Monthly Archives: June 2019

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 10

Posted on by

Today it has been raining, a lot!  As I haven’t been able to get outside to do anything ‘wild’ I have been sat at my computer planning on how to help the wild.  There isn’t a water butt in the patch garden, so this evening I have ordered one!  The house is a little odd in that all of the down pipes are in really awkward locations; the water is going to have to be collected off of the garage roof so the water butt can be located away from major walkways.  This however means I need to repair part of the guttering and clean the rest of it out.  I was looking at it the other day and there is grass growing in it, so I don’t think it is going to be the easiest of tasks.  I want to get it sorted though so I can make the most of collecting rain water and using it in the garden.  Every little bit helps 🙂

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 09

Posted on by

I didn’t have any plans for today’s ‘wild’ activity, it was meant to rain and that hampered my thoughts of what I could do.  I decided to play it safe and just spend some time in the garden.  I know at some point I want to take part in the spittlebug survey so I went to have a look at the lavender to see if there was any about, strangely I didn’t find any but did come across a rosemary beetle. 

There was a lot of buzzing coming from a neighbours garden so I popped round to see if I could find out where it was coming from.  They have a plant on the fence that adjoins our garden which was covered in bees.  There must have been approx. 30-40 bees on the bush at anyone time.  Unfortunately we have no idea what plant it is but it would be great for any garden that wants to attract bees!  

As far as I could tell there were four species of bee; Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) which seemed to be the majority, honey bees which I saw two of, Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) and then Tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum).

Once I was back in my own garden I noticed I had a harlequin ladybird larvae on me, I knew there was blackfly and greenfly on the runner beans so I thought that would be a good place to relocate him.  I didn’t expect him to start eating them straight away.  I have never seen them feeding before 🙂

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 08

Posted on by

This afternoon I searched for ladybirds in the garden.  Last weekend I spotted a couple of ladybird larvae in my Mum’s garden; she has been gardening for years but had never seen them before!  This weekend I decided to see how many she had hiding in the flowers.  After a little searching I found two 7-spots (Coccinella septempunctata) sunning themselves on some leaves…

…and then two 7-spot larvae.  Sadly one of them had passed away but the other was hunting for food.  

As I was watching I noticed some yellow in amongst the leaves, it was a 22-spot ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata).  

Ladybirds or ladybugs (if you are American) are common in our gardens and  can be found throughout the UK. There are 46 species in the UK and the 7-spot is one of the most common.  They feed on a variety of aphid species and can usually be found where there is an influx of their food source; they can consume approx. 5500 in their lifetime! and why ladybirds are called a gardeners friend. The 22-spot on the other hand doesn’t eat aphids it feeds on mildew on a variety of plants, usually umbellifers and low-growing shrubs.

All of my finds have been added to iRecord 🙂

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 07

Posted on by

We have a hazel tree in the garden and today I noticed it is starting to form this years fruit.  I like the hazel tree, it provides a lot of cover for the birds and occasionally in autumn a squirrel will come across the field and collect the nuts.  I don’t think there are a lot of hazel trees in the area, there aren’t any in the hedgerow as far as I know and the copse on the other side of the field doesn’t have any either which is a shame as it is one of our UK native trees.  Its leaves provide food for a number of moth caterpillar; I will have to have a closer look to see if there is anyone feeding on them.

The tree has got a little out of hand and probably needs to be coppiced this year to improve its health, I plan on keeping any branches to use in the garden next year 🙂 

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 06

Posted on by

This morning I left for work a little earlier as I wanted to get to the patch garden with enough time to watch the feeders for a while.  Over the last couple of days both rook and starling fledgling’s have been seen earlier in the morning; I wanted to try and see them.  The rooks still haven’t got used to people being in the garden with them so I positioned myself in an upstairs window and waited…

I didn’t see any of the rooks or starlings but I was treated to the house sparrows fledging.  I haven’t seen them in the garden before so I think they fledged this morning as the parents were still collecting food and heading up to the roof where they had nested yesterday.  There were 4 or 5 balls of fluffy feathers that were bumbling their way through the hazel and white beam tree calling for food. I kept losing them in the leaves as they were continually on the move.  It was good to see them using the trees as cover as the amount of corvids that visit the garden does seem to be steadily increasing now the rooks have fledged! 

As far as I know it is only the jackdaws that are now left to fledge.  I know they are still in the chimney as they can be heard calling from within the house.  The home owners will be glad when they have fledged – who needs an alarm clock when you have jackdaws!

In other fledgling news, while I was at work walking back to the office a small bird caught my eye very close to me in a pine tree.  I stopped and watched until I could see it clearly; a fledgling chaffinch! I continued watching and one of the parents came back to feed them; I wish I had a camera with me, they were only a few feet away!

When I was leaving the car park a male pheasant chased a female to mate with her and bowled over the chick she had next to her!  Thankfully it got back up on its feet and found Mum again and went back to feeding. I need to start taking my camera to work!

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 05

Posted on by

For a few weeks a family of brown rats have been visiting the garden.  They live in the field and pop under the fence to take food from the bird feeder.  I know most people don’t like rats and to be honest this family is expanding.  They haven’t been seen venturing any further than the bird feeding area so I think they are fairly contained on that side of the garden (for now at least). 

A few weeks ago they were quite shy and would hide in the field and peak through the gap under the fence.  

