Wild Wanderings

Diary Entry 8th May 2018.

Glorious Sunshine

What a wonderful week of Sunshine we’ve had. The first time I can remember for a long time on a bank holiday.

Things have really started to move both on the plant side also the insect and bird side of things.

Insects

I have noted quite a few Bees. Common Carder Bee , Buff tailed Bumble Bee, White tailed Bumble Bee and for the first time in several years a Bee Fly. The Bee Fly is of note. They are a parasitic insect and lay their eggs in the Solitary Miner Bees nest. The larvae hatch out and attack and eat the larvae of the Miner Bee. Something like the Cuckoo in the bird world. Its seems a bit cruel but nature can be like that. Other insects around now are the Mayfly and Dance Fly and of course midges. All this adds up to a success story for the wildlife paddock as insects tract birds etc and everything thrives from there.

Butterflies

Butterflies are now starting to emerge, and I have spotted several species over the last week.

Small Tortoiseshell, Small White and Brimstone have all made an appearance. The Brimstone is a lovely fluorescent greeny yellow with a white body. A delicate looking BF with a graceful flight. Also passing through the paddock have been several Orange Tips. The OT’s have taken the same route through the paddock as I noted last year. They follow the Hawthorne hedge which is about 100 mtrs long. On the way stopping briefly to savour the May Blossom. I have placed the bog area which is now the home of the Lady Smock plants half way down the hedge hoping they will stop by for a photo. Lady Smock is apparently their food plant of choice but so far, no takers.

All the Blossom has now fallen from the early Damson and Plum trees. Its like there has been a wedding with pink and white confetti petals lying among the grass and trees.

Birds have been very active.

At least two nesting pairs of Blackbirds scurrying around collecting nesting materials. Blackhawk is one of the males. He’s the one with the speckled chest like a Sparrowhawk. He is quite assertive and does not like the other male one bit. But they seemed to have an agreement, not to be in each other’s company for to long at a time. Wildlife is like that.

The Sparrowhawk has not been seen recently but I did find some scattered Pidgeon feathers a couple of days ago. They may have been left by the Fox.

I walked across to the Badgers sett a couple of fields away. Loads of signs of recent activity. New burrows and latrines and recently cleared nest material. Later in the summer I will set the night camera up and see what it reveals.

The Badger sett is ancient and has been noted in the area for hundreds of years. I have seen several juvenile Badgers crossing the road at night. They use the same track all the time. They have stopped visiting my paddock recently. Which is a relief as the digging was really making a mess of things. It gives me time to repair and renew the areas of damage.

Moles though know no other way than to keep popping up here and there. For the first time ever I saw one above surface this week. The black velvety coat a giveaway. At first, I thought I had dropped a glove in the hedge bottom. I only realised when I prodded it with a stick and it shot under a pile of leaves it was in fact a Mole. A challenge raises its head. To get a photo of a Mole emerging form its hole in the ground. This could take a while.

Till tomorrow