This blog is going into hibernation

Hello – and thanks for reading my blog, which has been going since February 2013. I’m now ceasing to add to it, though the existing posts will stay up.

It really started as a gardening blog, but it soon became clear that the popular pages were about wildlife, so I stuck to that subject, and I now feel I have written myself out. The wildlife that appears in the garden tends to be the same each year, and I don’t want to bore you by repeating myself.

I will leave you with one bit of news – we’ve had a grass snake in the garden! He/she appeared under the plastic trays we keep down to attract slow worms: I had a bit of a shock when I lifted the tray to find him. It stayed around for about three weeks, but we haven’t seen it very recently. It is nice to have it, but I hope it doesn’t empty the wildlife out of the pond: hopefully, it will stay up the other end of the garden. Someone I was talking to about it said they knew when their grass snake had arrived in the pond because they saw all the frogs hopping out!

I’ll leave you with one photo I’ve never shown you, from a few years ago when we had a bumper year for slow worms.

DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU DON’T LIKE PICTURES OF “SNAKES”. Slow worms aren’t snakes – they are legless lizards, but they have much the same effect on those who are scared of snakes.

Goodbye – and happy wildlife gardening!

A tangle of slow worms of very mixed ages.

 

 

 

Build a pond and the wildlife will come

11 June 2016

We had our patio widened last December, and as part of the work, had a small pond installed, to replace the old pre-formed one we were taking out. The old pond rarely had much in it, as it was too shaded.

We added water and plants, and six months later, it’s amazing what wildlife has moved in:

Froglet next to pond snail. The snail was quite big, but new frogs are really tiny

Unknown creature – if you can tell me what it is, I’d be most grateful

Damselfy. We think this had just emerged from the pond.

Dragonfly or Damselfly larva.

We also regularly see birds and our cats drinking from the pond (though not at the same time!) It’s a source of endless fascination for us – I’d highly recommend putting in a water feature of some size, however small your garden.

 

 

Robins don’t make it but dragonfly emerges

8 June 2014

I forgot to say in the last entry – sadly our Robin chicks didn’t make it. When we became suspicious and investigated, there were only two chicks left in the nest, one of which was very under-size, and both were dead. We think the most likely cause is the heat in the greenhouse, which can be intense early in the day. Luckily, the parents don’t seem to be thinking of re-building in the same place.

Nature is prolific, though, and in compensation, we’ve had a Broad-bodied Chaser female emerge from the pond. She’s the only one we’ve been aware of, but there may have been others: there were several larvae in there last year that I think were this species.

Female Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly

There are still several big, but slimmer, dragonfly larvae in the pond, which I’m guessing are Southern Hawkers; in the past we’ve seen this species emerging around the end of May, so we’re keeping a very good eye on the pond. Our new pond has a few tadpoles which we moved from the old pond to keep them safe from the newts, and they are doing well, starting to grow their back legs. It’s fascinating to see what else is turning up by itself – all sorts of small water creatures.

The other thing that has especially pleased me is seeing a female Brimstone butterfly investigating the buckthorn bush I planted as food for Brimstone caterpillars. I can’t see any eggs, though a lot would be too high to see, so I’m waiting to observe whether any damage to the leaves becomes obvious so I can see if there are caterpillars present; I’ve had one pointed out to me in the past, and their camouflage is so good, it still took me ages to actually spot it.

 

Crab spider versus butterflies

29 May 2014

My garden seems to be a dangerous place for butterflies at the moment. I’ve got some periwinkle out, and there is a crab spider hiding in it, which has killed both an Orange Tip and a Wall Brown.

I didn’t realise what was going on at first. I saw the Orange Tip on the periwinkle and just thought “Oh good, another Orange Tip”. It was when I walked past again about an hour later and saw it was still on the same flower that I thought something odd was going on and stopped to have a proper look, and all became clear. This sort of spider likes to lurk in a place likely to be visited by the insects that are its prey, and when they land, will grab them and sink their fangs into the body, injecting them with a venom to kill them, after which it will suck the goodness out of them.

Orange Tip being killed by crab spider

I didn’t like losing the butterfly, but spiders have to eat too. However, I walked past again a week later and spotted a Wall Brown butterfly on the periwinkle. I stopped to take a better look immediately, but mainly because I wanted to verify it was a Wall as this would make it the first one of the year, only to find it was also the victim of the crab spider. Within about half an hour the spider had disappeared and the remains of the butterfly were on the ground. This was rather more upsetting, as the Wall is becoming a less common butterfly: it is disappearing fast from inland areas and only hanging on around the coast.