Now they are a little more bold!  I think they realise it is safe to come out when I am in the garden and I can actually get quite close without them running away.  They are weary of the cats who sit in the garden next to the ground feeder ready to pounce on them.  There haven’t been any ‘presents’ left so we don’t think the cats are very effective at catching them!  

I have spent this evening sat at garden table watching them dart about collecting little bits of food and hurrying back out into the field.  I think I have found their burrow entrance and am going to put the trailcam out to see if I can get any footage of them using it.  

Brown rats were introduced to the UK in 1700 and have spread widely due to their ability to adapt to their surroundings and breed at a rapid rate – a female can have approx 60 young a year!  I’m hoping the garden rats don’t have quite that many!   

 

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 04

Posted on by

After a long day at work it was nice to get out into the garden.  When I get to my patch I like to go out into the garden and check on all the plants to make sure they are all okay.  Today I discovered the cat had dug up my borage and used the pot as a toilet! I was not best pleased; there is field behind the fence why can’t he just use that! 

As I was walking around I noticed there were a lot of bees on the few remaining flowers of the aquilegia.  I started to follow one of the bees around the flowers as he flew from one to the next.  I think he is an Early bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) and believe he is male due to his facial hair :).  Early bumblebee’s have a reddish tail and yellow markings but their colours can vary and in workers their yellow abdominal strip can be reduced.  Why does there have to be so much variation in colour form bee to bee of the same species?! It makes it very difficult for people like me that are new bees! A lot of studying needs to be done to make me more confident in my identifications.   

Early bumblebees are one of the first to emerge and are active from March to June.  They have short tongues and I think that my photograph shows him nectar robbing.  This is when a bee chews a hole in the flower close to the nectar and steals it without touching the reproductive part of the flower, thus not helping pollination.  There were however other bees on the flowers that were taking nectar, providing the pollination that the early bumblebee was not.

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 03

Posted on by

If you have been reading my garden blog posts you will be aware I have been growing wild flowers from seed to plant in the garden and also the field.  Tonight I spent an hour planting out as many as I could into the garden. They really needed to be planted out before now but I’m new to all this and still learning; though I have a feeling they will all be okay 🙂 I keep forgetting that we are only at the start of June and at this time last year I was only just sprinkling seeds in the beds hoping they would germinate, so feel I have made more progress this year. 

The flower bed I have been planting isn’t very big but even if you only have a few pots on the patio, adding wildflowers to the garden is a great way to give additional support to our pollinators. They will also look amazing too 🙂

Tonight I have planted out red campion, oxeye daisy, common fleabane and lady’s bedstraw.

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 02

Posted on by

Not every Sunday, but on most, I do my best to take part in #Wildflowerhour on Twitter.  Wild Flower Hour is a wonderful community of people that are interested in the wild flowers which are in bloom in the UK at the present time.  I have been taking part for about 9 months now and I have learnt so much from everyone that takes part.  If you are interested in our wild flowers please do give them a follow, even if you don’t post any images of your finds to start with you can learn so much by looking at everyone else’s photos.  As I slowly began to get more confident in my identification I also gained confidence to post more images.  Even if you don’t know the name of a flower you have photographed someone will be there to help ID it for you, especially if you include #WildflowerID to your tweet.  I know as more of the yellow flowers come into bloom I will be asking for help as I find some of them so confusing; the difference between Common Ragwort and Hoary Ragwort, nope I still haven’t got my head around that one yet!  

Today on my walk I found…

Fox-and-cubs

Yarrow

Green Alkanet

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill

Black medick

Herb-Robert

Dog rose

Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil

Cleavers

Wood Avens

White Dead-nettle

Bush vetch

Red clover

Common vetch

Dandelion

Oxeye daisy

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day 01

Posted on by

It is the first day of 30 Days Wild and I didn’t have a plan for what to do!  I watched a pair of house sparrows collecting some nesting material from the moss and feathers we put out in the garden; when I went to get a camera to photograph them they didn’t come back! I was looking at the garden and realised there was a patch in the flowerbed that I could dig up… I decided I would complete Mission 2: Worm Detective of this years Gardenwatch by Springwatch.  I have really like that this years Springwatch has included a lot more information about our own back gardens and the smaller creatures that live around us.  I think it is a great way to get more people out in their garden / outdoor spaces and interacting with our surroundings.  I spend a lot of time in the garden and really like looking at all the creepy crawlies that live there.  They are so much more accessible than some of the bigger mammals we live with and a great way to interact with nature.  I have discovered once you start looking you can’t stop and then want to learn more about each new friend you find.

Mission 2: Worm Detective…

I collected together a trowel, a box, a couple of plant pots to use as containers, a 30cm ruler, 4 stones and pen & paper then headed off to dig a hole!

As I didn’t have any twigs to mark out the corners of my 30cm square I roughly marked it with a few stones and got digging!  What I hadn’t taken into consideration was the bed wasn’t flat so everything was at a bit of an angle! 

I’ll be honest I didn’t expect to find much as I was sorting through the soil, it was all so dry… I started to put worms in the flower pot but I after a few minutes thought it was far to warm to leave them sitting in the sun, so as I found them, I measured them and got them back into the flowerbed as quickly as I could so they didn’t dry out.  In total I found 15 worms varying in size from 1cm – 6cm.  

Along with the worms I also found 1 ant, 1 woodlouce and 3 centipede. 

I really enjoyed digging in the garden and looking a little more closely at what was living under the ground, it is something I plan to do again 🙂