Category: Wild things (flora and fauna)

Clutching the first morning mug of of coffee, as yet untasted, I opened the curtains this morning. Eeek! Coffee abandoned as I went for the camera … a heron on the fence, eyeing my tiny (and butyl-lined) pond. A few shots through the French windows, then up to the bathroom where the top window was open.

A most unexpected visitor – the nearest sensible body of water is the canal, some 400 metres away and about 100 feet lower in elevation. It stayed for about five minutes before flapping off. Beautiful to see, but slightly worrying, in that I’ve had previous experience of herons stabbing holes in plastic pond-liners (eventually solved by changing to fibreglass – not something I really want to have to do here!).

Two pairs of mating damselflies around my pond this afternoon, and at least one unattached one. The glare of the sun on the water makes them really hard to photograph, but I thought this attempt was interesting, with the insects themselves largely in shade but the shadows of the tracery of their wings showing up delightfully.

It’s pond sorting out time again! A mass of stray grass roots, over-abundance of Canafian pondweed, and fleshy tangles of water-lily roots have been removed. That upset the resident frog, but he’s now decided that where the edge of the pile of detritus enters the water is a prime hunting place, as the small creatures will follow the dampness away from the drying pile towards the water. I’ve also replaced the nozzle on the water flow: I’m not sure that the bright brass really suits the Green Man plaque, but no doubt it will go green within a few months.

The baby robins seem to have successfully fledged, and the nest is currently empty. I don’t know if the parent birds will return to try for another brood, but I’m making full use of the opportunity to finally get into the shed!  Plastic cloches to cover a courgette I’ve planted out, fleece to cover the luffa at night (one of this year’s experiments), the plastic cover for the tomato cage (which needs a bit of repair). Tomatoes have been planted out, two days later than normal as I usually aim to do it on my birthday. Forecast is for about 1C tonight and tomorrow night, with daytime highs of 18C or so, so covering is pretty vital. Tomorrow, I will shuffle things round in the shed to get the lawnmover and strimmer out!

It’s a little hard to see any difference between the lawn and the “wildflower patch” behind the pond! Not laziness, and not “no mow May”. I’m effectively barred from the shed so can’t get the lawnmower out – a robin is nesting on the shelves there, and when I went in a few days ago to get the stepladder she gave me such a filthy look that I’ve avoided going in ever since!

Still, it’s pleasant to sit on the patio and watch the parents rushing in and out through the shed window. I assume the eggs have hatched, as visits are much more frequent and hurried than they were a few days ago.

In my suburban heat island of little terraced houses, the outside minimum was down to -5.9C overnight. A couple of young foxes – I think last year’s cubs – were chasing round the neighbouring gardens, delightful to see. Photo taken through the slightly steamed-up bedroom windown – hence a bit washed out!
This afternoon I took the Christmas tree down. A day earlier than 12th night but I’ve got the alarm engineer coming tomorrow (for the service postponed from November) and I needed to rearrange things so he can get to the control panel. Due to severe frosts, I’ve put the tree by the window in the (unheated) spare bedroom, rather than bunging it back outside.

and after increasing the contrast a bit in my photo-editing program:

Coming back from the veg patch this evening, where I’d ben cutting chard for supper, I noticed an unfamiliar insect on the clematis that’s slowly growing over the new shed. I fetched the “big” camera, to try for a picture from a distance on maximum zoom, as I didn’t want to spook it into flight.
I’m pretty shit on damselflies and dragonflies, but my suspicion was that it’s a Southern Hawker, which a quick search on line seems to confirm. In which case, it’s the first dragonfly I’ve seen in the garden, though both red and azure damselflies breed in my pond.

It’s that time of year again! The pond pump had slowed to a trickle, which means that the baby water-snails hatched in early spring that have made their way through the filters have now got big enough to impede the impellers. Pump pulled out, filters full of disgusting smelly pond-slime and muck thoroughly cleaned, pump reassembled. We’re now back to a decent arc of water … and the pond, still below usual level after the dry month, is being topped up from the hosepipe.

In the sunny spells between showers, the meadow brown butterflies have been busy on the marjoram. As that’s now in shade, this one is sunning itself elsewhere. The 6-foot tall echinops (globe thistles), which bees of all descriptions adore, still catch the sun. Sadly, cabbage white caterpillars have completely stripped the leaves of the young kale (though there’s a faint chance they’ll recover), but there’s plenty of time for a second sowing … hoping to avoid a second brood of caterpillars!

Photos are phone photos, on zoom, so not great quality.