Not a bad week for wildlife

[Jez]

last week I must have seen 12 Holly Blues on the wing, i have never seen so many in my time, must be a good year for them?!?, Orange tips and a Comma in the garden. At work Yellow Hammers a plenty. The Swallows are doing well besides one pair who's nest has been stolen by a Collared dove , and in the water tower out in the fields where we grow fruit, veg, herbs and cut flowers we have a breeding pair of kestrels making my lunch breaks very entertaining out in the sunshine! I spotted what i thought was a discarded tail of a Slow Worm only to find that it was a millipede (nice defensive disguise). Red and black lady birds in the grass and speckled woods flying about. I had a mouse no more than a foot away from my feet eating on moss. The Mallards in the garden have started to eat out of my hand and for the last couple of nights I have been out in the garden feeding our returning Hedgehog! If i see her tonight I'll go out and give her a look over for tics and bugs!

So all in all not a bad week for wildlife. Thought i'd share it with you!

Cheers- Jez

[NickCantle]

Cheers for sharing Jezza

Well, down here in Surrey we've had it too! I've been out and about to various places over the last week due to the nice weather and I've seen a Grass Snake, plenty of Common Lizards, cardinal beetles, hoverflies (many varieties), saw my first orange ladybird and what a beauty she was, seen two spot, ten spot, eleven spot and Harlequin ladybirds. We've got a resident Jay at Uni who tends to flirt with the Magpies and my Blue Tit and Long Tailed Tits have been posing in their usual haunts. As for the Flora, I've seen loads of Wood Anemone, Wild Garlic, Forget-me-nots, Green Alkanet, all sorts of Hellebores and the dandelions are out in force as always! I saw an Azure Damselfly, Speckled Wood, Grizzled Skipper, Cabbage White, Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock

I'm leaving Uni in a week today, so I should be at home reporting the differences in wildlife in Norfolk

So as for the wildlife, we're doing well down here

Nick

[Kayleigh]

I have been watching newts laying eggs in the pond more and more frogs of all sizes coming to the pond everyday. The toadpoles are growing fast. The tadpoles in the barrel are nearly ready for meat so I went to the local fish centre and got some dried bloodworms to fed them on. I have also planted my little plot for the summer with cottage garden plants and covered it with bark chippings. Now I can sit back with glass of wine and wait for the insects to arrive.

[Rosiew]

Its been a good week for me too

Saw the bottlenose dolphins off Chanonery Point over on the Black Isle north of Inverness

First lot of mallard ducklings on the Loch ... 7 yellow and 6 brown ones ... so cute

hundreds of tadpoles all around the edge of the Loch

my first orange tip butterfly in my garden

a pair of greenfinch .... coaltits ... chaffinch ... songthrush .blackbird ..bluetits ... siskins all feeding in my garden