You Think The Gardens Of W5 Are A Safe Place?

I have always been a massive fan of wildlife. I love getting out into open spaces and having a gander at what’s about and then being blessed by seeing some creature hanging out there to, doing whatever it does when it’s hanging out. In Australia we are blessed by having such a diversity of wildlife that so far has not been wiped out, although since European settlement there have been a vast number of extinctions. Humankind is just such an efficient killing machine and impact on the rest of the world. Just in case you didn’t know this is not an endearing feature of humanity. I always love being able to photograph wildlife in its natural environment as well. An example of some of these snaps can be seen here.

When I moved to the UK, 10 years ago now, and again apologies to the other residents of the UK but for now I am still here. Nothing more that I can do than apologies. Hey you let me back in! It’s not all my fault. Although blaming the Government for an individual decision should not be encouraged. I would refer back to my prize winning blog about the lack of common sense in the world but this blog is staying positive at the moment, so I will allow you to dig that one out yourselves if you can find it! When I say prize winning I believe the vote was about 14 – 3 in favour of my blog. So clearly a very important and influential award. Next stop the booker prize? Possibly not. Anyway I digest, where was I? That’s it ….

When I moved to the UK I found I was very deficient in my immediate access to wildlife and the chance to photograph it. In a way it was almost a blessing. I remember to get to work in Sydney my commute involved having to jump across the backs of the crocodiles, in the river flats at my front door. Following this was the drop bear forest. Seriously folks, you think Koala bears are cute? Try walking through a forest of the sleeping blighters. If you do, whatever you do don’t sneeze. The shock of the noise has them excrementing in fear and if that doesn’t cover you in an unwelcome shower, then a shower of petrified drop bears will, as they fall out of the trees after their initial deposit. It aint pretty by any stretch of the imagination! Then there’s the 50 foot anacondas, elephant monkeys, great white axelotle sharks (these babies walk on land as well as swim up the sewers) to name a mere few more.

In the UK you simply don’t have these dangers. As I say possibly a blessing in disguise. What I have found though is wildlife enjoyment on a totally different scale since having access to the garden. Every weekend morning, and most workday evenings, as I am pottering about I share the garden with 10’s upon 10’s of bumble bees. They infest the flowers, including the hollyhocks, and hover about seemingly getting drunk on the pollen. They are incredibly polite, unlike the afore mentioned drop bear, so if I am doing anything in particular to a particular plant, that they are currently hanging out on, they simply hover away and come back at a time that is appropriate for them. Although not quite to the same scale as the Australian vegetarian vampire bat, these bees are seriously huge! The biggest probably about the size of your average Australian coakroach. Seriously! The fact that they can actually get off the ground to hover between the flowers amazes me and must be considered a marvel of wing aerodynamics! So far this summer the daytime garden is pretty much in a constant state of hum thanks to the numbers of these beasts that share it.

I first noticed the bumble bees, and lets face it they are hard to avoid, when the first poppies blossomed near the front door. The bumble bees were literally rolling on their backs in absolute joy at the bottom of the flowers. It was either joy or some kind of Spring time fit they were having! Are they allergic to poppy pollen? The way they were acting it would not surprise me! I had a chance to photograph them in their joyous, drunken state. An example can be seen here. At the time I thought that they were so enamoured with their new found poppies that they had no idea that I was there. Since though I am not convinced, as they simply don’t seem to be camera shy. I have photographed many since. They probably think that I am somewhat weird to be wanting to take a picture of them, but I do think they are quite fascinating creatures.

We also suffer from visits from the odd urban fox. No, not some tarted up slapper but the four legged variety ;-)! These guys sift through the rubbish if allowed to. They are probably annoyed with me though as all our waste food stuffs are kept in a sealed recycling bin. Still that annoyance doesn’t stop then occasionally ripping through the rubbish bag due to an interesting smell that might have found its way in there.

The garden seems to be home to many a frog as well. I love frogs as it’s said that they are a great indicator of general environmental health. Not sure who said that but if you want to know why this is the case then you had best ask them. The first time I stumbled across a frog was when I was watering the irises. These are found in a large pot at the back of the yard and we keep it filled with water making a pond like effect. In this watering instance I saw a frog looking back at me seemingly thanking me for refreshing the swimming pool. On filling the pool he popped back underneath the irises for a bit of privacy. No need to hang about for a chat I guess, that’s a frogs prerogative.

After that though, sightings were few and far between until I saw a very dry, and regrettably dead, frog on the front lawn, Exhibit A. I was a bit disappointed to be honest, but hey everything has a lifespan and Exhibit A seems to have reached there’s. After that no further sightings until we cleared some of the low lying plants in the garden the other weekend. While kneeling down clearing out some debris I suddenly found a small frog hopping about behind my feet. Nice! Son of Exhibit A! Further clearing, and being close to ground level, uncovered two more frogs. One of them can be seen here.

OK four frogs, one of them now deceased, a few urban foxes of the four legged variety and a vast quantity of bumble bees doesn’t match the size and magnitude of having to commute on the backs of tigers to work, but I still love the close coexistence with animal life. I love that even if small there are examples of humans and nature hanging out is some form of harmony. I wish there was more, but even small signs of this please me greatly. This doesn’t take into account all off the birdlife in the area as well. Bizarrely there are flocks of parakeets that live in Pitshanger Park behind us. Where on earth did these originate from? Definitely not a native species. There are the great tits and blue tits as well, but this is not that kind of blog so we shouldn’t go there, phnarr phnarr ;-)

Anyways have a great day. I am off to hang with the Bumble Bees. I wanna be a part of their gang ;-)