This week has been a rather 'thin' week in the garden, mainly due to less than ideal weather for photography.A highlight has been that the Blackbirds nesting in the Ivy seem to have young as food is being taken in.
Monday, 27th April
In spite of fine weather, it was a relatively quiet day for garden observations as I was somewhat preoccupied with other matters - including putting together my previous blog post! The camera didn't come out that day.
We did reasonably well for birds that day, with 15 species putting a foot down in the garden. These included a solitary Long-tailed Tit - not a rare bird, but we tend not to see them very often in the garden at this time of year. The juvenile Robin looked as 'at-home' as its adult counterpart. We also had a brief visit from Wren - a bird that, sadly, has become a little scarce in the garden of late.
The only butterfly observed that day was a Small White.
Tuesday, 28th April
It didn't stop raining all day and the wind direction was such that the windows facing onto the garden were running wet continually which made observation difficult.
We recorded birds of 14 species that day.
From the trail cams we saw that we'd had a visit from a Hedgehog in the night, and we were visited by a Grey Squirrel during the day.
The day dawned dry but dull. However, by lunch time it had turned to virtually constant drizzle.
I noted just 13 species of bird that day, but did take a few photos as I was getting concerned, by now, that this would be a blog post featuring a week without any photos at all!
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| Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) - garden on 29/04/2020 |
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| Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) - garden on 29/04/2020 |
From the trail cams, I can see that we had at least one Hedgehog that day, but I think probably two.
We also had a squirrel during the day.
Thursday, 30th April
Bird species numbered 14 this day, and I did take a few photos, but only of common birds.
A couple of weeks ago I put out a small dish of mealworms in the hope of getting Robin used to taking them. However, there were no takers until a Magpie appeared. Although other birds occasionally have a go at the mealworms, it's Magpie that has them more than 95% of the time.
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| Magpie (Pica pica) - garden on 30/04/2020 |
Blue Tit appears most (but not all) days.
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| Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) - garden on 30/04/2020 |
At first we thought that we were seeing a juvenile Robin again, but we soon realised that we'd got our first juvenile Dunnock of the year.
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| Dunnock (Prunella modularis) (juvenile) - garden on 30/04/2020 |
Hedgehog was seen on the cameras at night, and Grey Squirrel put in an appearance during the day. No butterflies were recorded.
Friday, 1st May
It was a cold, dull, and damp day for much of the time. Only 13 species of bird were recorded, but this did include Rook - a rather rare bird in our garden (possibly only two previous sightings ever). Sadly I did not get to my camera in time to capture its brief visit. It was a juvenile (our 3rd garden juvenile for the year) and has, however, subsequently been seen almost daily close by so fingers are crossed for the future.
The only photo taken that day was of a rainbow, which forms the header for this blog post while it is current.
Saturday, 2nd May
Both Robin and Dunnock juveniles were with us this day and the total number of species was 13 once more.
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| Robin (Erithacus rubecula) - garden on 02/05/2020 |
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| Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) - garden on 02/05/2020 |
We had Hedgehog visit in the night, and a Grey Squirrel during the day. The moth trap went out at night, and was found to be empty in the morning, although two somewhat unexciting moths were on the outside of the trap.
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| Common Pug (Eupithecia vulgata) - garden from 02/05/2020 |
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| Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana) (male) - garden from 02/05/2020 |
This last one is a species which, I understand, was introduced (accidentally?) from Australia and now seems to be everywhere and is seen throughout most of the year.
Sunday, 3rd May
Hedgehog visited in the early hours, and I suspect, from looking at the trail cams, that there were two of them, and possibly even three.
I was not very attentive to the garden that day, and only noted 13 bird species once more, including the juvenile Dunnock.
No photos were taken during the day.
As nothing had been caught in the moth trap the previous night, it went out again on this night. I ended up with 11 moths of 7 species. The exciting moth for me was my first ever Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet. Here's a few moth from the session - I won't bother you with another shot of Common Pug (x4!) or LBAM (x2).
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| Garden Carpet (Xanthorhoe fluctuata) - garden from 03/05/2020 |
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| Twenty-plume Moth (Alucita hexadactyla) - garden from 03/05/2020 |
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| Bright-line Brown-eye (Lacanobia oleracea) - garden from 03/05/2020 |
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| Dark-Barred Twin-spot Carpet (Xanthorhoe ferrugata) - garden from 03/05/2020 |
That ends the round-up for the week. We ended up with 18 species of bird visiting during the week and only one species of butterfly seen.
Butterflies - 16th March to 19th April
Here's a catch-up with some of the butterflies seen during the period before I started with the lockdown weekly blog posts.
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| Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) - garden on 23/03/2020 |
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| Comma (Polygonia c-album) - garden on 25/03/2020 |
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| Peacock (Aglais io) - garden on 25/03 |
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| Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) (male) - garden on 06/04/2020 |
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| Small White (Pieris rapae) - garden on 10/04/2020 |
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| Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) (male) - garden on 11/04/2020 |
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| Green-veined White (Pieris napi) (male) - garden on 14/04/2020 |
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| Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) (female) - garden on 15/04/2020 |
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| Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) - garden on 16/04/2020 |
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| Green-veined White (Pieris napi) (male) - garden on 19/04/2020 |
That brings me to the end of this blog post. The weather forecast suggests that my next post might be fairly short as we are expecting some sun, but with a cool breeze, and getting much colder by the weekend. I will possibly add moths as the subject of the
next catch-up.
Thank you for dropping by. I hope that you are able to find nature to observe at, or near, your home. Stay safe!
