| 2024 | 2025 |
| << August 2025 | September 2025 | October 2025 >> |
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1st: Sunset The weather is changing - dry, sunny days are now being replaced with sunny showers and a bit of a drop in temperature. We welcome the rain and the spectacular skies obviously but miss sitting outside and are also aware that our beloved swallows and martins will soon be off. We are really going to miss them.  |
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2nd: September Colour It's September and there is plenty of colour to see around our land. Purple Loosestrife, Water Mint, Oxeye Daisy and Fox and Cubs - all of which are enormously valuable plants for our invertebrate life!! Purple Loosestrife loves wet areas and is great for long-tongued insects, such as brimstone butterflies, red-tailed bumblebees and elephant hawk-moths. We get all three here, though not in great numbers so hope as the plant spreads, that may change.     |
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3rd: Bathing and Dive-bombing Aren't these bathing goldfinches just fabulous to watch - and look out for the dive bombing swallows behind them. Goldfinches have had a fabulous breeding year here - our bird feeding station is full of them: 20 or more at any one time - most of these bathing ones are youngsters - note the lack of red on the face. And our swallows are showing no signs of heading off back to Africa just yet!! |
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4th: Birds and Ponds It's moulting season for many of our songbirds and we are certainly seeing some very scruffy feathering at the moment. BUT, the feeders are still full with sparrows; great and blue tits and the odd coal; siskins, goldfinches and a few chaffinches; robins and blackbirds. Sunflower hearts are an absolute favourite with them all. Never tire of watching the birds feed. Love the branch along the top too as it provides more natural perching, and for the baby goldfinches in particular, a place to wait and demand feeding!! 🤣 Feeding the wild birds like this is such a positive thing to do and in my view, the benefits are enormous, both for them and for us!! Meanwhile, the recent rain has made a little bit of difference to some of the ponds - even if the levels aren't rising, the surfaces are looking refreshed- we are keeping our fingers crossed that all of them fill up this autumn/ winter. Poultry Pond   Goat Pond (formerly Stonechat)    Rabbit Pond (Formerly Spider)    Oak Pond (formerly Wagtail/ Trickle)    Chaser Pond (formerly Nick's)     Chaser Junior Pond (formerly Nick Junior)   Yeti Pond (formerly Yellowhammer)    07   08   Fruit Pond (formerly Stonechat)    |
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5th: Castle Hill Fabulous day out at Castle Hill Estate today with Becky. Well worth a visit if you like formal gardens, parkland, natural and ancient woodland as well as stunning views over both Dartmoor and Exmoor. We saw so many butterflies, bees, hornets, a red kite, a humming bird hawk moth, dragonflies, damselflies and oodles of pheasants. Castle Hill is beautifully looked after with lots of public access and at the end of our visit we had a fabulous cream tea/ carrot cake. We will be back especially as £45 gives you unlimited access for a full year. 
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6th: HUGE excitement A new bird species for us - a Grey Wagtail caught on the trail cam by Poultry Pond - this section of the pond is a real draw for so many birds!! |
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7th: Large White Butterfly Ooooodles and oodles of Large whites and Green veined whites around still. Ours are enjoying the remaining thistles and the sedum in our garden. I know they can demolish our hard-grown veg in seconds (which is whey we always have a sacrifice bed) but as with all butterflies, they are great pollinators and the caterpillars and adults are an essential source of food for so many birds and other invertebrates (including our favourite Garden Spider). And to be honest, seeing these strong, able flyers out and about in our sunny gardens and fields, really does lift the spirit.   |
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8th: New species Yesterday we were talking to friends (Jo and Paul) about how we hadn't yet seen Common Darter Dragonflies on our land. Today we walked round with NIck Benge looking at the results of his pond and bank creations six months on, and lo and behold... we spied a Common Darter. Only had the camera phone so not a great shot but we are delighted to be able to add it to our list. That's five species now!!!!   |
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9th: Bathing Jackdaws Just as sweet as the Goldfinches in Poultry Pond in our opinion!!! |
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10th: A day of Larvae Our morning walk saw us spotting zillions of Spotted Regal Sawfly larvae on the Purple Willow in Oak field. Last year they appeared in June. This year they are a full three months later. Was there a first brood that fed elsewhere or are they much later? It's odd. They are fabulous looking, very colourful We also saw a large Cabbage Looper on these willow too - just love its feet. We then found this amazing Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar crawling up our kitchen door today!! 😳 It was however, very close to a fuchsia plant, which along with willow herb (of which we have plenty) , is one of its food sources. They also eat Himalayan Balsam according to Butterfly Conservation. After the obligatory photos, we popped it on the Fuchsia where it proceeded to demolish an entire leaf in two and a half minutes. They are very efficient eaters, not a morsel was wasted. This time of year, the caterpillar was no doubt looking for somewhere to pupate. We have caught the adult moths in our moth traps this year so know we have them around but this is the first time we have seen a caterpillar here. The elephant hawk-moth is named because the caterpillar looks a bit like an elephant's trunk. To scare off predators, it can make itself seem larger and emphasize those amazing eye patterns. Enjoy the video. It is the full 150 seconds. And finally a Common Froghopper - a new species in terms of the first time we have photographed it, but we do see them a lot - and the land was covered in cuckoo spit this spring so we knew it was going to be a good year for them.  
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11th: Morning Walk First up is our faithful robin who usually is there to greet us at the bottom of Oak field - we maybe need to start taking some food with us. In Fruit Field, we spotted several quite large (15mm) communal cocoons of some sort, mainly attached to docks, but some on willow?? The knowledgeable Jo Everitt thinks they might contain several pupae of a braconid wasp!! We may well keep a couple through the winter to see what emerges. We also then found a Pebble Prominent Moth caterpillar feasting on some willow too (it took ages to find what was nibbling at the leaves here, we must have looked at a good ten of our saplings before finding a culprit). We caught the actual moth in our moth trap for the first time back in mid-August. When curled round a twig or leaf, the caterpillar really looks like part of the vegetation. It's been such a great year for fruit. The acorns are whoppers this year - not sure we have ever seen them this big. And the hawthorn, like the blackthorn with sloes, are just so laden - the birds should all be able to get winter-ready with the amount of fruit in our hedgerows this year.  
 
