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Meet my squirrel friend…

I’ve decided to make friends with my garden squirrel

A video posted by Eleanor Lovell (@ellielovell) on

We haven’t always been friends. When we first moved into our house, she would be dangling from the bird-feeders, trying to tear them apart and get to the peanuts. Or dig holes in my far-from-perfect lawn. So I would go out in the garden to scare her off. 

But over time, she started to grow on me. With her regular visits, antics running from tree to tree, gamboling across the grass and brave attempts to pick last season’s dried old fruit from the tree, she was actually pretty entertaining.

This daredevil squirrel outside my window is making me nervous! A video posted by Eleanor Lovell (@ellielovell) on

I decided instead of chasing her off, I would feed her.

When she comes to the garden, I throw a few nuts out on the patio or the path, and each day she gratefully eats them (and often continues to dig holes in my lawn as she buries them in the garden!) but she doesn’t disturb the bird feeders any longer!

Now, she visits at least once a day, and is getting a lot braver and cheekier. And I actually rather like her.

Cheekier by the second (and probably flea-ridden) but so cute and friendly! How can you resist?

A video posted by Eleanor Lovell (@ellielovell) on

Maybe in a future blog post I will tell you about my childhood squirrel friend who I trained to come into the house, through the lounge and halfway up the stairs to retrieve peanuts! Probably not so sensible in hindsight, but a achievement for a young girl who loved animals!

When we inherited our garden, we also inherited two fruit trees – a cherry tree and a plum tree.

I love blossom and always wanted a blossom tree in the garden, so what luck to have two!

The blossom bloomed in mid-April and is still on the trees now (although there’s less with every gust of wind!). It’s like constant confetti.

Garden confetti

A video posted by Eleanor Lovell (@ellielovell) on

As much as I love the blossom, it certainly makes it harder to spot the birds amongst the branches and leaves!

And now we have the cherries and plums to look forward to in the Summer and Autumn. Anyone got any recipes…?

Today I added a new bird to our list of garden visitors – the Jay. And not just one, but two.

In our old flat, we would regularly see Jays in the tall Beech tree outside the window. But our visitor today was exploring the garden footpath and even jumped up on to the bird feeder to see what was available.

Jay (Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be)

Jay (Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be)

That takes the current species count up to 23:

  1. Robin
  2. Wren
  3. Dunnock
  4. House Sparrow
  5. Blue Tit
  6. Great Tit
  7. Coal Tit
  8. Long-tailed Tit
  9. Blackbird
  10. Starling
  11. Goldfinch
  12. Chaffinch
  13. Greenfinch
  14. Blackcap
  15. Chiffchaff
  16. Willow Warbler
  17. Bullfinch
  18. Great Spotted Woodpecker
  19. Magpie
  20. Wood Pigeon
  21. Jackdaw
  22. Sparrowhawk
  23. Jay