My garden

Living on Alfreton Road, a very busy road on the way out of nottingham, i always thought it'd be pretty devoid of wildlife in comparison to where i lived previously, up in mapperley park. Up there there were nice tree lined streets, big gardens and it was generally quiet. Here in Radford, it is very busy, small gardens, not much habitat and so i thought it'd be dead. living here for 5 months though, i have ended up seeing a fair bit, albeit not in any abundance, of wildlife surviving in this urban jungle. so far i've seen 12 bird species, which isn't too bad.

My garden is pretty horrible (needs a good tidy), but i installed a makeshift bird table (just a bit of wood attatched to a fence by some shelf brackets) and regularly put out seed for the birds. i get some regulars, a pair of blackbirds, a dunnock and now and again i get a wren and a woodpigeon. Every so often a pair of town pigeons come and hoover everything up, which can be annoying.
I've also put in a composter, which hadsn't composted very well as yet, though i'm guessing this is partly due to the cold weather. however, the other day i was putting stuff in when somethoing caught my eye, a BROWN RAT was sitting inside chomping on an old corn on the cob. before i realised properly what it was, it crawled out of a hole it had dug in the side and scarpered out the garden, skidding as he went. very funny! anyway, he and a female blackbird were fighting over an apple core this morning, chasing each other about. i managed to get a picture of the rat, which is rubbish due to the terrible light and taking it through the window.

oh and there's a picture of my oak, grown from an acorn about 5 years ago now!