Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos, #403)

Song Thrush is really a bird of this season in the garden, singing loudly every morning. They are more heard than seen, as when they are on the ground they are often skulking around the corners of the garden. They appear in January, sing from February, then after breeding totally disappear in August, only to return again in the mid-winter. Looking at the BTO Garden Birdwatch data this is a pretty typical pattern. The data also shows that there is a strong decline in the number of gardens where song thrushes are reported, down from 45-50% in the early ‘90s, to less than 20% now, so we’re very lucky to still have them.

Plenty of Weather

It’s a schizophrenic season. When the sun shines and the wind drops the birds are soon singing and bumble bees buzzing. A song thrush, robin, wren and greenfinches are all taking up territories, a noisy pair of Canada geese fly over most mornings and magpies are making a nest in the Beech tree. A calling little owl one still evening during the week, was new for the garden. But the rest of the time with gales, endless rain and the temperature dropping this week so we even had snow, the smaller species like tits, finches and sparrows have disappeared and the garden feeders are deathly quiet.

One excitement has been birds of prey with Sparrowhawk and Red Kite overhead, and even a passing Peregrine one day. I remember as a kid going whole years where I only saw three or four raptor species, so seeing three species on one day out of my window reflects a massive turnaround in their fortunes. I’m also lucky that my commute passes over the Cotswolds, so as well as enjoying some snowy scenes, I regularly see kites and owls along the road - this week I got great views from the car of Barn and Short-eared Owls around Hawling & Salperton.

Chopping Trees

Over the winter I did some work to cut back some of the trees in the garden. There’s a little row of Hazels, which I will coppice on rotation to keep them a manageable size. The Corkscrew Willow was also spreading too far, so I cut it back quite heavily - if it wasn’t for the kids liking to climb up inside the canopy I would have given it the full treatment back to the trunk. This should result in new fresh growth in the spring and ultimately benefit the garden wildlife.

First Flower of Spring

The first wild flower of spring in the garden is this Common Dog Violet (Viola riviniana) flowering in one of the sunnier and more sheltered spots in the garden. The pale spur behind the flower indicates that it is Common rather than Early Dog Violet. This should normally flower in April, but along with the daffodils, it’s flowering early this year.

A Glimmer of Life

After the rain it was good to get out and do some gardening. It’s always good to know that the garden toads have made it through the winter. I live in hope that one year I’ll have some spawn in one of my basins - not long to wait until I found out if this is the year. Wood ear fungus has a good year, growing on the dead elder stump, where it’s been used to add some texture to soups during the winter. Finally a Common Plume Moth lurking in the herb garden was a surprise to me, but apparently this species does show up in all months of the year.

#349 Common Plume (Emmelina monodactyla)

#108 Common Toad (Bufo bufo)

#10 Wood-ear Fungus (Auricularia auricula-judae)

#306 Green Woodpecker

Happy New Year 2020: Was great to get a photo of this Green Woodpecker that was digging around in next door’s lawn for a while this morning. While they are always around in the village, they are heard more often than seen, and seen flying through much more often than perching obligingly on the ground like this one. A nice garden bird to start the year with.

#306 Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis)

Quiet Season

It’s not a great season for garden wildlife, but anyhow I added a couple of new species to the list. The damp weather probably contributes to a growth of Rose Powdery Mildew fungus on my climbing rose and this small crane fly, with mottled wings and stripey legs is Limonia nubeculosa, a new one for the garden.

#549 Rose Powdery Mildew (Sphaerotheca pannosa)

#550 Limonia nubeculosa

Fungi on Bredon Hill

Walking up Bredon Hill at the weekend, there was a fine array of fungi on view in the sheep-grazed meadows at the top of the Hill. They mostly appeared to be Waxcaps of different kinds, including Snowy Waxcap (Cuphophyllus virgineus), Meadow Puffballs (Lycoperdon pratense) and some dark-coloured leathery looking toadstools I took to be Melanoleuca species (probably based on habitat, M. melaleuca). Puffballs are edible, but I didn’t pick them; so are Snowy Waxcaps, but with these I’m just not confident enough in my identification skills to be sure I’m not eating something poisonous.

Squatting the Sparrow Terrace

Our sparrow nest box had a once-in-every-few-years clean-out last weekend. Usually, we have 3-4 pairs of House Sparrows nesting on the house; two under the roof eaves and one in each end of the 3-chamber sparrow nest box (for some reason the birds prefer an end-terrace dwelling). Cleaning out the old nests we found a few squatters, including Harlequin Ladybirds, Yellow Mealworm Beetle larvae (Tenebrio molitor, #547) and a hibernating Small Tortoiseshell butterfly. The mealworms are the same ones that you buy as bird food, but I had no idea that a natural habitat of these darkling beetle larvae was scavenging around the bottom of birds nests.

