early august abundance
August. Abundance.
I disturb a slow worm as I check the finished compost in another of the bays. And a nest of wriggling, naked, pink, baby mice. I reconstruct their soft hay nest and give it an extra carpet roof.
Heavy rains load the soil. I push barrow after barrow of wood chippings to beds and paths. Ponds full. Goldfish have proliferated in the Dragonfly pond.
The second brood of house sparrows has fledged from the box above the kitchen door. I watched the male bird taking expensive mealworms to the nest entrance where the young called, then returning with bill still full. He was attempting to draw them out. He must have succeeded as the box was quiet the following day. By night the tawny owls aren't quiet. Were there little owls calling from next doors garden? During the day, a young buzzard circles, mewing at its' parent. The water feature Roger has created at the end of the stumpery continues to be a popular public baths for birds. Blackcaps, tits, jays, thrushes flutter in the trickling water. The two gangly pheasant poults hunt moths in the unsown sections of the lawn.
Such a year for butterflies. Fifteen species in the garden in a day. On a flowering marjoram our first small copper of the season: a tiny, sharply-defined orange, black and white jewel. A brilliant blue holly blue and a floppy big yellow brimstone. The fierceness of the heat during this hottest-summer-on-record triggered aestivation - early hibernation- in some of the peacock butterflies; their dark sharks fins hanging in the hen house roof. A surge of migrating painted lady butterflies join the red admirals and peacocks on the crowded buddleias. The caterpillars of small white butterflies ravage calabrese leaves in the vegetable garden. And then a Silver-washed fritillary fritillary! New to the garden. Slugging it out with a comma and making that seventeen species in two days.
Busy bumblebees on the hollihocks.
The flat flowering heads of tall fennel are helipads for many flies and beetles. A reminder of the inter-connectedness of wildlife and that many more insects than bees are pollinators.
Grey squirrels discard half-chewed pine cones from above.
The slugs are huge! A giant one crawls up the outside of the living room window leaving a thick slime trail. The ban on toxic metaldehyde slug pellets has been overturned. Our water companies cannot remove metaldehyde from drinking water and had advocated alternatives. Slow worms can consume thirty slugs in a day.
Our meadow looks a mess. I've taken out the seeding dock, topped some of the nettles and mugwort for fear they'll smother everything else but know that I must resist the tidiness gene. 1,400 species of invertebrate feed on the leaves, stems and roots of native wild grassland flowers. Two field scabious plants are flowering in the orchard - they must have come from seed I've scattered.
There is no overnight rain forecast and so the moth light is set up beneath the limes. Yellow underwings crash in, skittish and numerous. 52 dun-bar moths. 322 macro-moths of 46 species including our first record of least yellow underwing. Pipistrelle bats low overhead.
We take a circuit around Georges pond, me old dad and me. He's distressed. We watch dragonflies in flight and at rest. Somewhere among the pond vegetation must be the husks that are the unrecognisable discarded exuviae left by the handsome dragonflies as they emerge from their life beneath water. Although badly affected by dementia, there is more to dad than his exuviae. He remains recognisably the kind, considerate, caring human being he has always been.
We're busy preparing the garden for a visit of members of the Wildlife Trust and work late on many nights. Squares of my cinnamon and plum wholemeal sponge with muesli crumble topping (made in anticipation of the visit) may well be incorporated into the construction of the new garage. It is understood that nightjars practice polyandry - where a female has several male partners. I suggest this to Jill as an option.
Courgettes, green beans, beetroot, calabrese, spring onions, salad leaves, leeks, carrots ... on and on. Large potatoes. 50kgs (over 8 stones) of vegetables taken since March. All organic, no-dig. Empty shopping bags on the return from the supermarkets. I was once described as a 'good-lifer' by the Killarney folks who live nearby. Now the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), states that it will be impossible to keep global temperatures at safe levels unless there is also a transformation in the way the world produces food and manages land. To redress the balance between man and nature we need to change policy to make it easier for people to grow their own organic food.
Another big compost bay layered up with its' greens and browns accelerates to 74C within two days..
Another big compost bay layered up with its' greens and browns accelerates to 74C within two days..
I disturb a slow worm as I check the finished compost in another of the bays. And a nest of wriggling, naked, pink, baby mice. I reconstruct their soft hay nest and give it an extra carpet roof.
Heavy rains load the soil. I push barrow after barrow of wood chippings to beds and paths. Ponds full. Goldfish have proliferated in the Dragonfly pond.
 |
| flowering fennel |
The second brood of house sparrows has fledged from the box above the kitchen door. I watched the male bird taking expensive mealworms to the nest entrance where the young called, then returning with bill still full. He was attempting to draw them out. He must have succeeded as the box was quiet the following day. By night the tawny owls aren't quiet. Were there little owls calling from next doors garden? During the day, a young buzzard circles, mewing at its' parent. The water feature Roger has created at the end of the stumpery continues to be a popular public baths for birds. Blackcaps, tits, jays, thrushes flutter in the trickling water. The two gangly pheasant poults hunt moths in the unsown sections of the lawn.
 |
| Silver-washed fritillary with peacock on buddleia |
Such a year for butterflies. Fifteen species in the garden in a day. On a flowering marjoram our first small copper of the season: a tiny, sharply-defined orange, black and white jewel. A brilliant blue holly blue and a floppy big yellow brimstone. The fierceness of the heat during this hottest-summer-on-record triggered aestivation - early hibernation- in some of the peacock butterflies; their dark sharks fins hanging in the hen house roof. A surge of migrating painted lady butterflies join the red admirals and peacocks on the crowded buddleias. The caterpillars of small white butterflies ravage calabrese leaves in the vegetable garden. And then a Silver-washed fritillary fritillary! New to the garden. Slugging it out with a comma and making that seventeen species in two days.
Busy bumblebees on the hollihocks.
The flat flowering heads of tall fennel are helipads for many flies and beetles. A reminder of the inter-connectedness of wildlife and that many more insects than bees are pollinators.
Grey squirrels discard half-chewed pine cones from above.
The slugs are huge! A giant one crawls up the outside of the living room window leaving a thick slime trail. The ban on toxic metaldehyde slug pellets has been overturned. Our water companies cannot remove metaldehyde from drinking water and had advocated alternatives. Slow worms can consume thirty slugs in a day.
Our meadow looks a mess. I've taken out the seeding dock, topped some of the nettles and mugwort for fear they'll smother everything else but know that I must resist the tidiness gene. 1,400 species of invertebrate feed on the leaves, stems and roots of native wild grassland flowers. Two field scabious plants are flowering in the orchard - they must have come from seed I've scattered.
There is no overnight rain forecast and so the moth light is set up beneath the limes. Yellow underwings crash in, skittish and numerous. 52 dun-bar moths. 322 macro-moths of 46 species including our first record of least yellow underwing. Pipistrelle bats low overhead.
We take a circuit around Georges pond, me old dad and me. He's distressed. We watch dragonflies in flight and at rest. Somewhere among the pond vegetation must be the husks that are the unrecognisable discarded exuviae left by the handsome dragonflies as they emerge from their life beneath water. Although badly affected by dementia, there is more to dad than his exuviae. He remains recognisably the kind, considerate, caring human being he has always been.
We're busy preparing the garden for a visit of members of the Wildlife Trust and work late on many nights. Squares of my cinnamon and plum wholemeal sponge with muesli crumble topping (made in anticipation of the visit) may well be incorporated into the construction of the new garage. It is understood that nightjars practice polyandry - where a female has several male partners. I suggest this to Jill as an option.
No comments:
Post a Comment