wildlife in the city
flowering rose
Posts: 1,632
I use to work many years ago in a very posh place on the Downs in Bristol,Here you were near woods,open ground and extensive grounds .The gardens in them selves were amazing and a lot of big trees and fancy borders were included.I worked the night shift and you would get if the windows were left open beautiful moths ,they were all sizes and colours and I have not seen any since.We also of course had owls and foxes and in the early hours of dawn we often saw deer on the lawn and nearer the house greenwood peckers with their young would pick at insects.All manner of garden birds and larger ones came here and just a little bit further over near gorge a rare bird of pray flies ,a peregrine I believe.Also one spotted the Heron heading towards the pond.There was a such a variety of wildlife that only could be seen and walking on the downs it self you find hollies and hawthorns and no end of different trees.I use to ride across the here when a child but the stables are long gone and only the brave ride across here now as it is very busy area.
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It sounds really lovely. Is the posh place still there? Why is it a very busy area? Has it been built on? There are still some beautiful areas in England, I still think it is the prettiest country I've been to.
Sadly things change flowering rose.
I grew up in the sixties, in a house which backed onto a field and post war allotments. There was a huge derelict pig farm and vicarage with orchard. I recall being woken at the crack of dawn to the sound of birds. There were owls too, which would sometimes keep you awake and horses would sometimes be grazing in the field.
We would collect grasshoppers, ladybirds and butterflies in the summer and have competitions to see who could collect the most before letting them go. The noise of grasshoppers could sometimes be deafening. We'd also go out collecting gooseberries, blackberries, rashberries and get apples from the vicarage. Then there were the wild flowers which could be picked. There were old, man made water holes at the derelict pig farm were hundreds of frogs lived. If I ever said I was bored, I recall getting into trouble, and we seldom watched TV. Once a year the field would be cut and we'd build den's with the bales of hay.
We lived along a road on the main A6, it was at the edge of the city, now where I played is a built up area. The only thing left from that time is a tree, which you can still see from the main road, we called it the big tree, many a day was spent seeing who could climb the furthest up it and there's probably quite a few adults who scratched their names on it as children.
Very little in the way of wildlife exists there now. The orchard is probably still there no doubt fenced off in the name of Health and Safety.
I'm a short walk now from the country and a river estuary and also encourage birds to the garden, not quite the same as years gone by when nature was on my doorstep.
sounds lovely, my dream is to move to somewhere more rural, Sadly the wildlife where I am tend to wear hoodies.
The posh place is still there but alas traffic has increased dramatically ,I to lived in the country when young in a cottage with chickens and a river at the bottom of the garden,but when I went back to see my old home it had become a housing estate and the country lane has disappeared ,it might be process but I felt sadden to think its all eaten up .
I used to ride in fields with my sister when I was a child and we lived in the country, but now it's all housing estates. But people have to live somewhere.
True,trouble with growing older you see the changes.
Hi, Norm2.
We also get that type of wildlife too, hanging around corner shops, wanting to be fed cigarettes and alcohol, anyone caught feeding them are arrested and face a heavy fine. They appear to be shy creatures, with hoods pulled over their faces. They can be very appreciative and scatter if you give them some worldly advise...like...the police have been watching this shop. They've tried taming them where I live with ASBO's and naming and shaming, not sure how effective that is, as new clusters seems to replace the old.
the lesser hooded Vandal who tried to claim residence of the local co-0p got the perfect deterrent ,classical music,they soon dispersed.The hospital I worked at had your local druggie hanging around the gates as I walked home from work and also in the early mornings,the deterrent believe it or not was when more of us began to walk in the mornings but the real wildlife was far more interesting and got to know their identities as did the university that was studying them(foxes).