On the exterior of the box, there was a good growth of Variable Oysterling fungi (Crepidotus variabilis, #548) on the front edge and underside of the plywood lid of the bird box. These are odd-looking brown fungi that don’t have a stem; the gilled canopy grows straight out of the wood. There was a nice patch of grey/green foliose lichen (#275 Physcia caesia) on the nest box lid.

The sparrows may not be around at the moment, but this female Sparrowhawk is regularly lurking about the garden, casting a beady yellow eye at the Woodpigeons.

#548 Variable Oysterling fungus (Crepidotus variabilis)

#275 Physcia caesia lichen

#6 Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Hairy Caterpillar

This hairy little guy had crawled in under the sill of the front door, presumably looking for a warm dry place to pass the winter. I reckon it’s a the caterpillar of Ruby Tiger Moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) rather than that of an Ermine Moth, based on the lack of visible pale stripes and the dark colouration with tufts of paler hairs. I relocated him to a safer spot, so hopefully he makes it through the winter.

#546 Ruby Tiger Moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) caterpillar

Surprise Visitor

I don’t get many dragonflies in the garden, and so late in the season I wasn’t expecting any today; however this female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) arrived for a while to soak up some October sunshine on the garden chairs. A very welcome new species for the list (#545); my 5th dragonfly species. Other than that there was still a single Red Admiral butterfly basking in the sun, and a good mixed flock of blue, great and long-tailed tits on the bird feeders.

#545 Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)

Stinky Raspberries

The Birch Catkin Bugs (Kleidocerys resedae) have moved down in numbers from the surrounding birch trees to enjoy the last of the ripening raspberries. These small “stink bugs” release an unpleasant smelling secretion from their abdomens to make them less palatable to birds and other predators. Unfortunately this adds an unpleasant taste and smell to any raspberry that they come into contact with, so that is game over for my raspberries until next year.

#335 Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae) on Raspberry

#335 Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae) on Raspberry

#222 Beautiful Plume Moth (Amblyptilia acanthadactyla)

I disturbed this plume moth while pulling out some past-their-best plants from the chaos of my overgrown flower bed. It’s a Beautiful Plume Moth (Amblyptilia acanthadactyla), a species which has a second generation flying from September onwards, and is one species bucking the overall trend by becoming more common in gardens.

Aside from this, while not being a VisMig hot spot, there’s some signs of birds migrating overhead. Skylarks and a first Meadow Pipit yesterday morning, and some mistle thrushes around the village; the first redwings and fieldfares cannot be far behind.

#222 Beautiful Plume Moth (Amblyptilia acanthadactyla)

Sparrows, Spiders and Earwigs

While the sun of last weekend did bring butterflies, insects and (maybe) a last barbecue of the summer, the weather is now turned wet and windy, and the leaves are starting to turn. Bird-wise the last 2 house martins were still over the house this morning, but Chiffchaffs joining the tit flock and the first Lesser Redpoll mean Autumn has arrived. On my Garden Birdwatch, which I’ve been doing for a couple of years now, I’ve had my first ever sparrow-less weeks, as the usually-resident House Sparrows have gone - presumably they will be back though, after a short stay-cation out in the hedgerows.

Other signs of Autumn moving on are the craneflies appearing in the house most evenings and spiders, like the European Garden Spider (or Cross Spider) and this this lovely False Widow found in my sons Wellington boot. Pruning back shrubs in the garden, this pair of earwigs needed re-housing, but in general, apart from spiders, insects are few; though there are still plenty of snails & slugs..

#65 European Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus)

#196 Noble False Widow (Steatoda nobilis)

#311 Common Earwig (Forficula auricularia) female

#311 Common Earwig (Forficula auricularia) male

Alpine Flowers from the Vanoise National Park

As a final drop of photos from my August trip to France: this time some of the alpine flowers from the Vanoise National Park, mostly from high up in the French Alps above Courchevel. Supporting the profusion of butterflies & insects and the nibbling of the local marmots, there is an even greater profusion of wild-flowers, especially on the upper pastures. Most of these examples are alpine plants taken on a hike up to the Lacs Merlet, though the Helleborine and Willow Gentian were photographed on the wild-flower trail at Lac de la Rosière just outside Courchevel.

