Wildlife Corner

[Stanley]

I love the way foxes slink, even when running flat out, they flow over the ground.....
Tiz, quite a few gulls about in Barlick yesterday. Flying high and wheeling.....

[Tizer]

This is good news...
`British orchids thriving in Dunstable Downs 'sunken trails' LINK
`Acres of arable fields left to revert to meadow three years ago have become a hotbed for rare British orchids. Eight species of the flower are in bloom on the slopes of sunken trails etched out by sheep walking on the Dunstable Downs over hundreds of years. The area in Bedfordshire, managed by the National Trust, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to the presence of the orchids. Ranger Anthony Lambert said the Downs had become a "hidden gem".'

In the 1970s and 80s we lived in the chalklands of the North Downs and then the Chilterns and one of our favourite pastimes was taking a camera and hunting wild flowers, especially orchids, in the hills. Sometimes the unexpected happened. The council disturbed a scruffy grass verge in a village and the following spring it was covered in orchids that hadn't been seen there for decades.

[Stanley]

Orchids are always surprising. When I was doing Ellenroad at Rochdale I tripped over an eccentric local vicar who was an orchid expert. He told me something that surprised me because the land round Rochdale isn't the best, neither is the climate but he said that 80% of the native English orchids could be found in the hills round the town. he was regarded in the fraternity as a good man and wrote articles that were published nationally so he was no mug. They must be tough little plants!

[Tizer]

I photographed this painted lady butterfly on a visit to Watchet, Somerset, last Friday.

Watchet_210619_10.jpg

[plaques]

Something at the other end of the nasty scale. We came across a Hornet trapped between the sliding windows.


. This is NOT my image, I was too busy getting it out of the house to think about taking pictures.
I've never seen one before and from the tinternet there doesn't appear to any sightings in this area. Keep your eyes open. Hornet.

[Stanley]

Very nasty sting! I have come across them in Warwickshire and they are best avoided......

[PanBiker]

They have some huge variants down in France where my brother lives near Limoges. You can hear them long before you see them, they seem attracted to his lake and fly around the margins. I dont know why but the entire genus including the wasps always remind me of Mitsubishi Zero fighter planes or JU88 Stuka dive bombers, both nasty of course.

[Stanley]

The old man I worked with in Warwickshire swore blind that if you killed one its mates would come to investigate.
I saw a Wagtail on The Green yesterday, first time I have seen one there, usually the only sightings are i butts round the beck.

[Whyperion]

Same seems to apply to Ants ( having disturbed in Error two nests in different places - armful of formic acid !)

A local hedgehog has been eating the cat food outside the back door including the dry cat food. I am not sure this is good for the hedgehog (and give that the houses surround gardens but the only way out from them is accross roads that have frequent local traffic on them I am not certain its a safe places for hedgehogs anyway. An unusual one it was tan coloured rather than dark brown.

[Stanley]

Not often I see a Magpie these days but there was one in Valley Gardens this morning....
" "One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret never to be told."" Should I start worrying?

[PanBiker]

Do you greet it with, "good morning Mr Magpie", if so you will be reit.

[Stanley]

No Ian. But I always remember the one that had a taste for linseed oil putty and used to peck it out of the window frames at Hey Farm!

[Tizer]

At one of the holiday homes we visit the seagulls peck out the rubber seals from the double glazing!

[Stanley]

Funny what takes their fancy. There is a crow on the green that spends a lot of time on top of the perimeter wall mining the cracks in the flat coping stones. It must be getting something out of them.

[Tizer]

I hope more councils will take this approach. It helps make up for the loss of farmers' wild flower meadows. Here In Taunton they let the verges grow long in Spring and we get lots of wild flowers, then they cut them about now. My only criticism would be that they tend to cut the grass too short.
`Why are England's roadsides blooming?' LINK
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I photographed these ladybird eggs on a yarrow leaf in our garden. We've only seen a few ladybirds so far this year.

[Stanley]

They look good enough to eat!

[Cathy]

I hope they get to hatch, love ladybirds.

[Stanley]

And they farm Greenfly.....

[Tizer]

No, ants farm greenfly to `milk' them. Ladybirds eat greenfly.

[Stanley]

Ah! I always thought it was ladybirds.... I accept your correction oh Master!

[Tizer]

It's what comes of living with a biology teacher! She's pointed out to me the leaf-cutting bee which I've mentioned elsewhere.

[Stanley]

Well done Janet, good to hear someone can keep you straight.

[Tizer]

Oh dear, the leaf-cutting bee has lost it's home. All was well yesterday morning before I posted about the bee's nest in the flower pot. But an hour later, after I'd mentioned it on OG, the area around the pot was like a war zone. The pea gravel that had covered the surface of the soil had been tossed aside, soil thrown out and the ground was littered with the small leaves that the bee had collected and used to make the nest in its hole. It must have been a bird with a big beak, a magpie or rook (both are about here), and it must have seen the bee returning to the nest carrying its latest leaf. The leaves were bigger than the bee and it must be like us trying to carry a 12' x 6' sheet of plywood! We've seen the bee searching for its nest and hope that it will choose a more sensible, less visible location next time.

[Stanley]

Nature, 'Red in tooth and claw'.
[Historical note: "Nature, red in tooth and claw. Although this phrase "tooth and claw" is commonly ascribed to Tennyson, it already was in use. For example, The Hagerstown Mail in March 1837: "Hereupon, the beasts, enraged at the humbug, fell upon him tooth and claw."

[StoneRoad]

Same seems to apply to Ants ( having disturbed in Error two nests in different places - armful of formic acid !)

A local hedgehog has been eating the cat food outside the back door including the dry cat food. I am not sure this is good for the hedgehog (and give that the houses surround gardens but the only way out from them is accross roads that have frequent local traffic on them I am not certain its a safe places for hedgehogs anyway. An unusual one it was tan coloured rather than dark brown.

Cat food is fine for hedgehogs ... as are mealworms. Please encourage them. There has been a huge decrease in numbers so they need all then help they can get.

What they must NOT have is bread and milk as both will give hedgehogs diarrhoea.