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12th: Light Sawfly larva munching on willow and a Large White drinking from a buddleia. Love the light in these photos - and both taken in the sunshine between very heavy showers.   |
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13th: Fungi A rather splendid fungi, the Parasol (Macrolepiota procera). Spotted this one and a second coming up in the copse at the bottom of Goat field. Magnificent looking and even more so when they open up!!  |
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14th: Niger Brave soul in the bare earth by Goat Pond - Niger: presumably from a seed that has blown in from our bird feeding station. Lovely to come across these beacons of colour.   |
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15th: Devon Wildlife Trust Back in January, we planted 800 saplings given to us free by DWT. They were planted as mini copses and hedging. Here are a few shots eight months on. In total there were 17 species comprising of: Bird Cherry Blackthorn, Buckthorn, Crab Apple, Dog Rose, Elder, Hawthorn, Hazel, Downy Birch, Hornbeam, Field Maple, Lime, Oak, Rowan, Spindle, Sweet Chestnut, Wayfaring and Wild Cherry. How exciting we get to watch these grow for the rest of our lives!! 
 
   
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16th: Love is.. curling up with your mates after a good long run around the fields. |
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17th: The ponds are starting to fill up First photo July 30th, second photo today Goat   Oak   Chaser   Fruit   |
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18th: Morning Walk The morning walk today saw the best view of a pair of jays, as well as being able to identify a new species of hoverfly and plant (new to our land, not to science 🤣) - Eupeodes latifasciatus and Hemp Agrimony. We also stood by one of our fuchsias and watched as half a dozen Large Whites, four Red Admirals and a Peacock all had their fill! And then there were the spiders' webs - on several occasions we changed our route so we didn't walk through and wreck them. They are masters (and mistresses) of industry some of these Orb Weavers!! An hour's walking does then turn into three hours of sorting through all the photos mind you - but is is all part of the fun!!     |
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19th: Yet more A Rove beetle - Staphylinus dimidiaticornis which we found on the doorstep of the utility room and Water Plantain - Alisma plantago-aquatica which has come from who knows where - not sure we have any in our garden pond. We lovely to see how this develops in the spring!!   |
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20th: Fungi  |
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21st: Sun Worshippers A delightfully sunny day brought out a few of the remaining sun worshippers: A Common Darter dragonfly basking on a branch over Poultry Pond and a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly that flew into our bedroom. The former will die as the days get colder and food becomes scarce (having hopefully populated our ponds with nympths) whilst the tortoiseshell will hopefully find a sheltered spot in one of our barns or shelters to hibernate in, before emerging in the spring to eat and lay eggs!! And so the cycle of life continues!!   |
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22nd: Late September colour Meadow buttercup, Marsh thistle, Yellow flag and Red Campion     |
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23rd: Kingfisher We are besides ourselves with excitement. Look what the trailcam caught in Poultry Pond yesterday late afternoon? |
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24th: Fox reflection Another gorgeous video from a couple of nights ago - this time of one of our foxes walking along the bank above Chaser Pond - such a gorgeous reflection. |
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25th: We are still seeing butterflies
 
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26th: More beautiful reflections |
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27th: Some lovely surprises in the moth trap Three Lunar Underwings (12 were caught in total) and a Delicate (both new species)  A Pale Pinion and a Large Cinnamon Sedge Caddisfly, also both new   |
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28th: Wagtails Our Grey and several Pied Wagtails are now fairly frequent visitors to Poultry Pond -the floating log is proving very popular. |
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29th: Plant Hunt and Bug Afternoon We had a stunning Plant Hunt and Moth/ Bug Afternoon here at Cadbury Cottage on Sunday. From aged 3 to 73, everyone was fully immersed in exploring the land and seeing what they could find. Back in the barn, microscopes and magnifying glasses came out as we examined tiny parasitic wasps, a Barred Sallow moth (one of ten species caught in the trap the night before) and various species of sawfly. A few more new plants were added to the list and more friendships made! HUGE thanks to everyone who came and to Paul Hopkinson for once again being the 'Relaxed Sanctuary' events photographer.   
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30th: Kingfisher Our Kingfisher is turning into a regular visitor and obviously finding food - this is a compilation from the last week or so!! |