Bobtails

You wouldn't necessarily expect a quiet residential street in Ewell to be home to more than 130 rabbits, but it's true; Bobtails Rabbit and Guinea Pig Rescue are based in Arundel Avenue.

Bobtails take in and care for abandoned and unwanted rabbits and guinea pigs, with a view to rehoming them where possible. They also provide a "dating service" -- if your rabbit is lonely and looking for company, they'll match them up with one of their rabbits and make sure that the pair get on! (Bunny small-ads, I can see it now. "Good sense of humour required. Must like carrots and have all own fur.")

The rescue centre is open most Sundays (best to call first if you're coming any distance) and they're always happy to receive your donations. Among the things they cheerfully accept are old towels, old phone books -- the rabbits like to play with them -- and shredded paper; some of their resident rabbits are actually allergic to hay, and therefore need other bedding...

Their website can be found at www.bobtailsrescue.org.uk. I note that they're having a Fun Day on 18th May 2008 to raise funds for the centre; I'll try to remind you all about that nearer the time...

(Bobtails Rabbit & Guinea Pig Rescue, 44 Arundel Avenue, East Ewell; 020 8393 2016.)

Woodpecker

I promise you this is not going to turn into Wildlife On One... but one of the reasons I like living in Ewell is that we get more interesting visitors to our back garden. ("More interesting" in comparison to our previous slightly-closer-into-London abode. Gardens generally smaller and fewer nearby parks, thus, less roaming wildlife.)

Today a green woodpecker was assiduously hunting something on our lawn; insects, I suppose. He seemed quite successful, staying for at least ten minutes. With a beak like that, we won't need to worry about aerating the ground any time soon...

Glorious EwellVision...

Today's technology experiment...Brought to you by the wonders of YouTube: frog porn!

Froggy Would A-Wooing Go

I can tell it's getting on towards Spring in this corner of Ewell, as my garden pond is wriggling. No, I do not have the Loch Ness Monster in residence -- but I do have a significant number of frogs, plus the occasional toad, who turn up at about this time every year, get down and dirty in the pond, and then hop off to who knows where, leaving only their spawn behind.

It doesn't seem to make any difference that the pond's badly in need of a clear-out (and a new pump); back they come each year. In a small piece of evidence that Spring is unusually early in 2008, the frogs themselves are somewhere between ten days and two weeks earlier than I'd usually expect to see them.

It can be very disconcerting to glance out of the kitchen window and spot shiny amphibians writhing -- or maybe that should be mud-wrestling, given the state of the water....

New 'Keet On The Block

I don't know how many of you saw the BBC programme which was shown on Friday and Saturday -- just a little ten-minute job, called "The Great British Parakeet Invasion". I doubt that it'll be news to anyone that green parakeets have thoroughly colonised this area along with much of the rest of England, especially the south-east. There's a colony of thousands in Esher, but there's also a fair number of them flying around Nonsuch Park whenever I've been there in the last few years. We don't often see them in our garden, but we did have this rather cheeky visitor just before New Year!

Although they're very noisy when they get going, I confess I'm rather taken with them -- it's the bright colour that attracts me, I think. I saw some once in a yew tree near the café in Nonsuch Park, feeding on its berries, and the contrast between the light green birds and the dark green tree was very attractive -- shame I didn't have my camera with me that day.

(Expect more postings about Ewell's wildlife over the next week or two -- I seem to have seen quite a lot of it today...)