Autumn colour

This ash tree, like many here, turned golden this Autumn. 2 days after I took this photo we had a windy night and all the ashes were bare. Moral of the story: always take a pic. when you can

Autumn

I haven't written since the beginning of September, mostly because the computer has been in decline, finally suffering a mental breakdown, however, we discovered it was still under guarantee so recently it has been back to the manufacturer for a lobotomy. So far so good and no frankinsteinish moments yet.

Continuing where I left off:~ we did have one moment of heartbreak, when one wednesday morning I found 2 of our tawny owls run over within a quarter of a mile of each other.
For ages we had had the owls calling to each other across the yard. I am assuming it was two youngsters that got squashed, but it was horribly quiet for about a week, with just the female pitifully toowitting. Then a male started to call and the conversations struck up again. What made both owls be on the road that night is a mystery as there was no change in the weather.

Happier news about the butterflies and dragonflies. I finally saw 2 speckled woods, 3 red admirals and more painted ladies late in September and into October. The dragonflies were late, but September and even late October saw Southern Hawkers patrolling near the pool. It was only the change to more rain than fine that brought most of the insects to a halt.

The dry Autumn brought a long and colourful season, though I wouldn't rate it as exceptional in that the trees dragged on with their leaves so that individual species were good but the overall effect not as spectacular as some years. It has, though, been a wonderful year for fungi, except the one I really want, field mushroooms! I haven't seen one. Now of course, since the beginning of November the rain has arrived and with it a certain lack of enthusiasm to do too much wildlife hunting.

The last week has seen several flocks of starlings, with one popping in on the patch at the back of the house. The ground was nose to tail starling all a chatter. They were incredibly busy finding something to eat and then were gone as suddenly as they'd arrived. Do they send a scout ahead to look for good feeding stations because there wasn't even the odd one about before. I have also noticed small flocks of little birds passing overhead so I guess that winter is not far away.

Tree stump

These are growing on an old oak tree stump. The tree was killed by lightning many years ago. The mosses, plants and jagged old wood make wonderful landscapes in miniature.

Bramble

Bramble leaf in finest Autumn colour.

Poppy

Poppy Fairy Wings

Fly

Here's looking at you!

Soldier beetle

Soldier Beetle on hogweed

Hoverfly

Hoverfly on hogweed

Butterflies, lousy weather and other stuff!

Yet again it's been ages since I blogged. Not a case of not getting round to it but more weather stopping the nature watch and up to date photographs, that's my excuse anyway! Could have blogged before, but nice to have the witterings softened with a picture!

Picture to the left is of an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar taken today, 5/9/09, feeding on willowherb. I think it's being affected by our autumnal weather as it's very sloth like in its behaviour and on the same leaf as yesterday. I have been watching out for Privet and Convolvulus Hawkmoth to no avail but for some reason did not expect to find this one.

Considering the lousy Summer we've had I am surprised at the quantity of butterflies that have managed to survive, though whether we will have so many next year will be interesting to see as I'm sure last year's late sunshine helped. Not much evidence of the weather stringing many good days together here, though we can but hope! We, and other farmers around, still have bales of hay waiting to be lugged in, if ever. To date I have recorded 11 different butterflies on the farm this year with Tortoiseshells and Peacocks being conspicuous by their low numbers. I have yet to record Red Admiral, Comma and Speckled Wood here this year yet we have had good numbers of Common Skipper and Small Copper and we have had days when the fields have been awash with Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper. For a few glorious days a haze of Green Veined White fluttered above our top field. As for the Painted Ladies, what happened to them? Having reported the seething mass of caterpillars I hoped to be dazzled by lots of beautiful newly painted ladies yet have only seen a poor average. Shiny, new Ringlet were about for less than a week and I have not seen one since. The verdict, enjoy them while you can! As for photographing butterflies, my best advice is don't take the dog with you! I have spent several hours stalking butterflies and other insects and even waited by strategic flowers such as Thistles and Hardheads only to have "help" arrive at the crucial moment.

I've mentioned before about the fantastic insect population here but I have never seen such a variety of hoverflies and bumblebees as we've had this year. We do have lots of wildflowers in the meadows and lots of umbels such as angelica, but every flower I've looked at is alive with insects. Sadly and more to the point, worryingly, the one insect hardly seen is honey bees.

At the beginning of August we finally found an effective overflow system for the long undammed pool. I was privately betting that within a week we'd see dragonflies over it and to my joy I was proved right. Not lots but hopefully next year there will be more. It totally fascinates me the way pondlife will appear from nowhere.

Many people reported the departure of their Swifts in early August, we were no exception, and it has been very quiet without their screams about the place, though one can't blame them for departing to sunnier places early! Surprisingly, it appears to have been a good year for the Swallows and House Martins. I know the Swallows have raised two broods. The other evening the air was full of whirling, chattering birds. It was lovely to see considering the poor number that returned in the Spring. Depressingly, though, they have started to gather and it will be two weeks, if we are lucky, before we say goodbye to them for this year.

