If you saw my last blog post, you will probably have seen my mention that we have recently had a few unsettling things to contend with here, and these were already in process during the week that this report refers to. Because of this and, and one other factor that I shall mention later in this post, I have been somewhat less attentive to what is going on in the garden. This will, therefore, be a relatively brief blog post.
Monday, 22nd June.
The greatest excitement this day was the appearance of a male Siskin in the garden. This is not a rare bird, but in my experience, it is most unusual to see them in these parts at this time of year. We usually get a few pass through in late winter but, unusually, we had not seen one this year - until this day. There were two other reports of sighting in the county that day also, so I do not know what was behind this situation. The bird did not stay long and I only managed a record shot of it on one of our feeders.
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| Siskin (Carduelis spinus) (male) - garden on 22/06/2020 |
The Sparrowhawk visited, but was not photographed, bringing our total of bird species for the day up to 16.
I did take some shots of a couple of other items that day.
The Small Tortoiseshell is the most frequent butterfly species in the garden at the moment, and so you get yet another shot of this colourful butterfly!
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| Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) - garden on 22/06/2020 |
I know virtually nothing about spiders, and cannot find anything on line that remotely resembles this next one. As it was extremely small, I'm wondering if it was a spiderling, rather than a fully grown spider - hence the absence of similar on the Naturespot web site.
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| spider sp. - garden on 22/06/2020 |
Tuesday, 23rd June
A totally unremarkable day other than that we had our first positive sighting of a Red Admiral butterfly in the garden while we were having lunch in the conservatory.
Wednesday, 24th June
Another day with not much observed in the garden (only 10 species of bird), but this was probably because Lindsay and I went out into the countryside for a picnic lunch in the company of a Little Owl, to celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary! More on that in the next blog post.
Thursday, 25th June
A day with too many distractions, with the Gas Co. and the Water Co. both working on our property. I managed to escape for a couple of hours and visit a local dragonfly hotspot.
That evening I had my study window open as it was sweltering hot, and found this small, but rather elegant, moth had come into the room.
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| Small Dusty Wave (Idaea seriata) - from my study on 25/06/2020 |
Friday, 26th June
Hedgehog had been visiting on a daily basis, and Fox had visited on all but one day of the week. Checking the trail cams that morning witnessed both Hedgehog and Fox getting along just fine together.
I was delighted to see the return of a young Nuthatch as, after visiting on a daily basis for a while, it had been absent all week (or we had missed it, which is a distinct possibility!).
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| Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) - garden on 26/06/2020 |
While having lunch, Lindsay noticed something scurrying beside her. It turned out to be a rove beetle of a species which I think is not very common in these parts, judging by the reaction I got when I posted a picture on Twitter! It is quite colourful for a beetle. Sadly, it disappeared into an inaccessible place before I could get a decent photo, so you get this one that serves as a reminder to me that I should do some dusting!
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| rove beetle (Platydracus stercorarius) - conservatory on 26/06/2020 |
As we were getting ready for bed that night, a moth started flying around. This got put in the fridge overnight, for photographing the next day. The Silver Y moth is a common species which can be seen flying in the daytime. It is a migratory species which arrives in UK, usually in good numbers, each summer.
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| Silver Y (Autographa gamma) - from bedroom on 26/06/2020 |
Saturday, 27th June
We had a quite good count of birds visiting us that day (16 species) with Nuthatch, Stock Dove, and Sparrowhawk providing the highlights. We seem to have done extremely well with young birds in the garden this year, with juveniles tending to outnumber the adults. We have, I believe, two 'resident' juvenile Dunnock.
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| Dunnock (Prunella modularis) (juvenile) - garden on 27/06/2020 |
Sunday, 28th June
The trail cams revealed one short, but disappointing, clip of the Fox entering our garden carrying prey. My first glimpse, on fast playback. had me worried that it might have been a hoglet (baby Hedgehog). However, I think that it was probably a bird - I suspect a Blackbird.
