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| << August 2024 | September 2024 | October 2024 >> |
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1st: Birds!! We had a fabulous hour or so with the telephoto zoom in front of the bird feeders, and then, just as we turned to go, a Marsh tit flew in and began to feast on the seeds. Didn't get a great shot but a fabulous sight to see.            |
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2nd: Mesmerizing Just love how each and every dewdrop in this spider's web contains an image of the field in front. Quite mesmerizing!!  |
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3rd: The Herald Back in July, we took four green caterpillars off our new Purple willow in Oak field as along with some sawfly larva, they were doing a good job of defoliating the saplings. A bit of research suggested they may well be Herald moth caterpillars and the emergence of this first moth last night, proved this to be correct. We offered the caterpillars white willow which thankfully they were happy to chomp on for a few weeks before pupating!! Such a stunning moth!!     |
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4th: More emerging Over the last 24 hours a grand total of 21 Large White butterflies have emerged in our 'lettuce' cage. We were surprised as we though they would spend the winter as pupa but apparently some can ever winter as adults! We had great fun watching them dry, photographing them, letting them walk over our hands and then letting them go. What a privilege!!       |
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5th: Abundance We have been eating fresh blackberries and raspberries every breakfast for two/ three weeks now as well as freezing some. We now have around 5kg of blackberries and almost 2kg of raspberries, all ready for when the fresh berries run out. Not bad!! And all free!! Our frozen soft fruit which also includes strawberries; black, red and white currants and loganberries lasts all year: that's 704 breakfasts!!! We dread to imagine how much it would cost if we bought enough to last us both for the year - and where it would need to travel from.   |
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6th: Small Whites In the 'lettuce' cage we had some plain green caterpillars as well as all the yellowy/green and black of the Large White butterfly. The green ones we assumed were Small Whites and this proved correct when yesterday we saw this butterfly amongst its larger cousins. The Small Whites have less black on the outer edges of their forewings and only one spot on the forewings as opposed to the two of the female Large White (the male has none). They are also, as the name suggests, usually smaller too. This one joined its larger cousins in the garden and fingers crossed it makes it!!  |
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7th: Perfection Another stunning web, built between stalks of a dead Marsh thistle. This will have been built by an Orb spider of some kind. We didn't spot the owner today!!  |
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8th: Plany Hunt It may have rained but our Sustainable Chulmleigh Plant Hunt was fab - lots of lovely people came and it was a fabulous afternoon, thanks so much to everyone who braved the weather - it was great to meet so many wonderful and like minded people!! And thanks to Claire Withers for taking such great photos!!      |
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9th: Leave some for us Not quite so many raspberries for us this year!!    |