Bullfinch Visitors

One of our most colourful garden visitors, this male Bullfinch.

He cannot resist sunflower hearts on the bird feeder, now regularly washed after one of last year's talks on garden birds.

I will never forget his advice: "If you don't wash the feeders to stop diseases, don't feed the birds"!

More From Brian's Garden

Brian has been busy photographing his garden wildlife. A couple of days ago, he sent this message:- 

"The frogs all arrived this morning and have been serenading me all day as I worked in the garden. The Small tortoiseshell arrived this morning it is the first one I've seen this year. It was busy nectaring on the Stachyurus praecox which is spectacular at the moment."

Here are his delightful photos:-

Common Frog (Rana temporaria) - Blackfordby garden

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) - Blackfordby garden

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) (male) - Blackfordby garden

The male House Sparrow differs greatly in appearance from the female, which is somewhat more drab. The male has a black 'bib', pale unmarked cheek, and grey top to the head.

The next day, Brian photographed another visitor to the Stachyurus. I think this bee is a Buff-tailed Bumblebee, but please let me know if I'm wrong, and I will correct this entry.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) - Blackfordby garden

Please keep the photos an information coming, folks. We have the opportunity to become garden naturalists and contribute to citizen science - hopefully more about this in a forthcoming blog post

Take great care, and stay safe and well  - - - Richard P.

Renewable Energy !

Our Chairman, Brian, has spotted this remarkable shot of a tractor running on ecologically sustainable energy. 

Sorry, folks - they made me do it! 😂

Honey to the Bee

Last summer we had a wild bee swarm at Oak Cottage which settled in the garden, unhelpfully just outside our back door. 

Luckily, Dave the Bee Man, appropriately dressed in protective gear with helper Jenny Carr, was on hand to rescue the swarm and, hopefully, set up a new thriving bee hive at one of the many sites he manages.

Just a little Dunnock

Here's a photo, taken by Brian Hammond, of a quiet and unassuming Dunnock.

It is a lovely, solitary little bird that's often seen alone creeping along the ground looking for food and moving with a rather nervous, shuffling gait.  It is common throughout Europe and Russia.

Dunnock (Prunella modularis) - Blackfordby

Postscript:-

The Dunnock (sometimes known as the Hedge Sparrow) has a complex social behaviour and has a bit of a reputation as being quite the degenerate of the garden bird world, habitually engaging in threesomes! It is not unusual for a male to mate with two  females, and quite common for a female to mate with more than one male. This is at least partly due to complex territory situations, with males tending to have larger territories than females. The female, alone, will build a nest. It is the males, however, that are the bread winners, feeding the young.

For some reason unknown to me, Robins tend to be somewhat antagonistic towards Dunnocks

If you see a little brown and grey bird going along the top of your fence high-flapping its wings, the chances are that it is a displaying Dunnock. Dunnocks can be quite confiding birds, and not fly away when gently approached. They have, until recently, been almost exclusively ground feeders. However, they seem to be learning to take food from bird feeders.

(Richard Pegler)

I'll start by bringing to your attention, please, a new tab entitled 'Coronavirus' on the header of this blog. Please use this to look for non-wildlife related resources which may help you, or enable you to help others, during the difficullt times ahead.

Now to some news:-

Oak Beauty moth

Brian Hammond found this beautiful moth - an Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) on the wall of his house last week. It was a new record for Brian, who is somewhat of a moth enthusiast! You can read more about this species on the excellent Naturespot website here:- https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/oak-beauty. 

Oak Beauty (Biston strataria) (male) - Blackfordby

 Thank you, Brian. I'd be delighted to see one of these myself!

Some Local Wild Flowers - from July and August, 2019

Please note:- This post was updated to correct an incorrect scientific name given for the orchid depicted immediately below. Unfortunately, this has resulted in this post being shown as the latest post to this blog, whereas the post following it is actually the latest post!

The group's Chairman, Brian Hammond, has sent in some photos to give us a retrospective look at some of the more interesting wild flowers he found locally in July and August this year. These include some delightful orchids.

Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia densiflora) - Calke Abbey, in July 2019

Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata) - Calke Abbey, in July 2019

Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) - Ashby de la Zouch Bypass, in July 2019

Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) - Ashby de la Zouch Bypass, in July 2019

Yellow Wort (Blackstonia perfoliata) - Ashby de la Zouch Bypass, in July 2019

Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea) - Ashby de la Zouch Bypass, in July 2019

Gypsywort (Lycopus europaeus) - Calke Abbey, in August 2019

Broad-leaved Heleborine (Epipactis helleborine) - Willesley Wood, in August 2019

Thank you for these, Brian. I'm sure that these places will be investigated again in the summer of 2020!