Wall being killed by crab spider

One final photo, to show you a Brimstone which had the sense to keep away from the periwinkle and stick to the honesty close by – as far as I know, it lived to fly away and maybe mate with a female which will lay eggs on the buckthorn I’ve planted at the far end of the garden: it’s about time one did!

Brimstone on honesty flower

 

 

It’s a Robin’s nest

5 May 2014

We’ve now had a sighting of the bird on the nest in our greenhouse, and it’s not a finch, it’s a robin. Our bird book said robin eggs were blue, which is what led to our confusion, but checking on the internet, they often seem to be brown. We’re just as pleased to have her! You can just see her in the photo, peering over the edge of the tray to see what I’m up to.

Robin sitting on her nest

The eggs have just hatched, and we managed to get in while she was off the nest for a quick look – all four eggs have turned into baby birds and all four reacted to us by opening their beaks, so they seem healthy enough. They should fledge in about two weeks apparently – it seems so quick.

We’ve also had the first green-veined white in the garden, as you can see below – the green veind on the under-wings are clearly visible: these are not present if the butterfly is a Large or Small White. It is on the honesty called ‘Corfu Blue’ that I have mentioned before.

Green-veined White

And just to finish off – a lovely clump of bugle (ajuga reptans) in full flower, which is attracting lots of bees. It is one of those plants that spreads quite rapidly if it finds the right spot, and makes for good ground cover – it can get a bit over-enthusiastic, but its dark leaves are so attractive, I forgive it. The white behind is a lovely perennial viola called ‘Ivory Queen’.

Clump of buge in flower

Goldfinch or chaffinch nest?

18 April 2014

I was doing things in the greenhouse at the far end of our garden three days ago, when I took down a plant tray that I use to store odd tools and things off the top shelf – you can see it in the photo below: it’s green.

You can see the tray on the top shelf of the shelves

To my amazement, there was a bird’s nest in it. Looking carefully, it seemed to have some small areas of fungal growth in it, so I thought it was abandoned.

Checking the next day, however, to my amazement, there was an egg in it!

Single egg in nest

Trawling round the internet, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is either a golfinch nest, or one belonging to a chaffinch, and we see both in the garden regularly. We have never seen a bird fly in or out of the greenhouse, but then it is the other end of the garden, so unless we are working up there, we wouldn’t see it.

Not wanting to disturb the nest again, we checked today with a hand mirror, and there are now three eggs.

Three eggs in the nest

I’m very chuffed it has honoured us with its presence: I just hope it realises how hot it can get in there when the morning sun is on it. I can’t say it’s very convenient for us, as when the female bird starts incubating, she won’t want us going in and out of the greenhouse, which means all my plants need to come out. At a time when I’m overwhelmed with plants coming on for my own garden or for sale, this is quite a problem, which is being temporarily solved by using the vegetable bed where the runner beans are going to go – it won’t be in use until the end of May (the earliest I’ll risk planting out anything frost-tender), so it gives me some time to see how things evolve.

It’s brilliant – like having Springwatch in my own garden. Wonder if I can set up a video link somehow……

I’ll keep you updated as the story progresses.

 

 

Early nectar plant for butterflies – Honesty ‘Corfu Blue’

10 March 2013

I know the year is getting underway – I’m sitting here with the sound of my printer churning out this year’s edition of “Counting Dorset’s Butterflies” behind me. The Dorset Branch of Butterfly Conservation encourages butterfly recording by offering people a range of schemes for counting, varying from very formal methods such as transect walks to just noting butterflies in your garden. I have produced a booklet explaining them all, which I update every year – it’s available via our website if you are interested.

There are many signs of the year progressing outside, too. Several days of reasonable weather have enabled us to get out in the garden to admire the butterflies also tempted out by the early sunshine. It is important that these early risers can find something to eat, so having plants for early nectar in your garden is important. I’ve previously found honesty difficult to keep in this garden: it is supposed to self-seed, but that doesn’t seem to work here. However, there is a new variety on the market that is at least semi-perennial (despite its name): lunaria annua ‘Corfu Blue’. As you can see from the photo below, taken yesterday, it is in full flower now, and being appreciated by the Small Tortoiseshells.

