14/02/2013 - A Hedghog was out in my garden tonight. Although it's a bit early for one to be out of hibernation it is quite mild outside. I left it some dog food, so I hope it has a good old nosh and then goes back to bed for another month or so!
24/07/2012 - Welted Thistle in the sheep fields at Davenport Green. Seen these funny thistle specimens for a year or two and was thinking they may be wierd hybrids between creeping/spear/marsh thistles (all present nearby) but the penny finally dropped today. They are not as common in GM as many other parts of England for some reason (too wet?!).
10/06/2012 - My standard Cotoneaster is thriving with Bumblebees today in the sun, must be at least 30 in total. Tree, White-tailed, Buff-tailed, Early Bumblebees, Common Carder Bees and Honey Bees recorded.
21/05/2012 - Tree Bumblebee on the wing in the sun today, also using a nestbox in my garden again. They are doing the tits out of a home but fascinating to watch nonetheless having only colonised GM in the last year or two and the UK since 2001.
Also singles of Small Tortoiseshell and Pecock - lets hope they can recover from the terrible spring so far.
01/03/2012 - 1 tatty Comma Butterfly resting on Oregon Grape in the garden. Also queen Wasps, White-tailed, Buff-tailed Bumblebees and Honey Bees 'a plenty.
2 dead Foxes found today, a vixen and dog laid side by side next to a dead sheep with rifle wounds, along a public footpath. These deaths seem totally unecessary as the foxes haven't been killing sheep. Didn't see who did it but I expect it happened overnight.
12/02/2012 - 10pm - A melanistic Pale Brindled Beauty was on the kitchen window. Despite having trapped over 250 species in the garden over a couple of years it was a first.
06/02/2012 - Came across a 'loveliness of Ladybirds' this morning. 7 Harlequin Ladybirds to be precise, hibernating by a window inside the house. 4 were of the common colour variant, one was similar but had an orange ground colour and there were 2 of the dark variant with black wing casings plus a few red spots.
14/11/2011 - 4 Harlequin Ladybirds in varying colour variants trying to get into my house to hibernate today. Suprising numbers of inverts still on the wing at the moment with it being so warm.
28/10/2011 - 2 Red Admirals today in the area. One nectaring on Ivy still in the late autumn warmth of the sun and another seen in the sheep fields powering on south, migration in action from a butterfly!
