Bluebells at Skellingthorpe..

Day 302 #365DaysWild

Bluebells at Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire today..

Also through this azure celebration we’re white to soft mauve wood anenome, butter-yellow celandine and understated but pretty-white stitchwort.

A wonderful mixture of our woodland understory flora.

I struggle to imagine anything more natural - and beautiful!

Thanks to our wonderful friends Mike and Gill for sharing this with us on a walk this morning.

encouraging rat-tailed maggots...

Day 301 #365DaysWild

‘Garden of ten ponds’ #2

Continuing my 'series' on our garden ponds...

This is a small pond in the woodland garden made from a recycled mini-vegetable bed reclaimed from a skip.

Enjoyed by birds and small mammals.

Believe it or not, my hope is for rat-tailed maggots in it this summer. Rat-tailed maggots love the gunk in ponds.

On maturity, they will join the rest of the garden hover-fly population..

Bat detector day...

Pipistrelle bat hiding
in the folds of a garden parasol.

Day 300 #365DaysWild

I’ve been looking forward to today for two weeks!! Like a small boy on Christmas morning! Today’s the day when we open up the bar detectors and discover what data is hidden inside!

And I wasn’t disappointed!! Notts Bat Group bat detector SD cards were so loaded with data from the garden that there was only enough room for eight out of the fourteen days active.

So much so that John had to take the cards away for analysis.

Initially we saw lots of common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle sonogram activity. As we moved through, evidence of myotis bats. And brown long-eared bats appeared too.

We had no previous evidence of myotis or brown long-eared bats here in the garden.

I have to tell you that I became a small boy again on hearing we have brown long-eared bats!! From my earliest memories I have been beyond fascinated by wildlife. Brown long-eared bats are almost mythical to me having never encountered them. And now they’re here!!!!! O

Brown long-eared bats echo locate very quietly and so are unlikely to register on hand-held detectors. They are quiet because they hunt larger moths which have evolved to listen out for bat echo-location. In response to their response, the brown long-eared bats turn off their echo-location and hunt simply by hearing the wing beats of the moths they hunt - or the breathing of their moth prey.

Imagine a hearing so acute that you can hear a moth breathing….

We await full results for the garden and for New Farm too.

And then to build some nice big Kent bat boxes from Douglas Fir planks..

STOP PRESS …. STOP PRESS …. STOP PRESS

Latest news..

Garden bats from Notts Bat Group monitoring ..

Common and Soprano pips, 

Daubentons, 

Natterer's, 

Leisters?

Noctule, 

Brown Long Eared 

Whiskered/Brandts?

………. so far.

Booooom!

Let’s make compost !!

Day 299 #365DaysWild

Grass mowing season is here.

Two jobs -mowing and then using  grass cuttings.

Let’s make compost !!

Ingredients 

About a builders’ bag of grass cuttings.

A collection of cardboard and paper, weeds and kitchen waste (non-food) gathered over several weeks in one of the compost bays.

Well-rotted straw.

Shredded leaves and chip from an arborist.

Method

All to be layered up mixing greens and browns.

The temperature of the compost will rise to around 70C and then slowly drop.

This should kill soil pathogens, perennial roots and weed seeds.

Leave for six weeks.

Turn into next compartment and leave until temperature has dropped and branding worms have occupied compost.

Et voila! Perfect for applying to the soil surface as a mulch chock full of beneficial invertebrates, bacteria and mycelia.

And bonus….

Composting lowers greenhouse gases by improving carbon sequestration in the soil and by preventing methane emissions through aerobic decomposition, as methane-producing microbes are not active in the presence of oxygen.

Day #1 22C

Day #3  Almost at 55C

Moth light..

Day 298 #365DaysWild

Our first night for months with suitable weather for months!

Lunar marbled brown

Larval food Pedunculate oak

Coxcomb prominent

Larval food Broadleaf trees

A month early ..?

Brindled beauty 

Larval food Silver birch, Common lime, Pedunculate oak

Hebrew character 

Larval food Stinging nettle, Silver birch, Common lime, Pedunculate oak

Muslin moth

Larval food Broad-leaved dock, Red dead nettle

Grey birch

Larval food Silver birch

‘..a confined distribution in Nottinghamshire..’ Eakring Birds

‘Evereste’

Day 297 #365DayWild

Crab apple ‘Evereste’ in glorious bloom now. 

A small crab apple whose size is easily managed by pruning in August.

First admired at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens near Harrogate, Yorks. A stellar performer. 

Last year, due to frost, completely failed to crop - in common with our apples, other crabs and fig. 

But in 2022, the abundant fruits attracted many noisy and hungry fieldfares. 

Flower buds now about to break. 

Soon it will be full of nectaring pollinators. A boon for wildlife.

At last, a butterfly day

Day 296 #365DaysWild

My first whitethroat’s scratchy bursts of song on the lane this morning. Welcome back!!

In the garden chiffchaff and blackcap continue to be joined by singing willow warbler. It would be quite exceptional for willow warblers to breed in the garden so I won’t build my hopes up.

And, at last, a butterfly day!

Comma, peacock, small white and orange tip on the wing.

The very warm temperatures and dry weather gave perfect conditions for nectaring and basking.

