ONLY10 minutes from Ealing Broadway station there is wildlife not far short of Autumnwatch on television: A fox and cubs and, a few months ago, three of them playing at the bottom of the garden, quite at home; squirrels in the chestnut trees; hedgehogs; field mice; and recently an unwelcome rat near the compost.
Birds too. Pigeons of course, a pair of blackbirds, thrush sometimes, a dunnock (hedge-sparrow) hopping quietly under the lilac, and great blue coal tits at the peanuts in the bird-feeder.
A spotted woodpecker from Perivale Wood also comes for peanuts; green woodpecker picking up ants from the lawn; magpies flaunting their black and white plumage; a couple of crows who chase off the pigeons, starlings squabbling with each other.
A lone greenfinch came for months to feed on a high windowsill, then suddenly there was a flock of goldfinches on the Michaelmas daisies.
Birds, hedgehogs, field mice and a rat: What more do you want?
LOUISA DOVER Ealing