On the subject of orchids yet again! Recently the local paper had an article about a local farmer who reckoned it was a fantastic year for orchids. He put his thriving population of heath spotteds down to close grazing by cattle. Interesting seeing as I'm saying the opposite, however, he doesn't say when those particular areas are grazed. Cutting for hay and close grazing equals the same thing if the timing is right.

Autumn has undoubtedly arrived here on the Welsh Borders. The hazels are definitely yellower than a couple of weeks ago and the oaks have the odd coloured leaf amongst the others. I have never seen a heavier crop of hazel nuts than this year but there'll be none for us as the squirrels have already totally demolished them. Bad luck for the dormice in the adjoining wood. The elderberries, although not truly ripe, are also being devoured already. It seems that it is quite a good blackberry year but their flavour reflects the weather. I have been picking the odd handful for a month now but yesterday was the first real harvest, so I'm looking forward to the crumble! It is a fantastic sloe and damson year so the gin is being purchased in readiness!

In the vegetable garden it has been a season of mixed fortunes. Peas, courgettes and french beans have done well as have sweet peas but potatoes have suffered badly from blight and the crop has been light because the foliage had to be cut off, though one maincrop variety, Sarpo Mira, has proved just how blight resistant it is and it is still thriving.

More orchids

It's been a month since I last wrote. In that time the wagtails and swallows have fledged, and it would seem that Summer has been and gone. As I look at the hedges this week the sloes and hazel nuts are filling out and it feels like we are rocketing towards Autumn.


We still have most of our hay to cut, the only good thing to be said for that is that the orchids are beginning to ripen their seed and Pete may not have to weave between the marker canes when he mows the fields. The helleborine on the left is at the bottom of a hazel hedge so is safe, in theory. This year wasps are paying great attention to the plant so I looked up to see what were the usual pollinators. Yep, wasps! Helleborines are not uncommon around here yet I have never seen wasps on them before. Although I didn't notice at the time, the photo, of which this is a detail, also shows a shield bug on a flower.

My latest find here in the flower line is tufted vetch. Our top field has a large patch in the field and several clumps in the hedges. As the clumps are well established I can't work out how I've missed them in previous years. Ragged Robin and Devils Bit Scabious have also popped up in some previously unrecorded spots. Also, harping back to my rant about old flora and diversity there are several plants of white flowered Spear Thistle.

Re thistles: One field belonging to our neighbour is covered in creeping thistle. A couple of weeks ago I could see a large patch on one side of the field looked odd, so went to investigate. Closer inspection found a seething mass of Painted Lady caterpillars on the march. They had totally stripped the foliage from the thistles and the stems and surrounding grass were black with them. Sadly, since then we've had nothing but rain so I suspect my dreams of myriads of newly painted ladies won't come true. It is amazing, despite all this horrible weather, the minute the sun shines butterflies are on the wing, though where they find dry flowers to drink from I don't know. What is interesting, because this field is so thistled one can see the extent of a plant by the colour variations in the flowers. One huge patch appears to only be two plants.

I have been keeping tabs on a long eared bat that has been roosting in the granary. 2 days ago I found its mummified body on the floor below its roost. Comparitively, its ears must be bigger than those of an elephant. Obviously, it could have died for any number of reasons but its death has coincided with days of torrential storms and I can't help thinking that's probably the reason. There is also a wasps' nest in the granary and it has grown steadily and been kept so even. I never fail to marvel at their engineering, but equally I wonder why they build where we are in conflict with them.



The kitchen garden has finally begun to repay earlier efforts and I have started to sell my first veg, though I am rapidly beginning to wonder just how we will ever really make it profitable when we live surrounded by so much wildlife. My latest tribulations are something eating unripe tomatoes in the polytunnel - mice I think - and yesterday I found bunches of green blueberries lying beneath the plants - blackbirds? I believe that gardening keeps you humble because nature always gets the upper hand but here it does drive one to bad language!

orchids

The jury is now out on the new patch of orchids. Some look like heath spotted others like common spotted. Anyway, this patch much more variable than the earlier ones in other field.

When went to photograph them today field full of bugs, meadow browns and cuckoo spit. What a year for it, think the cuckoos have been doing too much spitting and not enough cuckooing! Only heard the cuckoo passing through this year, which is better than last year when I never heard it at all. I never expected that one day I'd miss their irritating cuckooing.

hay meadow

Last night our visitors found more orchids in a different field. These appear to be Common Spotted rather than Heath Spotted, which is odd as I would have thought that where they are growing is more acid than where the Heath Spotted are. I have also noticed Ragged Robin dotted here and there. It is appearing well away, and uphill, from its original site in a boggy patch by the stream. It is fascinating to see how the flora is responding to the change in management from summer grazing to hay meadow.

Like many places we have had lots of Painted Lady butterflies this year, and now the Meadow Browns are just beginning to appear, just in time for the thistles which are coming to bud. I spent quite a while recently trying to creep up on Painted Ladies, (insect variety), in an attempt to get a picture. How jumpy they are, so no pics!

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