This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
This year's lodgers
nutcutlet
Posts: 27,445
I was pleased to see a nesting moorhen after a gap of a couple of years. I missed the black cotton wool balls. They're not good parents at all. They take the kids on cross country walks, desert them in the road if a car comes by, it's a wonder they aren't extinct.
The bats are roosting in one of the south facing dormers. This didn't go well last year as a nursery roost, there's not much space and it gets extremely hot. On the first fairly warm day they were hanging out under the eaves in day time. I fear some of the babies may have cooked.
I told them, but they didn't listen. They can have the entire roof space if the go in via the barge boards on the ends of the house. It's what they did for years previously.
I shall await developments
In the sticks near Peterborough
0
Posts
That's lovely Nut, we usually have a few bats flying round but have only seen 1 so far this year, I'm not sure where they live though
Moorhens (or as they were called in the village where I lived 'Waterhens')
Bats
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I enjoy reading such a post that reflects my own views about nature and the changing seasons.
I run the garden as a nature reserve AWB. I don't have trouble with pests, it all balances out
In the sticks near Peterborough
Nut, how lovely for you about the moorhen, there are some around here, but my favourites are the coots and the teenage swans, who look like rather grubby small swans and go wherever their parents go and then finally make their own way in the world. It's a shame the bats don't listen to your advice
They don't listen when they come in at 2 and 3am to feed the babies. I tell them to turn the volume down, but they don't.
artjak do you think coots are less people friendly. There are lots on the Nene and washes but they never visit me.
Love watching the swans as well, they don't live here either
In the sticks near Peterborough
I think coots like bigger areas of water - waterhens go for more intimate environments
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Do they. Maybe that's why I'm not very familiar with then at all. I just see them as I drive by the washes
In the sticks near Peterborough
moorhens have red beaks ,coots white.
What kind of bats have you got, Nutcutlet?