Visitors to Charnwood

One of the major reasons for choosing to move to Charnwood was its garden and surroundings, which would give us more space and opportunity to grow new things and get closer to the wildlife around us. Even before we moved in, I started taking photographs and I have featured below some of the ones that capture what we see. In particular, the garden attracts more woodland edge creatures than our previous garden did. However, the two properties are sufficiently close that we are still visited by old friends, especially the jackdaws. This may be true of some of the smaller birds but we do have a significant resident population living in the hedges and trees round and within the garden.

Before we moved in, Annie (at the front) and her daughter Maggie decided to give the place a thorough inspection.	One of the ideas we had for the garden at Charnwood was to create a wildflower meadow and this is the first result
In the early autumn this young fox came and collected fallen pears	This picture was taken at Christmas time, if it is the same fox it has grown significantly
We moved our birdbath from our previous garden and it is much appreciated by the locals especially this male blackbird	I always found chaffinches difficult to photograph in our previous garden but at Charnwood they come closer
These two crows are a good example of the significant number of larger birds that are regular visitors	The view from our front bedroom shows that the estate is called ‘Dairyfields’ for a good reason, even today
Dunnocks and Chaffinches (both pictured) regularly feed close to the back of the house along with Robins, Blackbirds and Thrushes	The jays are a bit more camera shy but regularly visit the bird table and feed on the lawn
Not the best picture of a nuthatch but they move quickly between the trees and the bird table	So far we have only had one visit from a pheasant but we know that there are more around because we can hear them calling
The Ring Doves came in larger groups to feed that in our previous garden, where one resident pair used to chase all others of their species away	We have at least three Robins that live close by and so far there haven’t been too many examples of conflict, despite their rather aggressive reputation
These grey squirrels may not be popular as a species in some quarters but we find them to be rather engaging neighbours who regularly play together in and around the garden	This Thrush actually flew into the picture when I was attempting to taken an earlier (in this sequence) picture, as the Dunnock (bottom left) indicates
The Blue and Great Tits soon began making use of the bird feeders	Further pictures of local Blue Tits
This female Greater Spotted Woodpecker is a regular visitor but usually stays further away from the house. It particularly likes feeding on the fat balls	Magpies are another bird with a bad reputation but they seem to regularly feed together close to the house with Woodpigeons, Doves and Jackdaws

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