Species lists

On the first weekend of June, we surveyed flowers in the Ugborough burial ground and Moorhaven cemetery. There was a considerably wider range at Moorhaven, as the hedges, oak tree, wall and gravel path provide a series of micro-habitats appealing to different species. At Ugborough on 6th June 2021: bindweed sp. hedge bedstraw bracken hogweed…

Sunshine at last

A week with some sunshine has made a difference. There isn’t a bigger variety of flowers yet but it certainly looks more meadow like. It was nice to see some wildlife enjoying the flowers already, including a 14-spot ladybird and a few garden chafers. A wild shady patch under the trees in the formal garden,…

Wild patch in winter

The wild patch looks quite bare but there is plenty to see on close inspection.   How it will look in May Elsewhere, in the iris bed I made in the autumn, a tiny, beautiful and rather unseasonal sprig of common ramping fumitory

A break in the storm

I went out in a patch of sunshine to see how Moorhaven was faring after the rain and wind. Snug bugs… Rusty-back ferns and barren strawberry growing in cracks in the wall, and shepherd’s purse on the path above the croquet lawn.

Wild patch

A couple of years ago we marked out a small patch of lawn, strimmed it and sprinkled yellow rattle seeds to keep the grass in check. Here’s how it is getting along. Flowering now: prickly sowthistle, herb robert, scarlet pimpernel, ribwort plantain, yellow rattle, cornsalad, common mouse-ear, red campion, common field speedwell, cleavers, wall speedwell,…

November

Teasel seedlings sprouting before they reach the ground: In the vegetable patch, there is a clump of field forget-me-not. Along Bittaford Road: Traveller’s joy

Hummingbird hawkmoth

There was a hummingbird hawkmoth right outside our back door this afternoon. Amazing how it hovered still enough to take a fairly crisp photo, with the wings just a blur.

Southern hawker

A brilliant green dragonfly cruising over the pond – a southern hawker. She was perfectly camouflaged (top picture) in dappled shade while depositing her eggs. There was also a very pretty marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) on flowers at the edge of the pond. This is one of few species of flies that can crush and eat…

Plymouth

A lovely selection of flowers at Mount Wise Redoubt, a part of Plymouth I hadn’t seen before. Many bushes of spiny restharrow (because its tough stems would stop or ‘arrest’ a harrow), with teasels, knapweed and field scabious. I think the knapweed is lesser knapweed but a less common variant that has divided petals like…

Silver-washed fritillary

A beautiful and large butterfly in the garden yesterday. A silver-washed fritillary, according to the lovely people at iSpot Nature. Although it is the most common fritillary, populations are struggling because its favourite habitat of woodland glades has declined drastically since the 1960s, in part because deciduous woodland has been replaced by conifer plantation and in…

Garden wildlife

Lucy found some eggs on a bay leaf. After a night in the kitchen, they had hatched into tiny beetles, each only a millimetre or two long. They are common green shield bugs apparently. A gold-ringed dragonfly by the pond, and a white plume moth. Ringlet butterfly

Ragged robin

A single flower of ragged robin has appeared in the boggy patch at the edge of the pond. I had scattered some seeds there from ragged robin in mum and dad’s field. I’m pleased I restrained myself from pulling up the seedlings, which look like slightly twisted willowherb.