Our lawn is in a bad state. The shading of the trees and the dry summer has encouraged the moss to grow. There’s not a lot we can do about it. But this year the magpies have had a real go pulling up the moss. I assume they’re after cranefly larva (leatherjackets). But it could…… Continue reading Magpies vandalising our Lawn
Category: Nature
Flying Ant Day 2022
This year has been a bad year for blackfly, made worse (in our garden at least) by the fact that they are moved around from one plant to another by ants. They started on the broad beans which they forced me to harvest earlier than usual so they were smaller and migrated to the dwarf…… Continue reading Flying Ant Day 2022
Box Tree Moth – a relative newcomer
With the recent hot weather our windows and doors have been open in the evening and so more insects than usual have appeared. I’m not one who can identify insects (my grandfather was the entomologist) but this one looked pretty and I thought I would be able to identify it. Out came the Butterfly and…… Continue reading Box Tree Moth – a relative newcomer
Elephant Hawkmoth
Whilst described by my Field Guide as ” one of the more common European hawkmoths”, I don’t remember ever seeing one before. This dead specimen was on the floor of one of our greenhouses. I’ll have to keep a watch out for the caterpillars because they can be voracious eaters of both the plants and…… Continue reading Elephant Hawkmoth
Blue Tits Successfully Fledged – 2022
In my last post about the Blue Tits the parents were dashing backwards and forwards feeding their young. Well, now they’ve gone. A couple of days ago, it was apparent that the youngster (I never saw more than one) was preparing itself to depart and its parents were sitting some way away calling to it…… Continue reading Blue Tits Successfully Fledged – 2022
Busy Blue Tits – 2022
Sitting quietly in the garden I watched the Blue Tits dashing in and out of the birdbox. They were delivering food to their young family hopping in and out about every ten minutes (or less). Its virtually impossible to get a still picture as they hop around for a few moments before leaping into the…… Continue reading Busy Blue Tits – 2022
Holiday in the Yorkshire Dales
Its two years since we’ve been away on holiday. COVID-19 has made us uncomfortable about going into other accommodation or staying in an hotel. However, althouh the numbers are still high we decided to go away and see how we felt. We had a lovely time, despite the weather (which was cold and wet at…… Continue reading Holiday in the Yorkshire Dales
Grey Squirrel Wars begin for 2021
I may have talked about this before but its something that gets to me regularly. Our garden backs on to a copse of trees and includes a large oak of its own (120+ years old according to the girth measurements). There are obvious advantages to this type of garden, lots of varied wildlife being one.…… Continue reading Grey Squirrel Wars begin for 2021
Big Garden Birdwatch 2021
Like many people in the UK I did the “Big Garden Birdwatch” last weekend watching out for birds in the garden. For whatever reason, this year was a “bad year” with the total list of birds being: Great TitWoodpigeonCrow I’m convinced that the birds know that its Garden Birdwatch weekend and hide away because in…… Continue reading Big Garden Birdwatch 2021
RSPB Garden Birdwatch 2020
Well, its that time of year again when we sit and watch the birds in the garden for an hour or so. As ever, the weather isn’t the best and it makes one wonder why we do it now. However, whilst we didn’t see all the variety of birds that regularly come to our garden,…… Continue reading RSPB Garden Birdwatch 2020