SANParks.org Forums

Just saw this link on Flickr. I know it's not SANParks related, but as nature lovers it's pertininent though, so it could be a viable exception? Depends who you ask I guess

Wildlife in your garden

On my way.

Ill sum up the wildlife in my garden
Frog
salamanders
Butterflies and dragonflies in summer
Hedgehog in summer on the prowl at night
Birds visiting:
magpie*
eurasian jackdaws
common starling
house sparrow
collared dove
wood pigeon
wren
hedge accentor
robin*
blackbird
long-tailed tit*
blue tit
great tit
eurasian sparrowhawk*
*only during winter

In summer just before nightfall small bats patrol the garden
Called in ducht, Laatvlieger. (duskflyer)
Not bad for a small garden in a city.

Just insects in my garden really. I could try to attract wildlife, but I have a very small, high walled garden and 2 cats, so I don't think it's a good idea. Plenty of foxes in the area, though.

Butterflies and dragonflies in summer - tick
Birds visiting:
magpie - all year round
eurasian jackdaws - tick
common starling - tick
house sparrow - believe it or not, haven't seen one in ages!
collared dove - tick
wood pigeon - tick
wren - tick but rare
hedge accentor - nope
robin* - tick
blackbird - tick
long-tailed tit* - nope
blue tit - tick
great tit - tick
eurasian sparrowhawk* - nope
plus:
eurasian buzzard - only flying overhead but frequently
ring-necked parakeet
eurasian jay (breeding pair, 4 fledgelings )
european goldfinch *
european chaffinch *
common nightingale **
and, but only once, a grey heron on the roof terrace

*only during winter
** only in summer

Oh, and bats too but wouldn't know which ones.

Not bad either hey?

We have some really interesting birds icluding barbets and hoepoes and of course louries and hadedas and all enjoy our little water feature (and occasionally the fish!).

The site is really great Loams and Margaret Roberts has something similar for SA gardens. Nice projects for the kids to get involved in.

SO wants to know - how does he attract the odd hippo or ellie to the garden?

Thank for the link Loams.

I put out wildbird seed each day to attract birds to my garden. I also have a fruit feeder for the birds and a couple of nesting logs and boxes. I do not use poisons of any sort in my home or garden. I think that the best way to get into birding is to start in one's own garden.

Off the top of my head, the following are visitors to my garden:

Laughing, Cape Turtle and Red Eyed doves
African yellowthroated Sparrows (never get mossies don’t know why)
Cape weavers and spectacled weavers
Pin-tailed wydahs (the male is going to get his own post on this site one day - little brat)
Mouse birds
Bulbuls
European Starlings
Yellow eyed canary
Bronze manikins
Crowned hornbills
Helmeted Guineafowl
Hadeda
Black collared barbets
Cape white eye
Black headed Oriole
Grey headed bush shrike
Brown hooded king fisher
Southern Boubou
Knysna Lourie
African black sunbird
Swifts
Lesser striped swallow
Cape wagtail
And of course all these attract an African Goshawk who nabs a dove from time to time.

An owl lives in the bush across the road and a pair of Fish Eagles close by at the river.

Then there are the bumble bees, grass hoppers, butterflies and dragon flies. Geckos and lizards, frogs, mice and many tiny insects.

Vervets also pop in from time to time to steal the fruit off the bird feeder or our grapes when they are in season. Got to keep a watch they don’t get into the house. The odd snake comes by in summer too.

Wow
I have a handful of birds visiting my garden
And I put out birdfeed

We have a lot of birds that visit our garden, but still being a novice at birding I can not ID them. We do have a lot of squirrels, Raccoons and yes skunks that visit often. A few blocks down from were I live there is a ravine and I have seen wild fox there a few times.

I am really lucky that I live within a couple of hundred metres of a river and a 'green belt' and across the road is a botanical garden We used to live on the river before we moved to our little house for two and there we were visited by many more birds and some interesting animals like water monitors etc. Dikkops raised chicks in the garden too - bad on my nerves watching these little things trying to make it in the big world!

Just the slugs in our garden at the moment. However I did come home a few weeks ago to find a sparrowhawk had just caught a blackbird and as I watched flew off with it.

Work is a different matter. We have ducks, swans, moorhens, canada geese, water voles (oh alright then, rats), green woodpeckers, foxes and goats. We used to have a roe deer but no one's seen it for a couple of years. The swans had 6 chicks this year, three left now and getting bigger so they should be OK now. That's one chick more than last year so they're improving.

Next door there's a grey heron and in the playing field at the end of the site in the winter we get lapwings, field fares and brent geese.

Warning! Loooong post!

I do not have a garden, but will list what I see in an area of 100 meters around my house:
Gulls *,
Blackbirds,
Pigeons.

* Especially on tuesdaymorning, when they are busy tearing the garbagebags apart.

Oefff... now to relax my fingers again, not used to typing this much...

Me thinks you need a bird book and a garden chair to place yourself in outside with a cold beverage in hand for a few hours, then see how long your post will get

Not a single space longer I am afraid, with or without book. If I were to enlarge the circle to say 1 kilometer, well, yes, than it would get a lot longer. Something like 15 birds then, including my baby Stork.

Just received my latest copy of the WILD in Africa magazine and under the WILD books section the feature a STRUIK publication called "Attracting Wildlife to your Garden: in southern Africa".

Maybe something for those of you who have a garden to attract wildlife too. I live in a flat so no garden for me