October Butterfly

A red admiral butterfly making the most of the valerian flowers in the October sunshine. After a cold spring there seemed to be few butterflies about in the summer. However, in the last few weeks there have been a few peacock, red admiral and painted lady butterflies in the garden.

Disappearing Gnomes

Over the last few days gnomes in the garden have gradually got buried in the snow. One is up to his neck and only the hat of his little mate is visible. Guess we'll know that the thaw is setting in when they start to reappear.

A robin photobombs the picture.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2018

For over 30 years now the RSPB has been conducting a garden birdwatch at this time of year. The public are invited to take part by watching and recording the birds they see in one hour in their garden or a park and sending in their results by post or on-line. My results for this year, taken yesterday, were:

Blackbird: 1
Dunnock: 1
Blue tit: 2
House sparrow: 6
Robin: 1
Starling: 2

The count was fairly representative of what we see most days. Other birds that we see regularly are coal tits, great tits, goldfinches and woodpigeons. Occasionally see bullfinches, long-tailed tits and collared doves.

Saltire in the Sky

Beautiful sunny day yesterday with a bright blue sky. Doing a bit of tidying in the garden, I looked up to the sky and there was a diagonal cross directly above me. It reminded me of the St Andrews Cross. Not sure if  it was caused by aircraft trails or natural cloud or a bit of both.

October Red Admirals

This has been a very poor year for butterflies, but with the milder weather this week there have been quite a lot of red admirals about.

 Red admirals seem particularly fond of the valerian flowers in my garden.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2017

For over 30 years now the RSPB has been conducting a garden birdwatch at this time of year. The public are invited to take part by watching and recording the birds they see in one hour in their garden or a park and sending in their results by post or on-line. My results for this year, taken last weekend, were:

Blackbird: 2

Dunnock: 2

Blue tit: 1

Great tit: 1

House sparrow: 3

Robin: 1

Starling: 2

Chaffinch: 1

Goldfinch: 1

The count was fairly representative of what we see most days. The only other birds that we see regularly are coal tits and woodpigeons. Occasionally see bullfinches long-tailed tits and collared doves.

A Far-Travelled Butterfly

 A painted lady butterfly enjoying the early October sunshine on valerian flowers in the garden. It is a migrant from North Africa. There is a programme on BBC 4 tonight about the extaordinary journey that it makes.

Wood Pigeon Nesting

There is a wood pigeon  nesting in the eucalyptus tree in our garden. The nest appears to be just a loose collection of twigs and looks extremely precarious.

A Pair of Siskins

A pair of siskins (Carduelis spinus) tucking into the nyger seeds in the garden. The male is on the right, female on the left. They are fairly rare visitors to our garden, not spotted them for several years. The nyger seed feeder primarily attracts goldfinches but the siskins here also seem to be enjoying them. They have a liking for conifer woodland but will also visit mixed woodland if alder and birch are present.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2016

For over 30 years now the RSPB has been conducting a garden birdwatch at this time of year. The public are invited to take part by watching and recording the birds they see in one hour in their garden or a park and sending in their results by post or on-line. My results for this year were:

Blackbird: 2
Dunnock: 1
Blue tit: 2
Coal tit: 1
Great tit: 1
House sparrow: 9
Robin: 2
Starling: 2
Jackdaw: 1
Chaffinch: 2
Goldfinch: 1

The count was fairly representative of what we see most days. Seems to be more sparrows about than in previous years. This month we have also seen bullfinches feeding on the seed heads of the St John's wort and honeysuckle.

A January Rose.

Surprising that this lovely rose is still blooming in the garden in mid January. Presumably it's a result of the mild weather in November and December.

Feverfew and Tansy

A plant of feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) which has self-seeded in my garden. Although I think it's quite an attractive flower feverfew is usually considered to be an invasive weed in gardens. In the past, however, it was a useful medicinal herb. Its common name "feverfew" derives from the Latin  febrifugia, meaning "fever reducer" although it is no longer considered useful for that purpose. Though its earliest medicinal use is unknown, it was documented in the first century  as an anti-inflammatory by the Greek herbalist physician Dioscorides.

Recently, feverfew has been used as a prophylactic treatment for migraine. After taking feverfew some people reported that their migraines gradually became less frequent and in a few cases stopped altogether and a trial published in 2005 reported on the efficacy of feverfew as a viable preventative treatment for migraine. Various preparations of feverfew are available commercially. Although they are rather bitter, it is also possible to use one or two fresh leaves of the plant taken in a salad or a sandwich on a daily basis. Feverfew is contraindicated in pregnancy and as with any herbal product professional advice should be taken as there may be toxic side effects.

Another flower of the same genus is tansy  (Tanacetum vulgare) which was growing close to the old railway track in Lower Largo. For many years, tansy was used as a medicinal herb despite its toxicity. A bitter tea made with tansy flowers has been used for centuries as an anthelmintic to treat parasitic worm infestations, and tansy cakes were traditionally eaten during Lent because it was believed that eating fish during Lent caused intestinal worms. However, it has no place in modern herbal medicine.

