Patch news

Strange noises from the garden last night revealed two hedgehogs getting to know each other in the biblical sense, a very noisy courtship. No new birds for the patch but some more insect pictures

                                           Sicus ferruginous, I have dubbed it the Pinnochio fly

                                                             Rosemary beetle

                                                            Meadow plant bug

                                                    What a pollenator this little fellow is

                                                                            Comma

                                                            Peacock caterpillars

                              The moth id's I am still working on...............................................

Week 24

An abbreviated patch report now it is Summer, two yellow wagtails around the flooded fields at Nortonbury were a nice surprise and a red kite was making lazy circles in the sky over the meadows. Star bird of the week was a purring turtle dove at the lagoon   Patch list 89

The following pictures were taken around the patch this week:-

A rich variety can be found around humble Letchworth Garden City

Week 23

Nothing to report, busy house hunting etc, but next week we hope to get back on the patch

Week 22

We spent the next week in Devon near Axminster in a tucked away cottage, it has a large lawn and a decent established pond without fish (since an otter cleared it out). We saw a number of different birds in the garden, Common buzzard, Jay, Great spotted woodpecker, Green woodpecker, and plenty of tits, the stars though were the mammals, we were visited every night by badgers but on the last night three fox cubs came to polish of the remains of our fish and chips on the lawn.

 

Week 21

21^st May. We went to Wicken fen, saw hobbies, cuckoo and heard aqbout all of the warblers

Nothing further until we went to Yorkshire to stay with friends near Hull, Harry has around 50 nest boxes with tree sparrows in them the nearest being about ten feet from his back door, he also had cameras set up in various nest bowes and obtained some superb images of the blue tits in one box. We walked around his property and came up with a figure of 38 species, most of which were nesting there except for the cuckoo that was calling continuously up to when we left on the Tuesday.

27^th May We drove on up to Seahouses to visit the Farne islands and went across  in the afternoon, it was overcast and cool but we enjoyed it.

One of the nest boxes outside Harrys back door

                                                          A roe deer in Harrys meadows

                                                            Portrait of a shag on the Farnes

                                                            A joyous Farnes puffin

                                                    Artic tern, many nests on the Farnes

Male eider in Seahouses harbour