Garden Observations - 29th June to 12th July, 2020

As we are, technically, no longer in 'lockdown' (although our daughter and granddaughter in the Leicester area are, once more) I considered that it was about time I modified the title of my garden blog posts. 

This post will cover two weeks and, as I have been busy and not paying as much attention to the garden wildlife as I might normally do, the post will be relatively brief - do I hear sighs of relief? 

WEEK 27 - 29th June to 5th July

Monday, 29th June

The numbers of bird species noted was not great (11), but a highlight was a visit by a Jackdaw. Corvids are quite unusual in our garden, and other than Raven (I wish!) Jackdaw is probably the least frequent.

Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) garden on 29/07/2020

Tuesday, 30th June

The moth trap went out on this night, and I got what was pobably my largest catch with highest number of species. However, visually, it was a somewhat uninspiring selection of moths. Here's one of a very common moth - the Riband Wave. It comes in two forms, and we get both forms in similar numbers.

Riband Wave (Idaea aversata f. remutata) - from garden on 230/07/2020

I also had what I believe to be a bit of a rarity in the form of Marbled White Spot - sorry for the unattractive photo!

Marbled White Spot (Protodeltote pygarga) - from garden on 30/07/2020

Thursday, 2nd July

I managed to observe 15 species of bird visiting the garden, in spite of being busy in the garden for much of the time, as I'd received a shipment of pond plants, together with baskets, aquatic compost, and gravel for my new mini-pond and wanted to get them in the pond as quickly as possible and then fill the pond with water.

I was pleased to see a hoverfly attracted to the walls of the pond almost immediately.

hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) (male) - garden on 02/07/2020

Saturday, 4th July

Avian visitors included a female Sparrowhawk (not photographed) and a Carrion Crow - another infrequent visitor to the garden.

Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) - garden on 04/07/2020

In summary (weekly maxima in brackets):-

We observed 3 species of mammal visit : Hedgehog (2) ; Red Fox (1) ; Grey Squirrel (1)
 

We observed 20 species of bird visit : Blackbird (2) ; Bullfinch (3) ; Chaffinch (3) ; Crow, Carrion (1) ; Dove, Collared (4) ; Dove, Stock (2) ; Dunnock (2) ; Goldfinch (5) ; Greenfinch (1) ; Jackdaw (1) ; Magpie (1) ; Nuthatch (1) ; Robin (2) ; Sparrow, House (6) ; Sparrowhawk (1) Starling (1) ; Tit, Blue (6) ; Tit, Great (1) ; Tit, Long-tailed (2) ; Woodpigeon (4). 

WEEK 28 - 6th to 12th July 

After a feeble start to the week in the garden, things got more interesting towards the end of the week.

Friday, 10th July

The trail cams witnessed two Hedgehogs visiting. The remarkable thing about their visit was that there seemed to be no antagonism between the two.

We also had the Fox visit again, and it was either a different Fox this time, or it had put on a bit of weight.

Saturday, 11th July

Two Hedgehogs again this night, and they seemed to be social-distancing!

Sunday, 12th July

We had an exciting end to the week when, during lunch in the conservatory, Lindsay noticed a damselfly beside the pond. Almost immediately, it flew up and landed on the leaves of the Iris I'd planted in the pond. Just ten days from filling the pond, and we'd got our first Odonata visiting - I was 'over the moon'! The damselfly stayed for several hours, making the occasional foray in order to catch prey, but usually coming back to the pond between times.

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male) - garden on 12/07/2020

At one point it started waving its abdomen about and, at first, I thought that it might be obelisking to prevent itself overheating, but I suspect that there was something else going on.

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male) - garden on 12/07/2020

While out there with the camera, I took a few other photos. The hoverfly that had arrived when I first filled the pond ten days earlier had stayed faithful to the pond, and we'd even named him Freddy!

Freddy the hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) (male) - garden on 12/07/2020

Another hoverfly caught my eye. This one was much larger. It was an Eristalis species, and I think E. pertinax 

hoverfly (Eristalis pertinax?) (male) - garden on 12th July

I also took a shot or two of a juvenile Goldfinch - so very different in appearance to the adults.

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) (juvenile) - garden 0n 12/07/2020

So what does this pond look like- I hear you ask? Well, it's just one metre square, by just under half a metre deep, and it sits on the patio. The benefit is that, at my age, I don't have to lie on my stomach to photograph things in the pond. It also has the benefit that it solves Lindsay's phobia for frogs - they can't get in (famous last words!). So here it is - I'm looking forward to it maturing.

the mini-pond - garden on 12/07/2020

The last photo for the day, however, will be another of the damselfly, this time taken on one of its short excursions to nearby locations. Here it is on the flower-buds of one of our Buddleia bushes. It's not the best photo of a damselfly for detail but, to me, it has some artistic merit. I also realised that I'd never have recogised what the flower was from this shot - things can look so very different in macro-mode!