I spent a little time that day photographing hoverflies in the garden. I don'y want you to think that I've got totally hooked on hoverflies, at the expense of other interests, but I do find these insects fascinating, and having been given a field guide on them I'm wanting to learn more - and while I'm at it I'll apologise for three banner headers in succession featuring hoverflies. The truth is that I've struggled to find suitable alternatives taken within the scope of the blog post subjects.
The field guide is excellent and I'm slowly working my way through it, so my ID skills on these are still extremely basic. Please let me know if I'm on the wrong track with any of these. One thing I have learned is that, in order to stand the best chance of a correct ID, one needs close photographs from as many different angles as possible.
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| Platycheirus sp. - garden on 28/06/2020 |
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| Scaeva pyrastri - garden on 28/06/2020 |
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| Marmalade Fly (Episyrphus balteatus) - garden on 28/06/2020 |
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| Eupeodes corollae - garden on 28/06/2020 |
In summary (weekly maxima in brackets):-
We observed 3 species of mammal visit : Hedgehog (1) ; Red Fox (1) ; Grey Squirrel (1)
We observed 2 species of butterfly visit : Small Tortoiseshell (1) ; Red Admiral (1)
We observed 18 species of bird visit : Blackbird (3) ; Bullfinch
(3) ; Chaffinch (3) ; Dove, Collared (3) ; Dove, Stock (1) ; Dunnock
(2) ; Goldfinch (3) ; Greenfinch (1) ; Magpie (1) ; Nuthatch (1) ;
Robin (1) ; Siskin (1) ; Sparrow, House (7) ; Sparrowhawk (1) Starling (4) ; Tit, Blue (2) ; Tit, Great (1) ; Woodpigeon (4).
My next blog post will probably be on Sunday and primarily feature dragons and damsels. Until
then, take care and stay safe.
Another nature reserve filled garden report Richard with some lovely photography thrown in. Since planting thousands of wild flower seeds in my garden I've been amazed at the amount of hoverflies visiting. Something else I'm going to have to start to learn. Take care.
ReplyDeleteWE had an attempt at sowing a mini wild flower meadow last year and all that came up was a lot of very tall, but very pretty grass, when we'd bought a 'short' mix (from the same people that you bought from). We're still trying to figure out what we'll do now - probably just sow lots of wild flower seed without a grass content.
DeleteThe Wild Guides book 'Britain's Hoverflies a Field Guide' by Ball and Morris is excellent!
The animals get on well in your garden too Richard. I think its something to do with lockdown, they don't qualify so they are making the most of it. Stay safe. Mike.
ReplyDeleteI like that thought, Mike! You stay safe too. Thank you for your visit - - - Richard
DeleteHi Richard! You had a lot of interesting things to follow in the yard. Hope you are ok;-)
ReplyDeleteWe're fine, thank you Anne - thank you for your visit. Stay safe - - - Richard
DeleteNo doubt the visit of the Siskin was very exciting, Richard. An unusual bird in the garden is always a cause for great celebration. Later I will get the spider book I recently reviewed and see if I can identify it for you, if others don't do it in the meantime. Believe it or not, Miriam just finished downloading most of her pictures from our trip to Australia in 2018, and there is a great shot of a spider among them that I will also search for. In terms of taking vast numbers of pictures, I think she is swearing off it. She is still quite happy to take fifteen or twenty pictures on a local walk, for use on my blog, or for her Facebook page, but she is no longer willing to commit hours and hours of her time downloading and editing pictures to be organized and filed appropriately, and backed up, mostly never to be looked at again!
ReplyDeleteI completely overlooked the fact that I reviewed this book online rather than having an actual physical copy and I did not save the download. Looks like Pete below has identified the spider in any event, at least tentatively.
DeleteI have to admit, David, that I'm getting more than a little concerned at the amount of time I spend sorting through, and editing, the photos that I've taken. This is largely down to the sort of macro-photography that I have got more interested in recently. I find that I have to take many photos in order to get one that I'm happy with, and then spend ages going backwards and forwards to check if this one is better than that one. I'm beginning to get less picky in order to save time.
