Do you get attached?

[carlj]

A post on the twitcher thread by Diane E lead me to think about this.

Do you become attached to any wildlife you regularly encounter?

My partner, Amber, has named our Kingfishers (Jack and Jasmine), and the resident heron (Elvis, as in Elvis Heron Presley). If it wasn't for the sheer numbers, our demoiselles and darters would have received them too.

Anyone else feel the same, or are you just protective towards your patch and inhabitants?

Carl

[ogwen]

Well I don't name our visitors, but my mum calls one of our robins blue-ie, for some strange reason.......

[Gaina]

We have nine recognisable birds that come to my garden regularly......and I've named them after all the members of the band Slipknot.

We also have a male blackbird with a white feather in his tail that I've nicknamed 'Tip' and he and the Missus had kids this year and one of the males has a white feather in his tail.

To be honest I get more attached to the animals in my garden than humans.

[Wild-Woman]

I have a spider that lives behind my rear view mirror in my car called Alan. WW

[Gaina]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

I have a spider that lives behind my rear view mirror in my car called Alan. WW

You know, naming a spider sounds like a good plan to get over my phobia (my rational mind knows I have nothing to fear but even typing the s-word makes me feel physically sick which I'm told is the sign of a genuine phobia ).
I might try and get myself some spider eggs and get attached to the spiderlings - I mean how can you be scared of something you've known since it was an egg? LOL.

[eeyore]

Honeybee and I were discussing this on Chunky's magpie thread last night - the upshot being that despite liking to think of myself as being hard hearted I am very attached to all manner of furry things in my mums garden , such as horris the woodmouse, Biffle and boffle the voles , and trundle the hedgehog.

[John]

I suppose we are in an enviable position that we get so many birds it would be almost impossible to single birds out.

There was a time in our last garden in Leamington Spa that we did have a fantastic regular visitor in the shape of a Grey Wagtail that we named waggie (I know, totally unoriginal). He arrived at the end of September and stayed in or near our garden right until the following March, when he left us. The following Sept saw him back in the garden again on a daily basis.

It was not long before he would be seen dipping into our pond after the Carp sticks we fed our fish on. At the same time we had a relatively tame Robin that was venturing closer to our patio window so we put up a bowl of fat for him but instead of the Robin coming to it our waggie did. I also filled up a bowl full of water, with rocks in it so it was never too deep for him, and placed some carp sticks into it. That was it, he was hooked and from then on he would be at the bowl from the crack of dawn and I swear that he began tapping on the window as if to get our attention. We were totally enthralled with this bird and it is the one regret that we had to say goodbye to him when we moved to Coventry.

We also had a Field Mouse that started to visit the fat bowl and on more than one occasion we were privelaged to watch both Mouse and Waggie sharing the bowl together. I tried on a few occasions to capture that moment but the mouse was too nervous and would always shoot off when I came close to the window.

Here are three of the photos that I took of our Waggie. The first one is with just my camera taken from the living room and just the window between us. He was less than a foot away from me at this point.


This one is where he always went under a Buddleia bush (which he sometimes roosted overnight in) to preen himself after a bathe in our stream.


Lastly is one of him bathing himself at the top of the garden. All photos taken from the living room.


John

[Gaina]

Originally Posted by eeyore

Honeybee and I were discussing this on Chunky's magpie thread last night - the upshot being that despite liking to think of myself as being hard hearted I am very attached to all manner of furry things in my mums garden , such as horris the woodmouse, Biffle and boffle the voles , and trundle the hedgehog.

They have to be the best names - particularly Trundle the Hedgehog.

[nightshade]

I love Trundle it describes a hedgehogs gait exactly

[nightshade]

Very nice images of Waggie John it is nice when a wild creature
repays your interest with its trust