Amongst other things the Merlin app heard this morning was a mallard duck. Hardly surpising then that we were chasing two ducklings out of the garage and around the garden in our pyjamas first thing, returning one to the nest in the neighbour’s pond and the other to the relative safety of our pond.

We just started making a new wildlife garden in 9m x 15m of our tall grass area, including the pond. We are planting by dividing perennials. There are hedges on two sides, we will hedge the other two with privet (it’s cheap) and hazel (we are growing the bare-root plants from winter prunings).

Our garden pond is in its third year: today I was watching a smooth newt swimming in the pond. We have plenty of frog tadpoles for it to eat!

A single 400-year-old ancient oak produces 234,000 litres of oxygen a year while soaking up carbon dioxide, and can support more than 2,000 species of bird, insect, fungus, and lichen. Nature is amazing - we need more of it, not less. Please repost if you agree 🌳

A recent David Attenborough TV programme pointed out that for Blue Tits (and others?) to have enough calcium to make their eggs they need to eat a lot of snail shells. So we collect and crush empty shells we find, and egg shells from the kitchen, and leave them on plates in the garden. 🐣

Well, would you believe it? (Yes) Today’s The Observer paper, front page and p10, reported their investigation into collaboration between Fakebook and online gambling web sites illegally capturing user IDs and information and then Fb use it to push gambling adds at those vulnerable to them. p1:

I am making preparations to leave Facebook. (I happen to have had a Flickr account for almost 20 years so I am going to use a Flickr group to keep in touch with my Fb friends - we will see how it goes!) Without members Fb and X lose their power.