Wildlife Corner

[PanBiker]

Ideally, all gardens should have gaps or suitably sized holes in the bottom of fencing at each side of the garden perimeter to allow free passage of hedgehogs. This would aid them in not having to use the road in many instances.

[Stanley]

The other thing to remember about hedgehogs before you get up close and personal.... The little buggers are usually stiff with fleas!

[PanBiker]

If you give them free passage you would not need to rescue them. Just let them get on with their hoovering job in the garden complete with fleas.

[Stanley]

Two Red Mite on the workshop window cill enjoying the sun yesterday. Good job I have no hens!

[Wendyf]

Those might be red spider mites which are plant feeders but they are tiny. Red mites, which trouble the hens, are grey until they have filled up on blood!

[Stanley]

You could be right Wendy. They were bright red and reminded me of my experiences with Red Mite in hen huts years ago but as there are no hens anywhere near that I know of I bow to your assessment!

[PanBiker]

Sally was in the front garden the other week and noticed a small cluster ball on the corner of one of the mesh covers I made for our raised beds. She poked it gently and it exploded into literally hundreds of spiderlings. They all fanned out in unison like flower opening in fast motion. They remained static for a couple of minutes and then all simultaneously gathered back into the ball, amazing to see.

[Stanley]

Sounds fascinating. Never knowingly seen one.

[StoneRoad]

Talking of young things - getting to see a few young birds now.

Some of them being shown the feeders we keep topped up all year, others far more independent ...

let me see. what's been about today.

Young male blackbird, still in his brown coat.
young greater spotted woodpecker.
various tits and chaffinches, which come and go so fast that a few have been recorded as lbj (little brown jobs)

Oh, and an adult male pheasant with several of his harem came around late afternoon. not sure how many ladies, for big birds they can move !

[Stanley]

The birds are having a good summer, all this quiet mild weather and plenty of grub.
Noticed there have been a lot of wild cherries this time, even more food!

[chinatyke]

We have a bird's nest in one of our large shrubs on our roof terrace. Happy to see at least 4 chicks hatched. I haven't identified the bird yet, it may be a yellow eared honey sucker but it will probably be something common like a sparrow! As Stanley said, it's lovely to see the birds doing well.

[Stanley]

Or an LBJ......

[Whyperion]

I have now moved, so the next door lot keep a bit of an eye out for hedgehogs- as I said though the gardens are bounded on all 4 sides by roads where even though the houses are all semi-detached the road drivers dont exactly drive slowly so getting off into the woods or farm is tricky- 80 metres beyond those is the M65!

I also found that large slugs were partial to cat food too, interesting as I thought in the main they would prefer vegitation but maybe as the garden plants tend to be Japanese maybe the slugs dont like the taste of them (why dont slugs eat Knotweed?), could also be that some cat food has, peas, beans or carrots added too it - I didn't think cats could digest usefully such material?

[StoneRoad]

Very pleased to confirm the sighting of a greenfinch today on the feeders.

This is the first I've seen for certain for several years, the population crashed because of a fatal infection (bacterial, I think) usually spread in areas of high numbers, for example around bird feeders.

[Stanley]

I saw THIS report about the amazing distances a fragile being like a Painted Lady butterfly can travel and remembered seeing the annual migration of the Monarch butterflies in the US, a similar phenomenon.

[Tizer]

StoneRoad, I'm glad to hear of your sighting of a greenfinch. They used to be common in many parts of the country. We saw lots when we lived in the Home Counties and plenty when we moved to Somerset in the mid 90s. But eventually they were dwindling in number and soon there were none at all. It's due to a protozoan parasite (Trichomonosis) carried by pigeons and transferred in drinking water and food. The pigeons aren't so affected by it but it kills the finches.

We've seen one painted lady butterfly in our garden many times in the last month but we don't know if it's the same one every time or just odd ones passing through. It might be one that over-wintered here. It's sad and concerning that insects have declined dramatically in number in recent decades. I remember how we used to have buddleia bushes covered in butterflies in summer and now we see only a few at a time. Also you could step outside at dusk in summer and see lots of moths fluttering about. But not now. We've packed our garden with plants that attract insects so we're hoping to see more this year!

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

The BBC must have seen me mention painted lady butterflies! This news web page today gives good photos of UK butterflies with succinct descriptions...
`Big Butterfly Count: Which common UK species to look for' LINK
Their speckled wood is a bit washed out and this shows it better: Speckled Wood Likewise the Beeb's Meadow Brown only shows the underside whereas this shows the upper surface: Meadow Brown These photos are on the web site of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

[Stanley]

[Tizer]

When we lived in the Home Counties all wildlife enthusiasts knew of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Naturalists' Trust. and it was always referred to by the lovely acronym BBONT (pronounced bee-bont). I notice it's changed it's name to the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. BBOWT doesn't sound half as good!

[Stanley]

Nowt to do with wildlife but you remind me of the Honorary fellowship at Keele. 'Fellow of the University College of Keele'. I'll leave you to work out the acronym.
My mate Roland Seymour was a fellow but never used the acronym. He said that he had only seen it used once and that was by a Fellow in Malaysia.....

[Tizer]

We saw this lovely beastie for the first time in our back garden at about 7.30 last night. A bit of searching showed it's a Hornet Mimic Hoverfly (Volucella zonaria), also known as Belted Hoverfly. It's big, at least the size of the largest bumble bee, and quite impressive. Completely harmless and a joy to see. My photo shows it on sneezewort and we also saw it on verbena but it was resting rather than feeding. There's more information here: Volucella

[Stanley]

I saw butterflies in Barlick a couple of times yesterday, a very rare sight these days.

[Wendyf]

There have been masses of butterflies and moths around for the last couple of weeks with many coming inside through the open windows, in fact there is one on the kitchen window right now....
I can't reach over the sink to rescue it!

[Gloria]

Butterfly count until 11th August, just quarter hour of your time.
https://www.bigbutterflycount.org/