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| << June 2024 | July 2024 | August 2024 >> |
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1st: Look out! This Wood Pigeon is sat on top of one of our telegraph poles on the edge of the garden. The sun was totally in the wrong place for a shot as it was in front, not behind, but a few tweaks in photoshop meant we ended up with a half decent photo. They have such sweet chubby faces. In other news, yesterday we saw a Greater Spotted Woodpecker who sat on top of this very same pole, plus a group of around 10-12 House Martins circling over Fruit field. This sort of makes up for the fact that for the first time since we moved, we don't have swallows nesting in the barn.  |
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2nd: Latest rugs, pure Valais |
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3rd: Looking west never fails to impress!  |
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4th: Shearing Before and after - and they look great! Although Hegemone had two areas on his back where mites had taken up residence - will sort tomorrow with some ivermectin from the vets! In rather sad news though, Bressay (middle sheep in the last photo) died overnight - she had been fine till yesterday evening when we felt she looked a tad peaky. She was 10 and had been underweight for some time - she had also lost all her teeth around two years ago so had done pretty well to keep eating. She gave us five lambs (four pictured below), usually just a single each year. She was terribly friendly and could be quite a feisty madam with the dogs and was often the first to the trough! Whalsay (on the right), from the same flock, is a year older and still going strong!!!         |
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5th: A bit of an increase We are sort of starting to see more invertebrate life.... and some of the flowers are just amazing close up - the macro lens is proving our most popular lens just now! (From the top, row by row: cranefly and white clover, bramble flower and ringlet butterfly, spider (unidentified) with egg sac and a buttercup)       |
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6th: A rainbow in the clouds! Saw a rainbow cloud at just gone 9am this morning. It's not a great photo and it may not be a perfect example of a rainbow cloud. They are meant to be very rare. They happen because of something called cloud iridescence, a state that occurs when small water droplets or small ice crystals scatter the sun's light. About two and a half seconds after we quickly snapped this shot, it vanished. It was just amazing to see...  |
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7th: The wild flowers on our land are doing well! Love the contrasting colours and shapes of this clover and bird's foot trefoil... As of today we have now found 160 individual species since September last year!!  |
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8th: View from Goat field on a misty morning |
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9th: Green Lane Today we strimmed the Green Lane to both give a central path we can actually walk down and to clear up after Mike took down various laurel growing alongside the fence. Our plan is to grow honeysuckle there instead (far more wildlife friendly). We strimmed round the apple trees but are hoping to manage the rest totally for wildlife (but in a much more organised way than simply allowing it to run wild). There is a fabulous range of plants here already (including Valarium and Meadowsweet that we had no idea were here) and we also want to set up our bird feeding station just beyond the gate as well. Exciting times.      |
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10th 4-Fruit tree area Today, we started the task of sorting the 4-Fruit tree area, strimming and cutting back so we can get the land ready to plant more trees (we will have to rename it then we guess!!). Mike chopped and chipped the fir trees in here (they were too big, half dead in places and blocked a huge amount of light) and so now we have the task of trying to improve the soil ready for more fruit tree planting in the autumn. The current trees have been there for 5 ish years and the apple and plum have given us some good crops, the cherry has never fruited and the pear has produced just a few. We have let the hedge behind intrude a bit as well as bracken and hogweed. It was hard to cut down the hogweed in particular as they are such good plants for invertebrates but on the other hand, there are lots and lots elsewhere on our land!! The plan is to allow certain plants to grow back that will be good for the wildlife without compromising the growth of the fruit trees. The bees are just the other side of the gate in the first photo so hopefully this will be an area they will visit more and more. It's going to be a long job to get this area sorted but we have a few weeks before the trees need to go in!! The first photo shows the best of it so far!!     |
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11th: More moth finding... The Common footman and the Dark arches.... - isn't it awful how so many animals (and plants) have the word 'common' put in front of them? Not sure there are any moths know as the 'Rare... something'.   |
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12th: More invertebrate spotting... From top to bottom, left to right we have: ... mealworms (bought to feed the birds through establishing our own breeding groups); oak galls (possibly the Oak marble gall wasp) on one of the young oaks in Swallow field's outer hedge; a Poplar hawk moth (one of four caught in the moth trap last night), beautiful moths who were quite happy to crawl over our hands; a Buff tip moth who decided to spend the day on a bedroom windowsill (notice the buff tip, designed to mimic a twig end so that when it rests on branches, it totally blends in); and finally a wasp with a mouth full of soil, emerging from a hole in the bank in the Green lane. It was one of many, presumably excavating to build a nest. The most amazing part of this discovery though was the fact that in the midst of all this to-ing and fro-ing, a very large black bottomed bumble bee headed in the hole too and in all the time we stood there (a good twenty minutes), it did not emerge!!!!      |
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13th: Huge excitement Yesterday late afternoon, we finally got our bird feeding stations in place. We have two, both in the Green Lane. One is a right angle of metal fruit cage poles standing in large stumps of wood, well out of the way of the cats and the second is a bought stand with four hooks and two trays that we have sited nearer the fence. It was with HUGE excitement that around mid morning we spotted a blue tit feeding on one of the nut feeders, followed quite quickly by a female chaffinch and a couple of sparrows. Throughout the day, we continued to spot one of two of each of these species, as well as a young robin in the hedgerow immediately behind and a blackbird a little further down the lane. We couldn't be more chuffed that within 24 hours, the feeders have been found and are being used. We look forward to (hopefully) seeing both the numbers and the species increase over the coming weeks and months. Bottom left shows a few of the vast numbers of rooks and jackdaws that appear in Andrew's land beyond Oak filed. We very much hope we don't attract quite these numbers to our place!!     |
