumps on Hampstead Heath get cleared away.
Nah, she doesn't even pay attention to them. Unless they're pigeons on the ground -- then she sometimes charges them.
Glad you're back, Mark! Yes, the parakeets are definitely alien -- but if you gotta have an invasive species, at least it helps that they're pretty!
Well, there's plenty of time. We have another couple of months here before there's any real need to whip things into shape.
Happy New Year, Rosemarie! It's great to have long-standing blog friends like you. :)
I doubt budgies would make it outdoors. I think they're too small and vulnerable. These parakeets are much larger -- as I told Catalyst below, I'm not sure why they're parakeets and not parrots, but parakeets is what the RSPB calls them.
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