DeleteThank you for attempting to find a solution to the spider ID. I see that Princeton WildGuides is due to publish a revised "Britain's Spiders" on 3rd November - it's now on my wishlist!
My very best wishes to you and Miriam - - - Richard
Excellent illustrations in your post again Richard.
ReplyDeleteI think I may need to do some research on your spider sp. Meanwhile, I'm calling it a Zebra Spider Salticus scenicus, but don't yet understand why your specimen appears to have a black crown. I have no idea what the insect is to the right?
Take Care
Thank you for the pointer to Salticus scenicus Pete. I think it might be a young male of that species. I too was intrigued by that insect, and wondered if it was some sort of aphid, but have absolutely no knoweledge in that direction!
DeleteStay safe, Pete - - - Richardf
Hi Richard, excellent photos of the insects and birds. I love the siskin with his beautiful colour. Greetings Caroline
ReplyDeleteThank you Caroline. Siskins are beautiful birds, but I prefer the plumage of the female Siskin. Best wishes - - - Richard
DeleteHello Richard
ReplyDeletea great selection, perfect photos especially the fly photos are awesome
brilliant details.
Regards Frank
Thank you for those kind words, Frank. I'm finding that being able to see small insects in such detail is absolutely fascinating - and I'm even enjoying the flowers that they sit on too!
DeleteTake great care - - - Richard
Lovely photo of the Siskin, we have not seen any this year though we do not ever see many at the feeder. That Rove beetle is interesting, I have never seen one like that! Love all the photos of the hoverflies, I love them but I agree ID is not at all easy!!
ReplyDeleteHope that all is well and that you are both staying safe, also your daughter and grand child.
Very best wishes, Diane
ID of hoverflies is a bit difficult, Diane, but the book I mentioned to Marc, above, is a great help.
DeleteWe're doing fine, thank you, but our daughter and granddaughter live inside the new lockdown boundary of Leicester, which they reckon has three times the infection rate of the next highest city in UK.
I hope that all is well with you both. Take great care and stay safe - - - Richard
Gini and I hope both you and Lindsay are well today!
ReplyDeleteThank you for another delightful selection of the diversity just beyond your door. We could never tire of seeing the Tortoisehell. Don't worry about paying too much attention to the hoverflies as we find them totally fascinating as well.
A Siskin in the garden! I've seen a couple of recent reports of Siskin movements from Scandinavia, perhaps initial stirrings as a prelude to migration?
Thank you so much, Richard, for continuing to share your Natural beauty with us!
All is well here. Hot! But it's summer and quite normal.
We're just fine thank you Wally and Gini, and feeling a bit more settled now that most of the work on the utilities has been completed.
DeleteNot sure about the Siskin migration situation - birders, with far more experience than I have, have commented on the situation without offering any answers.
Maybe I should send you some of our exceptionally cold weather for this time of year. The heating has been coming on regularly and winter clothing is being worn!
Very best wishes to you both. Take great care and stay safe - - - Richard
Wow Richard, some of the nature's finest. The Siskin, Dunnock, Moths, macro and the best of the lot, the Fox and Hedgehog, fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bob. We haven't seen the Fox for a few days now. Having said that, it will probably show up tonight. Fingers are crossed! Take great care - - - Richard
DeleteHello Richard, a great blog with some exelent photos of the Hoverflies. Love The Siskin such bright yellow colors. As I saw a few days ago a photo pas on FB with the same kind of spider you were able to take a photo of I remembered the name, it is I think a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salticus.
ReplyDeleteHope the works in your house are over very soon, and all will be well.
Take care,
Roos
Thank you, Roos. It does seem that spider is probably an immature male Salticus scenicus, but I'd be happy for someone to give an absolutely positive ID.
DeleteThe work seems to be almost finished now, but we have been left with a hole in the drive in front of our house, which might take them a few weeks to fix - fortunately at the gas company's expense!
Stay safe. Best wishes - - - Richard