Sunday 10 November 2019

It was cold and sunny today. Once again, there were lots of hungry birds in the garden.

Both middle-spotted and great-spotted woodpeckers are regular visitors.

This particular blackbird is easy to recognise with her distinctive eye swelling. She's been in the garden for a couple of days.

Middle-spotted woodpecker, Christophstal November 2019

Middle-spotted woodpecker, Christophstal November 2019

Blackbird with eye swelling, Christophstal November 2019

Blackbird with eye swelling, Christophstal November 2019

Saturday 9 November 2019
Red squirrel, Christophstal November 2019

Red squirrel, Christophstal November 2019

We had the first dusting of snow of the year this morning. It didn't amount to much, but it is noticeably colder. There were a lot of hungry birds in the garden and several red squirrels too. I've been trying to get them off the bird feeders by firing my supersoaker at them, but they just ignore me.

Sunday 3 November 2019

For the first time in seven years, we had to deal with a mouse in the house. We heard something scuttling about in the ceiling of our bedroom and the next day we saw a very large and well-fed mouse running about in our downstairs bathroom. We managed to catch him and put him outside. Hopefully he won't come back in. Anyway, after this we've seen a very, very large mouse in the front garden on a couple of occasions. So big in fact that I was beginning to think it was a roof rat (Ratus ratus). Now I'm happy that it's a yellow-necked mouse - just a very big one.

Yellow-necked mouse, Christophstal November 2019

Yellow-necked mouse, Christophstal November 2019

Yellow-necked mouse, Christophstal November 2019

Yellow-necked mouse, Christophstal November 2019