Alpine Saxifrage sp.

Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris)

Broad-leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine)

Alpine Pasqueflower seedhead (Pulsatilla alpina)

Stemless Carline Thistle (Carlina acaulis)

Edelweiss (Leontopodium nivale)

Bearded Bellflower (Campanula barbata)

Fringed Gention (gentianella ciliata)

Willow Gentian (Gentiana asclepiadea)

Greater Masterwort (Astrantia major)

Laserwort (Laserpitium siler)

Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (Saxifraga aizoides)

Fantastic Bugs

More photos from our French trip. It’s always amazes me to see the number of grasshoppers and crickets that you get in the South of France. Here are some really of the larger and more impressive ones I managed to photograph in the French Alps. There’s a lot of species and I didn’t identify them all yet, but they are all beautiful - especially the Small Alpine Bush Cricket on the left.

This beautifully marked Wasp Spider is also amazing; apparently you do get them in the South of England, but I’ve never seen one in UK myself. The dragonfly is a Continental species as well - a Small Pincertail - not sure what the pincers on the tail are for, but this one was easy to photograph sunning itself by the riverside. Finally, with its iridescent blue wings, a not-very-healthy-looking Carpenter Bee found in the Cevennes. These exotic looking solitary bees, one of two similar-looking species found in France, make their nest cavities by boring into dead wood,

Small Alpine Bush-cricket (Anonconotus alpinus)

Grasshopper sp

Cricket sp.

Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi)

Small Pincertail Dragonfly (Onychogomphus forcipatus)

Carpenter Bee (Ceratina sp.)

French Butterflies

Rather “off-patch”, but here are some of many butterflies I saw during our August road-trip around France.

Fritillaries were very plentiful, especially Silver-washed Fritillaries, which were present in numbers right through the Auvergne. I took nice pictures of these Knapweed Fritillaries in the Gorges du Tarn in Southern France; also the Scotch Argus and Jersey Tiger Moths there in the riverside vegetation.

In the French Alps I was very happy to find this Apollo butterfly, seen above Courchevel in the Vanoise National Park. The flower-rich Alpine meadows were full of butterflies and moths, including also Mountain Fritillary.

Knapweed Fritillary (Melitaea phoebe)

Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia)

Mountain Fritillary (Boloria napaea)

Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo)

Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas)

Scotch Argus (Erebia aethiops)

Emerging Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae)

Jersey Tiger Moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria)

Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum)

Back from Holiday

Back after holidays, but due to lack of time there’s not too much to report from the garden.

The only new species I added lately was a very impressive, but too fast to photograph, Hornet Mimic Hoverfly (Volucella zonaria, #543). I did get a nice photo of this much slower-moving female Speckled Bush Cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima, #198) ambling through the Hazel trees. Birding wise I didn’t have too much time to check, but there were some migrant Chiffchaffs in the trees, the last House Martins overhead and a Barn Owl calling around the village the a few nights this week. All rather autumnal.

#198 Speckled Bush Cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima)

Wet & Windy August Weather

Apart from yellow Common Jelly Spot fungus (Dacrymyces stillatus; #542) sprouting out of my old garden furniture and a few flies there’s not much doing in the garden that last week or so. The swifts are gone and it feels like later summer. I finally added a fly-over Linnet (Linaria cannabina, #541) to the garden list and a party of a dozen or so Mistle Thrushes passing over was a sign of successful breeding season. There are plenty of flies about, even when the weather is poor. The fly with the khaki green hairy body is a cluster fly (Pollenia rudis, #540), also called the Attic or Loft Fly because of its habit to overwinter in lofts. While the adults feed on flowers, fruit and faeces, their larvae are parasites of earthworms, doing the usual of burrowing in and eating their host from the inside.

#542 Common Jelly Spot (Dacrymyces stillatus)

#540 Pollenia rudis

Fished out of the Pool

Continuing the succession of interesting beasts pulled out of the pool, I was very impressed on Saturday with this trio. The very boldly coloured rove beetle is Platydracus stercorarius. It is quite common and widespread, but I’m sure I’ve never come across it before. A couple of the smaller black rove beetles were in the pool; with their brownish mid-section (elytra), I believe they are Gyrohypnus angustatus - a common species in damp places and around gardens, The Oak Bush Cricket is a first for this year and always a welcome find.

#538 Platydracus stercorarius

#539 Gyrohypnus angustatus

#154 Oak Bush Cricket (Meconema thalassinum)