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14th: Another wildlife filled day Today we were utterly thrilled to spot a juvenile Greater spotted woodpecker on the nut feeder. We have seen and heard one a couple of times this last week but we never dreamt one would find the feeders so quickly. It was back and forth and a few times. It would be fabulous to see the parents too!! Also visiting for the first time today have been some Great tits. All of yesterday's species have also been spotted again including the female chaffinches but as yet, we haven't seen any males!! In other news our butterfly count is now up to seven species this year (woeful compared to other years). The first picture shows the beautiful Gatekeeper (a male). The others spotted so far in 2024 are the Meadow brown, Large white, Small white, Orange tip, Red Admiral and Ringlet. It's the annual butterfly count this week. We cannot imagine the picture it will bring. We have been trying to spot flies and bees etc on our walks, which despite all the flowering thistles and brambles seem very thin on the ground. The bottom two images show a Common carder bumble bee and a Marmalade hoverfly (what a fab name). And finally we got up close and personal to this Meadow grasshopper, usually very common on our land and loud So far this year we have only been seeing the odd one or two!!       |
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15th: Scary and kind of cute The scary fly in the first picture is The Dark Giant Horsefly, an inch in length and with a ferocious bite. It is also the heaviest fly in Europe!! We came across this one in Oak field, buzzing loudly as it hung onto a grass stem and a little bit cross (we think it may have been knocked as the dogs raced through). After a few seconds of orientating itself, it flew off, fortunately in the opposite direction to us and the dogs!! And below we have a pair of Common Red Soldier beetles or, to give them their colloquial name: Hogweed bonking beetles! What a great name!! And most apt as they are indeed bonking and this is indeed hogweed. There were at least two other pairs on the same flower head as well!! Invertebrate life is many and varied: scary and cute!!!   |
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16th: It's a great year for the rowan. Lots of berries for the birds later in the summer/ autumn |
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17th: Butterflies and Grasshoppers Some obliging posing today: Green-veined butterfly, a male Meadow Grasshopper (longer wings than the female), a Dance fly (a Empis livida or tessellata) and finally a Ringlet!     |
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18th: Funnel web spider We are pretty sure this is a Funnel web spider or Labyrinth spider (Agelena labyrinthica). This was quite a high nest, pretty much eye level, as opposed to just above the ground which is more normal. It was quite scary seeing it approach the edge of the web like this we have to say...  |
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19th: At the bird feeder today Male House sparrow, young male or female Chaffinch, juvenile Great tit and a juvenile Greater spotted woodpecker.     |
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20th: Daisy!!! (who has been staying with us for a few days)
  
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21st: Yet more cutting back Today we tackled the hedge between the top garden and the 4-fruit tree area. After we had the conifers down the other week (the first picture shows what it was like before), the hedge was revealed as pretty dead on the 4-fruit tree side and we also realised just how many brambles were growing within it. This afternoon we removed as many of the brambles as we could along with the rose, honeysuckle and clematis growing up the wooden arch to the left, all of which were only showing green growth and flowers well above head height. There was also a totally dead bush in amongst everything. Tomorrow the chipper is going to be very busy.       |
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22nd: Chipping Today we chipped all the cut-back waste from yesterday, along with the aspen branches that the goats had enjoyed the leaves from. It is amazing how such huge piles of 'scrub' chip to so little. It's great to have these chippings here though as they will introduce a bit of goodness into this land as they start to mulch down. We also began to slightly level out the old cow heap so that the area will be more suitable for planting more fruit trees in the autumn. It was also nice to be joined by the odd butterfly or two... (Red admiral and Green-veined white)     |
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23rd: Feeding the birds A fabulous hour spent watching the birds today! Great tit, Blue tit, Chaffinch and Robin     |
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24th: A good scratch!! (One of Andrew's sleep in the next field)    |
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25th: Another butterfly Utterly thrilled to spot a Tortoiseshell butterfly on some nettles in the Poultry paddock.  |
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26th: More insects Most days when we walk round the land and actively look for insects, we pretty much always find species we have never found before. Not surprisingly really when you consider how many species there are: 24,000 in Great Britain, over a million worldwide. These two extraordinary creatures are the Two spotted grass bug and a Marsh snipe fly,   |
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27th: Woodpeckers Our woodpeckers are daily visitors, we see the male (Walter) and juveniles every day, but still not seen the female....  |
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28th: Delmhies 4th Birthday party!!  |
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29th: Drive makeover We gave the drive a bit of a makeover this week. It is now easier to drive in and out and also, as with other parts of the garden and land, we are mindful about keeping it better for wildlife, so managing the really dominant species better and allowing the wildlife friendly ones to have the space they need.   |
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30th: Stunning wildlife A fabulous day on the wildlife photography front - there was so much going on and there was the usual problem of deciding which lens to have on the camera!! The shot of the blackbird was actually taken with a macro lens as that was what was ion the camera at the time. The rowan is just magnificent this year and as we walked past there were at least four blackbirds feasting. We set the moth trap last night and as well as a record for the number of species (21), we had the joys of catching another Poplar hawk moth who then on release, posed beautifully on this water figwort.   |
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31st: Butterflies Taking shots of butterflies is compulsive just now, especially with the buddleias out in full flow and the sun shining!! Peacock, Red admiral, Painted lady and Speckled wood.     |