The joys of the countryside! The Heron, fox & hedgehog

16 comments

Time for a minor rant as it’s been so annoying, trying and downright irritating just lately!
Firstly the dratted weather, can’t stand the heat and we so desperately need some rain, it’s at least six weeks since we saw any and even the grass looks dead. Our grass, being on heavy clay, usually stays green regardless of the dry weather, it’s the first time that I have ever seen it this bad.
I have had to move the hanging baskets because with even the best will in the world and various methods to keep the compost moist it’s not possible where they were.
The previous owner put some brackets up on a workshop opposite the back door, so of course I have tried to use them. It wasn’t until this year when we have a garden thermometer clock from my late Father-in-law, that I realised just how hot it was on that wall!

This time it read 34, but it has been up to 40 – no wonder nothing survives, even the Sedums are giving up the ghost.

A few flowers are trying their best, mostly roses as they do well on clay soil, but it’s amazing looking at the photos of this time last year and looking out the window – what a difference! There were so many more lush, colourful plants last year.

The main problem is the saga of the Fox! We have had the field re-fenced along two sides, one side has buildings and a gate, the other outer side has a Hawthorn hedge and old wire sheep fencing which is past it’s best in places. These are of course the places that the Fox finds!
As we were down to about six chickens and three Cockerels, plus the seven little Pekin bantams I thought it time to replace a few. Finding some ex-farm brown jobs cheap I had ten of those to bolster our little flock.
Lo and behold! One of the cockerels got eaten, unusual it’s a cockerel so I decided that the Buzzard took it. Not long after another Cockerel disappeared, feathers everywhere.
The last straw was when I heard the Guinea Fowl shouting and then the Peacocks hooting. Dashing out I saw the Fox walk across from one side to the chicken run. shouting at him and running (not fast, but as fast as I can) he turned and looked at me and took off up the field. The cheek of it, as he ran, without breaking stride, he bent and picked up one of the tiny bantams. Another yowl from me and he dropped it – and it ran off! It didn’t know how lucky it was.
All day spent hacking back the Hawthorn trees, repairing the outside fence, putting new fencing inside the hedge to make a double row and I was scratched to pieces but sure he couldn’t get through there.
Two days passed and another chicken gone, he had forced his way through another part. The chickens are now kept in the run or the centre section between the gates and are not happy!!
Went to collect the eggs a couple of days ago and opened up the door to the nesting section – four eggs and one dead young Jackdaw! The Jackdaws are adept at nicking eggs, but this one met it’s match in the chickens, they have killed Crows before in the run when they come down for food. It had gone in the entrance to the roosting area, through that and into the nest area, so probably didn’t stand much chance of getting away. People don’t realise that chickens can be vicious, I have seen them run off with baby chicks to eat and frogs too – nasty!

The next major bugbear at the moment is the pond. This is how it looks now, a real eyesore to see out of the kitchen window.

It had to be netted with bean netting (to allow the little birds in to bathe), and to keep this person out.

Then we had some wild Mallards decide to stay and they forced themselves through the netting, landing on it and putting it in the water! We took one piece off and back came the Heron. The story of Herons is that they need a wingspan width to take off, or they won’t land, and if they can see strings they won’t try. Someone needs to tell this one all that.
It landed on the bridge railings (strings across the top), on the grass and walked up, ducked under the string onto the bridge (more string), landed on the flower boxes and squashed them all (more string) and had the gall to jump up between the strings before opening his wings!
Enough is enough so I contacted a workman about having it renovated as the land has sunk and we can’t get enough water in to make it deeper. He came, looked, said yes he could do it and would get back to me with a price – which he eventually did (he’s not good on communication). I accepted his price (several thousand, but what else can you do?) and am still waiting for an email to tell me when he is likely to start, after a fortnight of not hearing I’m not holding my breath!
On a lighter note, plodding about outside in the middle of the night trying to track down a strange squeaking noise, (I do a lot of plodding about in the night!) I discovered that it was one of the trees gently moving and two branches rubbing together. Having solved that puzzle I saw something brown dash across from the barn toward the back of the house. Dreading it was a rat moving in early from the fields, I was delighted to see it was a hedgehog. We put down some cat food, courtesy of OH’s fishing shed, and it was gone in the morning. Now does that mean that we are feeding the hedgehog, a feral cat or that blasted fox!

• 12 Jul, 2018
• 3 likes

More blog posts by honeysucklegold