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male) - garden on 12/07/2020

In summary (weekly maxima in brackets):-

We observed 3 species of mammal visit : Hedgehog (2) ; Red Fox (1) ; Grey Squirrel (2)
  
We observed 2 species of butterfly visit : Small Tortoiseshell (1) ; Large White (1)

We observed 1 species of Odonata visit : Large Red Damselfly (1)

We observed just 16 species of bird visit : Blackbird (2) ; Bullfinch (2) ; Chaffinch (4) ; Crow, Carrion (1) ; Dove, Collared (4) ; Dove, Stock (2) ; Dunnock (3) ; Goldfinch (9) ; Greenfinch (1) ; Magpie (1) ; Robin (1) ; Sparrow, House (5) ; Tit, Blue (1) ; Tit, Great (2) ; Tit, Long-tailed (5) ; Woodpigeon (4). 

 

 

Thank you for dropping by. My next blog post will probably be on Sunday and primarily feature butterflies, dragons and damsels. Until then, take care and stay safe.

To Bosnia from 30th August to 7th September

At the end of August I did another of my brief spells of working abroad as a tour guide for a Hungarian company. This entailed taking a group over to Budapest, Hungary, and then taking a special train through Hungary and Croatia to Bosnia where a week was spent looking at railways (mainly industrial) before returning to Budapest via Croatia again. This particular tour left me with very little free time to look for birds and other wildlife, but I found that birds in Bosnia were a little thin on the ground to say the least, leading one other birder on the tour to speculate that maybe the wildlife had all been eaten by desperate people during the war.

One aspect that was rather limiting, as far as birding is concerned, was the warning that one should not stray from roads and made-up paths because of residual land-mines. Our local guide reckoned that there were still in excess of 5 million land-mines in Bosnia.

On arrival in Budapest I had a free afternoon and asked a local colleague if he had any recommendations for a nice countrified place for me to go and find some birds. He told me of a lake at the end of a tram line where he had seen many "big birds". In the event, this turned out to be little more than an elongated duck pond with water that stank, but which was lined with fishermen who seemed to be taking their catches home for tea. Other than some (dubious) Mallards, I saw only Tree Sparrows ! However, the insect life proved to be relatively interesting - a trend that continued throughout the tour. There were, however, a few treats in store birdwise during the tour.

These are the insects from Saturday 30th August:-

Great Banded Grayling

Beetles on wild hop plant

Bee mimicking a Hornet

The following day we took the train through Croatia to Bosnia. En-route we saw a few birds, including two flocks of Great Egrets. Some of my photos (one of which is below) showed two darker birds which I had not spotted when taking the photos. Suggestions from 'Birdguides' have included Glossy Ibis, Black Stork, Purple Heron - and a joker who suggested Black Heron and then Black Egret !!!!

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A visit to the railway of a coal mine (entirely worked by steam engines) at Bukinje, Bosnia, on 1st September resulted in several insects, a lizard, and a Black Redstart (not successfully photographed) being seen.

Unidentified moth at Bukinje

Cricket at Bukinje

Probable Green Lizard (juvenile) at Bukinje

We then moved on to the railway complex at Banovici (again using steam engines).

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Large Skipper at Banovici

Black Redstart at Banovici

The next morning (2nd September), after an early breakfast, I had a stroll round the undeveloped land round our hotel. This was not without some concerns for safety. However, I did see Whinchat and Stonechat (shown below) both of which were wrongly positioned for the sun - but I was not going to leave the path to try and go round them !!!

Whinchat (juvenile)

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Stonechat

Later in the day, I stopped to photograph a Hooded Crow (below) which was on a railway platform (huge numbers of Hooded Crow seen during the trip).

We overnighted in Zenica at a hotel next to the river, owned by the local steelworks. I took an early breakfast so that I could have a walk by the river. The river was full of junk, but a 'local' stopped me to tell me how, now that the river was clean, there were "so much birds". I must say that I was surprised to find several Little Grebe, and even a Kingfisher (as well as numerous Mallards), so I supect that the water was relatively clean.

After breakfast, we went to the Zenica steel works for a visit (they still use steam engines). Here I saw several Whinchats from the bus. As we left the bus, a Kestrel flew off the tall building beside the bus and headed out of sight, but on a decending path. I found this in the top of a low tree and took the safety shots before working my way round the other side of a building to take some closer shots from the other side which were with better light.

Wood White at Zenica Steel Works

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Kestrel at Zenica Steel works

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By now, our local guide had realised my interest in birds, and pointed out this Whinchat to me when we arrived at Kakanj.

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Whinchat at Kakanj

The following day (4th September) I photographed this Common Buzzard in Rajlovac railway goods yard.

Common Buzzard at Rajlovac

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That evening I took a tram out of the centre of Sarajevo and then took a taxi to Vrelo Bosna (the source of the Bosna river). This is a beautiful park, and I discovered where some of the birds in Bosnia had gone to. Here I had my first ever sighting of a Grey-headed Woodpecker - I confess to thinking it was a Green, until I had a closer look at the photos that I had taken in the dark evening shadows.

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Marsh Tit at Vrelo Bosna (near Sarajevo)

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Grey-Headed Woodpecker at Vrelo Bosna

The following day (5th September) we took our train to Ploce in Croatia (on the coast) for a short visit. No interesting birds were seen, but I did photograph a grasshopper and a dragonfly.

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Grasshopper at Ploce (Croatia)

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Dragonfly at Ploce

The return to Bosnia, and then to Zagreb (Croatia), with a run to Budapest from Zagreb on 7th September did not yield anything very exciting. In summary, I do not recommend going to Bosnia for 'independent' birding.