Two peacocks in the meadow - and feisty too. One saw-off a big queen bumble bee as we watched.

A small white enjoyed mums Mothers Day grape hyacinths in a pot on the terrace.

Abundant seven-spot ladybirds.

Early ..

Day 295 #365DaysWild

Early Grey moth. Not attracted to our moth light but

drawn to our faulty garage wall light where it waited this morning.

Early by name and nature. One of our earliest moths of the season.

Grey suggests dull or bland- but neither with delicate patterning, especially on a ‘crisp’, newly-emerged individual.

Its larval food plant is honeysuckle of which we have plenty. There were no honeysuckle plants in the garden when we arrived.

We’d gathered juicy red seeds from the native honeysuckle that was fruiting by the footpath near Butlers Hill tram stop - then grew the seedlings onto strong young plants before planting them out.

Some of our plants have now scrambled their way four metres up birch trees. Others have bulked themselves into our hedges. Great as a nectar source and their succulent berries are enjoyed by invertebrates, birds and mammals in the autumn and winter.

Subsequently we’ve added cultivars and different species to the mix for variety and colour.

Dead mans fingers..

emerging ..

Day 294 #365DaysWild

Rain greeted me this morning just as it had closed yesterday.

We are in the wettest period on record.

With temperatures higher than ever recorded.

Atmospheric pollution is now 421.9 parts per million (ppm).

The safe level is deemed 350ppm.

The pre-industrial average was 280ppm.

Discussion of climate change and its' impacts seems perfunctory at best. There are still deniers.

It is difficult not to feel bleak for now and for the generations that follow.

The government is broken, with apparently every service on its knees.

Here, Dead mans fingers fungus is emerging from some of the wood rotting in the Woodland Garden.

Fruiting fungus are fascinating and hugely diverse. This one is unique in my limited experience.

Desperate grasping fingers bringing to mind that awful scene with Glenda Jackson above the grate in the film The Music Lovers..

Our exploitation of the earth seems unstoppable. Our grasping hands wringing the life force out of nature.

A metaphor for our age?

Today feels bleak.

Dark-edged

Day 292 #365DaysWild

Scooting about. High speed and nimble.

Dark-edged bee flies.

Distinctive. Not only in flight but in appearance too. An extended proboscis gives it access to pollen and nectar in deep-trumpeted flowers.

We’ve certainly seen an increase in abundance over recent years. Could that be our influence as we’ve now got plenty of cowslips, primroses and pulmonaria? 

Or could it be part of a wider increase in population?

Whatever the reason, I don’t tire of watching them.

Let’s all pause for nature!

Orange-tailed..

Day 293 #365DaysWild

That rare thing this spring - brief sun.

Busy bees in the meadow. On south-facing ground. Thinnest of soil. A sparse sward already showing seedling yellow rattle.

In low meandering flight in the company of others of her species.

Few obvious excavations. These are mining bees - 

Orange-tailed mining bees. Sometimes called the Early mining bee.

Here on dandelion flower. Known as short-tongued bees, they prefer simple flowers.

Each fertilised female will burrow into the sandy soil and lay her eggs. They are not colonial but do congregate together . They produce small ‘volcanoes’ of sand as they excavate.

I

had noticed that the bees were restricted to the meadow where there was none of the moss that had recently been brought to the surface. I spring-raked and took away the bee inhibitor.

Grovelling in gravel

Day 291 #365DaysWild

Extended family Saturday night. A meal for nine. A lot of grub to prepare and for them to eat. Young people, big appetites. And loud music too. But a 21st birthday so it must be done.

The young people walked the garden at dusk. ‘Living the dream’ one said on return.

And that’s how we feel.

But we also know that our lives may be seen as some kind of permanent community payback. Never ending hard graft.

This week is a good example.

The gravel drive for our two homes has compacted and thinned. We put down the edging and levelled and terramed and rolled and raked in 2014 under the foremanship of son Dave. 

So, sixteen tonnes of golden gravel has been ordered to celebrate its tenth birthday. And a mini-digger.

First the colossal job of hand-weeding before the gravel arrives. Stooping. Hoeing. Forking.

It’s my fault. It would be much less effort to spray the weeds to kill them. And we could be foregoing the fun we’ve had grovelling in gravel the day after a family party. 

This is new fun. Believe me.

Wildlife gold!!!

Day 290 #365DaysWild

Golden dandelions. Much maligned.

Deep-rooted lawn perennials.

Pre-digital timepieces!

And a diuretic.

‘You’ll wet the bed if you pick them!’

Previous generations of gardeners  (and many current ones too!) see (or saw) dandelions as the enemy. Out came the garden tools or

more perniciously the pesticides. Dr Hessayon, the doyen of lawn monoculture and author of ‘Be your own lawn expert’ led the war. I hope we’re reaching a turning point.

Dandelions are sooo important for our invertebrates. They can supply food to a number of different pollinators including bumblebees, butterflies, hover

flies, day flying moths and solitary bees.

They’re a fascinating species - or number of species and micro species. Look out for the different leaves to help identify.

If our aim as gardeners is to boost the population of invertebrates in order to boost those that depend on invertebrate food, dandelions are useful allies.

Wildlife gold!!