Day 301 #365DaysWild ‘Garden of ten ponds’ #2 Continuing my 'series' on our garden ponds... This is a small pond in the woodland garden made from a recycled mini-vegetable bed reclaimed from a skip. Enjoyed by birds and small mammals. Believe it or not, my hope is for rat-tailed maggots in it this summer. Rat-tailed maggots love the gunk in ponds. On maturity, they will join the rest of the garden hover-fly population ..read more

Pipistrelle bat hiding in the folds of a garden parasol. Day 300 #365DaysWild I’ve been looking forward to today for two weeks!! Like a small boy on Christmas morning! Today’s the day when we open up the bar detectors and discover what data is hidden inside! And I wasn’t disappointed!! Notts Bat Group bat detector SD cards were so loaded with data from the garden that there was only enough room for eight out of the fourteen days active. So much so that John had to take the cards away for analysis. Initially we saw lots of common pipistrelle and soprano pipistrelle sonogram activity ..read more

Day 298 #365DaysWild Our first night for months with suitable weather for months! Lunar marbled brown Larval food Pedunculate oak Coxcomb prominent Larval food Broadleaves trees A month early ..? Brindled beauty  Larval food Silver birch, Common lime, Pedunculate oak Hebrew character  Larval food Stinging nettle, Silver birch, Common lime, Pedunculate oak Muslin moth Larval food Broad-leaved dock, Red dead nettle Grey birch Larval food Silver birch ‘..a confined distribution in Nottinghamshire..’ Eakring Birds ..read more

Day 297 #365DayWild Crab apple ‘Evereste’ in glorious bloom now.  A small crab apple whose size is easily managed by pruning in August. First admired at RHS Harlow Carr Gardens near Harrogate, Yorks. A stellar performer.  Last year, due to frost, completely failed to crop - in common with our apples, other crabs and fig.  But in 2022, the abundant fruits attracted many noisy and hungry fieldfares.  Flower buds now about to break.  Soon it will be full of nectaring pollinators. A boon for wildlife ..read more

Day 296 #365DaysWild My first whitethroat’s scratchy bursts of song on the lane this morning. Welcome back!! In the garden chiffchaff and blackcap continue to be joined by singing willow warbler. It would be quite exceptional for willow warblers to breed in the garden so I won’t build my hopes up. And, at last, a butterfly day! Comma, peacock, small white and orange tip on the wing. The very warm temperatures and dry weather gave perfect conditions for nectaring and basking. Two peacocks in the meadow - and feisty too. One saw-off a big queen bumble bee as we watched. A small white ..read more

Day 295 #365DaysWild Early Grey moth. Not attracted to our moth light but drawn to our faulty garage wall light where it waited this morning. Early by name and nature. One of our earliest moths of the season. Grey suggests full or bland- but neither with delicate patterning, especially on a ‘crisp’, newly-emerged individual. Its larval food plants is honeysuckle of which we have plenty. There were no honeysuckle plants in the garden when we arrived. We’d gathered juicy red seeds from the native honeysuckle that was fruiting by the footpath near Butlers Hill tram stop - then grew the ..read more

emerging .. Day 294 #365DaysWild Rain greeted me this morning just as it had closed yesterday. We are in the wettest period on record. With temperatures higher than ever recorded. Atmospheric pollution is now 421.9 parts per million (ppm). The safe level is deemed 350ppm. The pre-industrial average was 280ppm. Discussion of climate change and its' impacts seems perfunctory at best. There are still deniers. It is difficult not to feel bleak for now and for the generations that follow. The government is broken, with apparently every service on its knees. Here, Dead mans fingers ..read more

Day 293 #365DaysWild That rare thing this spring - brief sun. Busy bees in the meadow. On south-facing ground. Thinnest of soil. A sparse sward already showing seedling yellow rattle. In low meandering flight in the company of others of her species. Few obvious excavations. These are mining bees -  Orange-tailed mining bees. Sometimes called the Early mining bee. Here on dandelion flower. Known as short-tongued bees, they prefer simple flowers. Each fertilised female will burrow into the sandy soil and lay her eggs. They are not colonial but do congregate together . They produce ..read more

Day 291 #365DaysWild Scooting about. High speed and nimble. Dark-edged bee flies. Distinctive. Not only in flight but in appearance too. An extended proboscis gives it access to pollen and nectar in deep-trumpeted flowers. We’ve certainly seen an increase in abundance over recent years. Could that be our influence as we’ve now got plenty of cowslips, primroses and pulmonaria?  Or could it be part of a wider increase in population? Whatever the reason, I don’t tire of watching them. Let’s all pause for nature ..read more

Day 291 #365DaysWild Extended family Saturday night. A meal for nine. A lot of grub to prepare and for them to eat. Young people, big appetites. And loud music too. But a 21st birthday so it must be done. The young people walked the garden at dusk. ‘Living the dream’ one said on return. And that’s how we feel. But we also know that our lives may be seen as some kind of permanent community payback. Never ending hard graft. This week is a good example. The gravel drive for our two homes has compacted and thinned. We put down the edging and levelled and terramed and rolled and raked in ..read more