Hot , hot, hot.

[Jillyb]

Hi everyone,
Hope you are all taking care in the heat wave & remember to drink plenty to stay hydrated
I’m slowly getting back into making mini albums so looking at YouTube for ideas & also passing so time as it’s to hot 🥵 to craft right now .

[scrapdolly]

It is horribly hot … the thing I don’t like is that it’s not cooling down at night

Watching you tube videos sounds perfect

[alison 2]

Very hot out !
We’ve managed to keep the house relatively cool considering what it’s like outside, as long as I don’t move too much

I’ve been out giving ice treats to the chickens, and extra water for the birds and beasties. The horses are in the shade at the moment and have a little breeze round them, they seem to be coping really well.

Supposed to be hotter tomorrow then back to normal thankfully !

Stay safe, stay cool x

[Jillyb]

Well that’s one day of heat over with and today the day and night time temperatures are set to be higher .
Alison well done for putting out the extra water for the birds and mini beast which are often over looked .
I have plenty of little water dishes dotted about the garden as well .
Stay safe everyone in this heat

[Susie.A]

We've put so many bowls of water out for the birds and any other wildlife such as squirrels that may need them but haven't seen them being used. That's a bit of a worry as we haven't seen any birds at all, not even on the feeders. I change the water to keep it cool because it does warm up and have put bigger bowls out for them to bathe in but nothing as far as I've noticed.

I had the fan on in the bedroom last night and it is very quiet and was lovely and I slept right through.

They said it would 'only' be 32 here but yesterday it was 40 in the shade. I think that's about right 105 degrees Fahrenheit, we even took our tomato plants down and put an umbrella over them they were drying out so fast.

[tigerlady]

I spotted your post in Forum Spy Susie, I have had very few birds and my hedgehogs haven't triggered the cameras for about 3 nights. I hope they all return once it cools down.
I use plastic bottles in my tomato plants. put a few holes in the lid, fill with water and upend them and pop them in the soil. You may still need a refill in this heat but it will help out in this crazy hot spell. I also do it when I go on holidays. Oh and when potting up try nappies ripped apart instead of water retention granules. They work in the same way and cost a fraction of the price. (No comments about Scots being frugal please!)

[Jillyb]

Oh my susie that not good with the tomato’s .
We have wheat field by us and the combine has already been out the last two days cutting the wheat .
It’s very early this year harvesting .
We have had the birds as usual in our garden but only early in the morning .
Tigerlady the hedgehog will appear again once it colds down a little .
They will be hiding under bushes trying to keep cool because the hedgehog house is to hot for the. .

[tigerlady]

They will be hiding under bushes trying to keep cool because the hedgehog house is to hot for them

Luckily they have plenty of places to hide in the garden. I have almost given up on my hope for babies, still a very small chance though.

[Susie.A]

Well talk about beware of what you wish for... We spotted a couple of pigeons and a blackbird on the feeders yesterday but I said to hubby I hadn't seen a single sparrow. That was until the neighbour's cat who we are looking after came toddling along with one in his mouth.

I was so upset but remained calm and called him to me gently and he came and dropped it at my feet. I picked it up there was a tiny amount of blood ( a lot for a small bird) and I thought it was dead but its little heart was beating. I took it in the house and it opened it's eyes, so great, now it's injured but alive. Long story short I made a comfy box put some crushed fat ball and tiny bowl of water , lots of air and left it in the coolest, darkest part of our house which is the hall right now. I tried the RSPB, RSPCA and finally our vets. They were emergency only and very busy so said best to see how it goes and if it is still alive tomorrow bring it down.

After a couple of hours I went to try it with a pipette of water because it hadn't moved apart from standing on its little claws. Long story short, as soon as I went near it it flew so I picked it up and put it out on the bedroom window sill but it just sat there. As soon as I went to put food out for it, it flew off into the trees at the bottom of the garden. I honestly think the cat was bringing me a present because he hadn't hurt it too much, the blood had dried up and when I went to him he dropped it straightaway and didn't try to play with it. Fingers crossed the bird hasn't picked up any infection from the cat's mouth and hopefully he won't bring anymore. It was, all in all, exhausting.

Great idea about the nappies for lining baskets Hilary. Do let us know if the babies turn up though.

[Crafty Lady]

Susie, glad the bird wasn't too badly hurt, lovely story. Sorry it was so exhausting for you, but a happy outcome. Great idea to use nappies for hanging baskets Hilary.

[MiniOwner]

Funnily enough I posted on our village FB group to ask if anyne else was missing their garden birds. Ours seem to have 'B*gg**ed off to Bognor' as my husband puts it Some people replied they still had lots and others had the same experience as us.

[scrapdolly]

Oh Susie I am so glad. What a happy ending. I nursed a little sparrow once for 4 days. No one wanted to help because it was just a sparrow. I took it my vet and he said it hadn’t broken a wing but like
T had concussion from hitting a window and so it was like a mini stroke and one wing didn’t work. I borrowed a bird cage and even took it to work with me and eventually a lady at an animal rescue took him and put him in an aviary. (Or at least she said she did … Nigel is convinced he would have been put out of his misery)

We still have loads of birds in the garden every day … generally a good dozen species a day, often more. Our regulars are
Blue tits, coal tits, great tits, sparrows, dunnocks, nuthatch, greenfinches, goldfinches, green woodpeckers, spotted woodpeckers, blackbirds, robins, thrush, starlings, magpies grrrr and pigeons grrr and our more unusual ones are jays, a heron often in our tree top, a buzzard(he lives locally with a mate) and we have had dartford warblers, rarely, and a goshawk took pigeon down in our garden and spent an hour stood on our bbq eating it!

Last week we had a dead greenfinch on the patio ..flew into the window I think. He was ringed and Nigel was able to report it on a site. He was more than 2 years old and had been ringed just 2 miles away.

[Jillyb]

Hi ladies ,
Glad to hear it’s not just me that like seeing nature in the gardens no matter it might be .
So many species of different animals and bugs are on the extinct list or have died out all together .
How much nicer it is that the weather has cooled down and so much more manageable now .
Might even finally get some crafting done this week.

[scrapdolly]

Jilly you are so right … we need to protect what we have so carefully.