This article appeared in the Summer 2006
edition of the Newsletter as part of the series on local gardens.
No enlarged images are available.
Before moving to Moffat three years ago, we spent 19 years
in a former farmhouse about 12 miles southwest of Stonehaven
in the northeast of Scotland. Very rural - the nearest village
was 2 miles away and nearest neighbour half a mile.
Our
home had a garden approaching an acre in size, about equally
divided into three main areas for vegetable & flowers, lawn
and a mature timber area (mostly elm and beech) that was largely
left entirely wild. Hedging and shrubs provided considerable
cover for all forms of wildlife and a garden pond hosted an
astonishing variety of aquatic life. Adjacent to our property
was an farm steading, largely disused, and a plantation of sitka
spruce with some willow around a small wet area.. Around all
this lay open fields. The local river (Bervie Water) flowed
down the glen about 300 metres away and substantial hill ground
lay within a mile in most directions.
This all provided a veritable 'oasis' for wildlife of all sorts
and our patch gave a wide variety of habitat- around 80 different
birds were recorded. Some rather unusual - being some 6 miles
inland, who would expect to see Gannets? In addition to the
usual garden birds we regularly saw those associated with open
farmland (Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe, Pipits, Skylarks, Linnet,
etc), and, being also close to hills, we had Wheatear, Twite,
and suchlike. With woodland nearby, Siskin, Goldcrest and, for
a few weeks every spring, Tree Sparrow (thought to nest in a
hole high in a birch tree). Tawny & Short-eared Owls were
fairly numerous, Buzzards were everywhere, augmented in the
winter by Rough-legged Buzzards, and we had the occasional stray
Red Kite and, as a real treat, Golden Eagle. On the ground,
frogs, toads, mice & voles, rabbit, Roe Deer, and the occasional
hare were to be found.
On the smaller scales of nature, Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady
and Red Admiral butterflies were common and, in recent years,
Peacock butterflies had appeared as their range extended northward.
Around the pond, Damselflies were seen regularly though not
frequently and within the pond, Skaters, Boatmen, Diving Beetles
(great and small), Pond & Ramshorn Snails, leeches, veritable
clouds of small insect larvae and, of course tadpoles in summer.
They say all good things come to an end so we decided to retire
to somewhere easier to maintain and with shops within walking
distance. For family reasons, we chose to make Moffat our home
and ended up in Greenwood Close.
Moving
from the open countryside to a house in town, we expected to
miss all that wildlife but Greenwood Close has been a revelation!
Sightings in and around our garden has, to date, produced nearly
50 entries for our bird list. Many of these are birds that we
didn't expect to see in a town garden. Happily, most of the
'Close' residents (about half of them are club members) have
bird feeders and nest boxes to encourage birds and there are
corridors of trees and bushes to enable birds to pass freely
between the 'Close' and its surroundings. We find that some
birds are more common here than
they were in the northeast, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Long-tailed
Tit for example, but really the birds are basically the same
as we had up north. One bird that we see here that hasn't made
it to the northeast is, of course, the increasingly common Nuthatch.
To get to the facts and figures, our list of birds seen in or
from our garden, now reads as follows:
Chaffinch, Greenfinch , Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Coal Tit, Blue
Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Wren, Redstart,
Nuthatch, Tree Creeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, House
Sparrow, Dunnock, Siskin, Starling, Blackbird, Song Thrush,
Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Rook, Collared Dove, Buzzard, Grey Heron,
Swallow, Willow Warbler, Black-headed Gull, Swift, Wood Pigeon,
Oyster Catcher, House Martin, Mallard, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail,
Kestrel, Fieldfare, Redwing, Waxwing, Mistle-thrush, Blackcap,
Sparrowhawk, Brambling, Spotted Flycatcher, Curlew and Tawny
Owl. In early May, a Goshawk flew over just above the rooftops!
We have heard others, Cuckoo, Chiffchaff and Green Woodpecker
for example, but not sighted them and. there are always birds
passing overhead that are too high to make a clear identification.
We created a small pond last summer and it was very quickly
colonised. Within days there was a mass of tiny larvae wriggling
about, common pond snails soon appeared in large numbers and
two or three 'ramshorn' snails were seen after a few weeks.
Pond-skaters and some diving beetles soon appeared although,
curiously, the skaters have not been sighted this year. Darters
started visiting and we recently had a hatch of some. Frogs
also - this spring saw our first frogspawn after a frenzy of
mating over about 3 days withover 20 frogs were counted on a
few occasions. Palmate Newts have appeared this year so we hope
to see some 'newtlets' in due course. As the pond matures no
doubt the variety of life in it will increase - a new one found
very recently seems to be a Freshwater Cockle or Pea Mussel
(still waiting expert identification). How do all these creatures
find ponds? Where do they come in from? Pondlife may not as
pretty to look at as birds but is every bit as varied and fascinating.
On the insect front, we have seen a good variety of beetles
and cockchafer, lots of spiders. Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral,
Peacock, white, and Orange-tip butterflies, bumblebees, a few
darters but, so far, only one dragonfly. We have not yet tried
identifying the many moths.
As our garden develops and matures, and we aim towards it being
eco-friendly, we hope to add considerably more to our tally
of wildlife.
John, Joy & Bob Smith
18 Greenwood Close