Inside the Large Cuckoo-pint Flower

I wanted to have a look inside the base of the cuckoo-pint hood but I'd only found a small patch in the wild, which I was reluctant to disturb. Instead, looked at a similar plant in my garden the large cuckoo-pint or Arum italicum. This plant has creamy-white veined green leaves and a yellow spadix rather than the usual purple brown of Arum maculatum.

Inside the base of the hood or spathe there is first a hair trap, then underneath that the male flowers, each a single stamen and at the very bottom the female flowers, each a single carpel. Midges, particularly the owl midge, are attracted to the plant by scent from the spadix. They get caught in the hair trap, and if carrying pollen, they then pollinate the flowers in the base of the hood. As the hair trap shrivels the midges escape from the spathe carrying pollen with them to cross-pollinate another plant. Later poisonous berries develop from the female flowers, ripening from green to red.

Cuckoo-Pint Leaves

Noticed a patch of the glossy, arrow-shaped leaves of cuckoo-pint or lords-and-ladies (Arum macrolatum) growing in the Serpentine Walk in Lower Largo. Later in the spring the unusual flower appears consisting of a pale green cowl-shaped hood called a spathe which partially encloses a purple-brown-topped flowering spike (the spadix). Later still poisonous berries develop, ripening from green to red.

In the garden have a related plant with attractively silver-marbled leaves (Arum italicum). 

Pronounced arrow-shaped leaves.

Looked back and  found a photo that I took in late August 2011 of the berries of cuckoo-pint growing beside the disused railway line track quite close to the old station car park in Lower Largo. By that time the leaves had withered leaving just the berries.

Big Garden Birdwatch 2015

For over 30 years now the RSPB has been conducting a garden birdwatch at this time of year. The public are invited to take part by watching and recording the birds they see in one hour in their garden or a park and sending in their results by post or on-line. My results for this year were:

Blackbird: 2
Dunnock: 2
Blue tit: 2
Coal tit: 1
Great tit: 2
House sparrow: 4
Robin: 2
Starling: 5
Wood pigeon: 1
Jackdaw: 2
Chaffinch: 1

The count was fairly representative of what we see most days (particularly in frosty weather). Goldfinches usually feature but were absent. This month we have also seen long-tailed tits and bullfinches.

Blue tits like the fat-filled coconut shell.

A Cold Snap Brings Bullfinches

Cold wintry weather always seems to attract bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) to the garden. Rarely see them the rest of the year. They seem particularly fond of honeysuckle berries and the seeds of St John's wort so I don't prune those bushes until the spring.

Male bullfinch feeding on honeysuckle berries.

An Orange Fungus

Noticed this orange fungus growing beneath the hedge  in the garden. Although it doesn't look quite like the pictures in the field guides or on line, I think it must be the orange peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia). It does indeed look like discarded orange peel. As here, it usually grows on damp bare soil and is common found in the autumn and early winter.

Cranesbill Seed Heads

A pretty cranesbill has seeded itself into the garden. It gets its name from the seed head which does indeed look like a bird's head with a long bill. However, I noticed that one or two  of the seed heads had split apart from the tip so that they looked like miniature candelabra.  There are five seeds arranged around the bottom of the fruit, each inside a tiny capsule connected by a thin filament that eventually dries out detaching from the fruit and springing upwards catapulting the seeds around the garden.

 First the flower, then the cranes bill and then the candelabra.

The seed head once it had split apart, catapulting the seed out of each tiny capsule.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

A hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) feeding on the valerian in my garden.

The first time I saw this moth, I could hardly believe my eyes. It was buzzing like a bee but looked like a tiny bird.

Hummingbird hawk-moths beat their wings at such speed they emit an audible hum. Their name is further derived from their similar feeding patterns to hummingbirds, collecting nectar with their long tongues. A day-flying moth active in both sunny and overcast conditions, hummingbird hawk-moths are strongly attracted to flowers with a plentiful supply of nectar such as honeysuckle, buddleia and as in these photos valerian. 

Difficult to get clear photos because their wings are just a blur.

There were also tortoiseshell butterflies feeding on the valerian, so although somewhat unruly and invasive, it seems a great plant for attracting moths butterflies and other insects such as hoverflies.

Solomon's Seal Sawfly Larvae

There is a small patch of Solomon's Seal in the garden and yesterday I noticed that some of the leaves had been stripped bare. I thought it was possibly slug or snail damage. However, today I noticed some unpleasant looking grey caterpillars on some of the remaining leaves. The internet soon provided the answer. They are not true caterpillars but the larvae of the Solomon's Seal Sawfly (Phymatocera aterrima).

Adult Solomon’s Seal Sawfly are black, 8-9mm long, and emerge in late spring at about the time the host plant is coming into flower. The female uses her saw-like ovipositor to insert rows of eggs into the leaf stems. The larvae initially make small elongate holes in the foliage (as in above photo), but as they increase in size their appetite also increases. The fully grown larvae go into the soil where they overwinter and pupate in the following spring. Defoliated plants survive but may produce reduced growth in the following year.