Small Tortoiseshell on honesty ‘Corfu Blue’

You can also see it is more lilac coloured than blue – why do plant breeders try to insist so many flowers are blue when they are not?

There is a truly perennial honesty called lunaria redeviva, which I’ve also got, but that’s not in flower yet.

The sunshine was making a couple of the Small Tortoiseshells feel a bit frisky: the one behind the other in the photo was definitely very interested in the one in front, and I’m assuming that’s a male interested in a female, but I could be wrong. They got a bit fed up with my camera pointing at them, and whirled off together.

Two Small Tortoiseshells together

There’s definitely a lot of newt activity in the pond, too: maximum count so far is 13, but there will always be some we can’t spot – when disturbed, they dive into the loose earth at the bottom of the pond so you can’t see them. Photo of two of them below.

Two common newts in the pond

What a wonderful time of year!

I’ve got tadpoles!

26 February 2014

It’s still February and we’ve got tadpoles!

Just-hatched tadpoles

The spawn was from next door’s pond, as we’ve not had any for three years, and it’s in aquatic pots to keep the newts away, but we’re going to have to get the tadpoles out quickly or they’ll be eating each other. I’m fascinated to be able to see in the photo how little they look like tadpoles at this stage: they’re too flat, except for one or two where you can see the bulge of the head. The stuff they are resting on looks like stones here, but it’s actually the circular blobs of jelly from which they emerged, which are bigger than they were when the tadpoles were still inside them.

We had a day of sunshine today, so the spring flowers were out too, plus several bees.

Bee on crocus

I’m guessing this is a honey bee on the crocus. There were at least three buff-tailed bumble-bees around, too, but I didn’t get a shot of any of them.

Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’

The plant above is a good early nectar plant to have in the garden for bees: lungwort (pulmonaria). This is one called ‘Blue Ensign’ and it’s a really good blue. The wild version is also very pretty: it’s got spotted leaves and the flowers fade from blue to pink (or is it the other way round?) and both colours are visible at once.

Having some plants for early nectar in your garden is very important for the early bees and butterflies which get tempted out by warm weather, so do make sure you’ve got some. As well as crocus and lungwort, you can try primroses, hellebores, and mahonia (all of which are in flower in my garden at the moment). Mahonia is a small bush, but the flowers are very highly scented and a real treat when there’s not much else. You can also – if you dare – try dandelion and lesser celandine, but they both spread uncontrollably, so don’t blame me if you end up with more than you want!

More Signs of Spring

16 February 2014

One of the most potent signs of Spring must be the birds starting to sing. I heard the first song thrush of the year yesterday, and today could hear two robins singing, one on either side of me. We’ve also got a male blackbird – the same one who was around last year, I’m fairly sure – regularly sitting in the ivy on the garage wall, quietly singing away to himself. He isn’t very bothered by we human beings, so you can stand there and watch his throat move as he warbles gently away. I whistled back at him yesterday (one verse of “On Top of Old Smokey”) and I’m sure he started to get louder, so maybe he began to think I was competition!

We’ve had a couple of pheasants in the garden.

Brown Pheasant

This handsome male (above) turned up in January, but only made a couple of visits. The black male below has been here twice in February so far – though it seems unfair to call him black when he’s really such stunning shags of blue: you can really see the relationship to the peacock in this photo.

Black Pheasant

We actually had some sunshine today, so I got out into the garden for about three hours. Did a bit of greenhouse work; I’ve now got three lots of annual flowers sown: antirrhinum, verbena and scabious. Also did a bit of tidying of one of the borders: at least, at this time of year, the weeds don’t re-grow very quickly, so you can see what you’ve done for a while. We’ve got more rain forecast, so I don’t know when I’ll get out there again.

I hope your weather is being kind to you, wherever you are.

Photos to remind us of summer and sunshine

6 February 2014

Like most people in the UK, I suspect, I am very fed up with the weather – rain, cloud, wind, cloud, rain, wind. So I’m going to dig into my photographic archive and come up with a few cheer-us-up pics, which I hope work for you.

Young starling being fed by a parent, with three other starlings busy feeding themselves. May 2013.

Close-up of Iris Sibirica ‘Ewen’

Bluebells near Woodsford. May 2013.

Common Blue on rudbeckia flower. August 2013.

Small Tortoiseshell on sweet william flower

Keep smiling – summer will return eventually!