Mostly I try to offer little tips of things you can do in your garden that will benefit certain creatures.
But one of the joys of gardening for wildlife is seeing things that you've never seen before. So, as the following has just happened in my garden, I couldn't resist sharing.
We haven't had any rain to speak of down here in coastal Sussex for a couple of weeks, until a big heavy shower came and dumped itself on the garden while I was having lunch.
I noticed up in the neighbour's Tree of Heaven a pale shape waving around, and realised it was a Collared Dove doing semaphore with its wings.
I grabbed the camera, and managed, through the downpour, to get some photos of something new for me - a Collared Dove rain-bathing.
The definitive bird encyclopaedia, Birds of the Western Palaearctic, says, '[Collared Doves] sunbathe communally, and bathe on damp grass. Several reports of rain-bathing'.
Well, here's what it looks like:
Here's the dove beginning to stretch its left wing - you can see droplets of water on its back
And fully stretched (they're SO supple!)...
And now to do the other side...
By doing this, the dove allows the rain to seep in to the bases of the feathers, helping clean away dust and possibly parasites, and making preening much easier.
Cool! I certainly didn't expect that a collared dove going about its ablutions was going to make my day!
Green woodpeckers live very close but the only time we see them in the garden (rather than flying over us) is when the ants are swarming. They seem to be the only birds which eat ants as a main meal rather than an odd snack.
I’m happy to have lots of ants in the garden as the Grass snakes will need them when they hatch, which won’t be long now.
Seeing birds 'anting' is a brilliant observation, Wildlife Friendly. And something that is only possible to see in one's garden if one has allowed the ants to thrive. And I bet you get Green Woodpeckers because of that too.
Well done for getting shots of it, my camera is never to hand when I need it.
A couple of weeks ago I spotted a first for my garden. There was a Blackbird flapping around on the grass, I thought it was injured and was about to go and see what the problem was when another one joined it and started flapping about in exactly the same way. I crept closer and found they were rolling about near an ants nest, both were picking up ants with their beaks and putting them under their wings.
A search on the internet found this:-
Additionally, some birds like Blackbirds, Starlings and Jays will adopt a sunbathing posture on an ants' nest, or even pick up ants in their bill and rub them on their feathers. Ornithologists believe the formic acid that the ants release may kill feather lice.