Tag: garden
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Peregrine and dragonfly
A peregrine was flying about and calling near the house all morning – could be a young one turned out by the parents to fend for itself? Emperor dragonfly on garden pond, and a different type of damselfly to the usual ones – black body/blue tail.
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Heron and gulls
Strange, prehistoric-sounding noises overhead at about 11.30 am – turned out to be three gulls attacking a very vocal heron. Had a terrific view of the heron diving and striking back at them.
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Swifts
About a dozen Swifts screaming through the gardens during the late morning, just above head height. Saw an article on the BBC website about five minutes later about the decline in Swift numbers. According to the RSPB the low-flying, screaming behaviour means that the birds are breeding close by and they are collecting reports to…
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Pipistrelle
Saw a bat flying over the garden for the first time, at about 10.30 pm last night. The bat detector identified it as a common pipistrelle.
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Great Spotted Woodpecker
Clear morning at 6.30 am, then clouds/fog suddenly appeared from the north, moving very fast. No breeze whatsoever at ground level – every leaf perfectly still and the sun looking like a full moon through the haze. Swifts flying very low though the back gardens, barely skimming the tops of the fences, and a Great…
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Hedgehog
Spotted a hedgehog on the garden path at about twenty-past four this morning – the first one I’ve seen here.
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Damselflies
Red Damselfly spotted on 22nd May and several Blues on 24th – the Blues not wasting any time but mating already. Also a Poplar Hawkmoth found on the garden fence again on 24th May – possibly a new specimen, although still with the distinctive dark patch on the head, quite unlike the illustration in the…
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Eyed Hawkmoth
Eyed Hawkmoth Smerinthus ocellata. Previously wrongly identified as a Poplar Hawkmoth. The confusion was due to the fact that we didn’t get a chance to see the ‘eyes’, plus the Chinery illustration for the Eyed Hawkmoth doesn’t show the hindwings projecting forwards, though the text does describe them this way. Thanks James.
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Apple blossom
Crab apple Malus sylvestris John Downie