Other Garden News 2014

May
A colony of bumblebees recently took up residence in the roof space above my back door. I was eventually able to identify them as Tree Bumblebees Bombus hypnorum, a species that has only been present in the UK since 2001. They are lovely little bees and I'm proud to be hosting them, all the bee friendly planting that I've been doing is paying off. (I also recently dug up a bit more of my from lawn to create a new bed with mostly daisy-type flowers in; Leucanthemums, Doronicum, Echinacea etc.)

This spring a pair of Long-tailed Tits chose to nest in a mature Vibernum shrub in my back garden. We didn't see them fledge, they must have gone on a week day, but once we were sure they had we looked for the nest and found a tight ball of moss, lichen and cobwebs with an enormous cascade of feathers below

My hedge is thickening up really well this year following another trim of the branch tips earlier. Next year will require some proper pruning to keep it in check. After a dodgey start the new Gorse is doing well and flowered, the Guelder rose also has a lot of flowers on it so hopefully will fruit well later on and we'll see which birds enjoy it most

29th May

Got some pics of my hedge starting to look lovely now, but the recent rain has completely trashed all the poppies on The Mound

In the front I have put one of those ground feeder refuge cages as this will give the Blackbirds and Thrushes a better chance at getting the food before the Wood Pigeons scoff the lot.
Baby Blackbird was in this morning for a tentative peck just inside.
Some rather quick snaps taken with my phone this morning

In comes dad and gets straight in there, baby had gone off to meet him and came back as he emerged with a beak-full of suet nibbles

One day I rescued a Cinnabar moth caterpillar and brought him into my garden where I had Ragwort but no caterpillars. As an only cat he grew tremendously quickly and disappeared by the end of his second week with me. They drop off the plants to pupate in the ground when they reach a certain size apparently

A couple of large Bush Crickets

An enormous red slug

The juvenile squirrels had a wonderful time playing in the garden and having lunch. They were not nearly as timid as the adults

This one came right up to the French windows

Just has a drink from the bird bath

Burying peanuts and zooming about in my little Damson tree

 Wasps created a nest in the top of my hibernaculum mound. It started off as a finger sized hole, and gradually got bigger and bigger. It was incredibly smooth inside - the result of the passage of thousands of tiny feet. The autumn has been so mild that there are still live wasps in it at the beginning of November. The problem is that I'm waiting to get at a whole portion of garden to remove bindweed and stinging nettles, but as they're so defensive of the area it has been entirely out of bounds for the entire summer and autumn

 And a couple of times some really weirs gelatinous lumps of stuff appeared on and near my patio out of nowhere. I have completely failed to identify it

Wild carrot flower bud