Winter sun

Frosty all day every day for the last few days, I don't mind though as its brighter and dusk doesn't seem to come so early and we've had some lovely sunsets. The ice crystals coat everything like white winter flowers, glinting in the sun and drifting off in the slightest breeze, their delicacy reminding me of the snowdrops to come. Long-tailed Tits have started visiting the feeders and the birds have stripped all the Holly berries already. On these frosty mornings the sheep have taken to sunbathing on the lane in any patches of sunlight they can find, crowded together like holidaymakers on the beach. Missed the meteorites last night - too cloudy.

Even weak winter sun is very welcome

Ice crystals on fallen leaves

Fake Snowdrops?

So much frost it looks like snow

Sunset

Autumn days

An Alder tree that was interfering with our power line had to come down last week, bit sad but on the other hand it'll provide some useful firewood when its dried out. The stump and cut wood are a rich fiery red and the branches were just starting to form catkins - still at that artificial plastic looking stage.
We have up to a dozen Coal Tits at a time coming for the sunflower seeds we put out. They are generally very well behaved birds compared  to the squabbly Blue and Great Tits, even queuing for the feeders on top of the open shed door.
We have had some clear cold nights that have given us excellent views of the Milky Way on our evening walks with Bramble and we have seen plenty of shooting stars (or is it sadly space junk).
The shooting season has now started and we no longer have a garden full of pheasants as their numbers have been thinned out. We do still have a couple of white pheasants though - apparently you have to pay a premium to shoot one.

Very handsome Pheasant that visits the garden.

Pretty but a bit weedy compared to usual pheasants.

Lots of acorns this year so lots of Jays about.

This lovely velvety fungus was nestled at the bottom of a Beech tree.

Alder stump.

Autumn colours and White pheasant.

Coal Tits and Great Tits.

Autumns here

Autumn seems to be very gradual this year with the trees slowly getting their  tawny gold and russet red shades. The ground is completely waterlogged here, in the morning when the sun rises and heats up the ground a bank of mist rolls down the hill behind us engulfing the house and all we can see are the tops of the trees silhouetted against the sky. Just as soon as its here its gone as the day warms up, and then we are out walking Bramble who thinks its a great game chasing the Pheasants. The Pheasants are becoming a real pain in the garden they love all Brassicas and have decimated my cabbages and Brussel Sprouts. I have covered all my winter salads with cloches and fleece to keep them off except this is now providing shelter for lots of slugs. I just pick the slugs off and throw them on the compost heap where they can do something useful. The Squirrels know we keep the bird food in the shed and have gnawed there way through the door, we have had to lock everything away but they still go in just in case we've left anything out. I could go off wildlife. The oak trees behind the house are getting lots of fat acorns that the Jays will love - this is the first time in about three years that I've found any acorns - maybe Oaks love wet weather!

Summers Evening

Had a power cut yesterday from early afternoon till 3.50am so instead of watching telly we sat outside, reading by candlelight after dusk. Lots of moths, midges and bats and has made us definitely want to watch much less telly at least while its still warm. The swallows are gathering nest material so they must be planning a second brood, they have already raised five young. We had an evening walk and the swallows were feeding in a large group over the newly mown hay. Wondered if most of them were teenagers staying out late. I proved a magnet for Cleg flies that were landing on my chenille sweater and sticking their probosis through, mistaking me for a furry animal, though painfully, they eventually twigged to go for the bald bits. Our bird feeders have unfortunately attracted a rat, which the gamekeeper is going to come and trap. No one here believes us but it has been attacking the Grey Squirrels and driving them off. There is some footage of it on Youtube. Quite impressed.

Rat

Light Emerald

Antler Moth

Barred Straw

Meadow Brown

Pink Grasshoppers and Osprey

Went up to Stocks Reservoir yesterday afternoon. Ben told us there had been sightings of an Osprey near the second hide. Drove round and there it was a white blob in the trees - we hadn't brought any binoculars. Luckily some lovely birders turned up and set up their scope and we got some fantastic views of a bird I've hoped to see here for a long time. Lets hope it comes back to nest next year. Walking round the reservoir we found a lovely pink grasshopper and a crab spider eating another grasshopper. There were also lots of jet black moths,  flying around and Ben had also seen some with yellow tails (Red-necked Footmen?) There were plenty of Lacewings and we think we found some of their pale bluey green eggs on stalks laid on the undersides of leaves.

Female Xysticus cristatus

Chimney Sweeper ?

Lacewing Chrysopa perla

Slugs

There was a really annoying article in the Daily Mail yesterday about slugs. I garden, slugs are a pain, but to say slugs have no redeeming features is silly. All I can say is dog poo (what else would eat it), roadkill and fungus. They moaned about organic slug pellets, well Growing success ones work for me and beer traps, saying rain dilutes the beer. I have some lidded ones from the organic gardening catalogue and they work fine. I enjoy hunting out the slugs and pinging them with my trowel into the adjacent wood, I like to think I provide a sort of Alton Towers experience for slugs, turning them into thrill junkies slowly making their way back, saying  "Do it again, do it again !" When I had a compost bin I used to gather up the slugs and snails and put them in, especially any snails I trod on. I ended  up with a bin full of lovely compost and some very odd patchwork snails.

9/06/12

A grey and drizzly day in the garden. A pair of Red Legged Partridges have been coming for the seed we put out behind the house, sheltering together under a pile of scaffolding or sitting on the fence. Today theres only one - have they had a lovers tiff or far more likely has a fox taken one in the night.  Feel sorry for the one left behind, is it grieving or full of fear without another pair of eyes on the lookout for danger. We now have three squirrels visiting the garden, scaring off the groundfeeding songbirds. If I open the door to shoo them off they just tripod, paws held pensively by their chests, staring at me like teenagers claiming they "weren't doing nothing". One comically keeps trying to climb a holly bush to get at the fatball feeder, but the branches are too spindly to support its weight. 10/06/12 Unfortunately the Redatart nest has failed, the wet weather yesterday must have been the last straw for them. We saw the male make several visits with food, go into the nest but come out again wtih the food still in his beak. We've looked into the wall and think we can see dead chicks. Hope they try again.

The pair of Partridges

No idea but it was on a nettle.

At last a Hoverfly !