Garden Wildlife
Good weather has again allowed me to spend a great deal of time in the garden, sometimes doing much needed jobs but often just watching.
Since I was a teenager I have had an interest in insects and learnt about butterflies first from a man who followed the Victorian practises of catching and pinning them.
These days a camera is all you really need and there are loads of books that help you identify all kinds of insect groups. For some of the tricky groups, though, a live insect, cooled down a bit is sometimes essential in order to examine it with a hand lens to see subtle differences.
Butterflies are at last starting to pass through the garden with greater regularity. Unfortunately these rarely stop at present so I have put together a variety of pictures from this week, of things that I did get a good look at.
First up are a couple of amphibians that use my small pond, frogs appear in March and have already mostly moved back into the garden itself after spawning.
some years ago we rescued about 10 smooth newts from a pond that someone with young children was filling in,for safety reasons
These have thrived but are a bit of a mixed blessing as I am sure they eat all of the frog tadpoles each year
This great diving beetle appeared on the patio one morning, perhaps attracted into the garden by my moth trap. I have moved it to the pond but am aware that its larvae are also great tadpole hunters
The final obvious predator that I am seeing in the pond at present is a water boatman, this is a bug that swims upside down just underneath the surface
Other, easy to see bugs occur on the various shrubs and flowers around the garden. One pale bush seems popular with shield bugs such as these three green shieldbugs
I have just refurbished my home moth trap after an accident, and a long time without much use and have started to catch a few moths most nights. My three favourites from this week have been
Chocolate Tip, Brindled Beauty and Oak Tree Pug. I am lucky to know several local moth people who can put me right with any tricky species, such as the pugs
Finally given the warm, relentlessly sunny conditions I have brushed off the Hoverfly book and taken a few pictures of one of the commonest species around here. Its called Eristalis pertinax and may, unusually for these have an English name, the Drone Fly
Not especially easy to photograph in flight but, then again clearly easier than most as I actually managed it
While I have got up early a few times to record any bird migration over the garden, so far I have not had any so here's hoping for an improvement in the next few days.
Since I was a teenager I have had an interest in insects and learnt about butterflies first from a man who followed the Victorian practises of catching and pinning them.
These days a camera is all you really need and there are loads of books that help you identify all kinds of insect groups. For some of the tricky groups, though, a live insect, cooled down a bit is sometimes essential in order to examine it with a hand lens to see subtle differences.
Butterflies are at last starting to pass through the garden with greater regularity. Unfortunately these rarely stop at present so I have put together a variety of pictures from this week, of things that I did get a good look at.
First up are a couple of amphibians that use my small pond, frogs appear in March and have already mostly moved back into the garden itself after spawning.
some years ago we rescued about 10 smooth newts from a pond that someone with young children was filling in,for safety reasons
This great diving beetle appeared on the patio one morning, perhaps attracted into the garden by my moth trap. I have moved it to the pond but am aware that its larvae are also great tadpole hunters
The final obvious predator that I am seeing in the pond at present is a water boatman, this is a bug that swims upside down just underneath the surface
Other, easy to see bugs occur on the various shrubs and flowers around the garden. One pale bush seems popular with shield bugs such as these three green shieldbugs
I have just refurbished my home moth trap after an accident, and a long time without much use and have started to catch a few moths most nights. My three favourites from this week have been
Chocolate Tip, Brindled Beauty and Oak Tree Pug. I am lucky to know several local moth people who can put me right with any tricky species, such as the pugs
Finally given the warm, relentlessly sunny conditions I have brushed off the Hoverfly book and taken a few pictures of one of the commonest species around here. Its called Eristalis pertinax and may, unusually for these have an English name, the Drone Fly
Not especially easy to photograph in flight but, then again clearly easier than most as I actually managed it
While I have got up early a few times to record any bird migration over the garden, so far I have not had any so here's hoping for an improvement in the next few days.
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