Wednesday 11 December 2013

The crows gather at sunset in the bare trees behind the house, mainly in pairs. Squabbles break out as a bid is made for someone elses partner, then all fly off at once to the roost for the night. We have been very glad to see the Long tailed tits back in the garden after the dreadful storm last week and only a few old or diseased trees came down or lost large branches.
There are still active insects around, a little bit of late afternoon sunshine brings tiny gnats out to dance in the garden and driving home the headlights often catch pale moths in their beams. We put the moth trap out last night  and caught 5 Mottled Umbers in a variety of forms. The males fly from October through to January looking for the flightless females who crawl onto the trunks of deciduous trees after dark.