Mother and Junior

Although I have seen them several times, the roe deer and her fawn have been avoiding the camera. However, the windfall apples have started to fall from the tree and they are proving to be too much temptation. Still not a very good shot, but they are easily spooked.

Junior still has his/her spots.

Trouble with Magpies

A family of magpies (at least 5 of them) are causing real trouble at the bird feeder. They have taken to hanging on the feeder and are particularly partial to fat balls. They are not a bird that I like and they are chasing all the little birds away. I will stop putting out fat balls for a while to see if they will go and feed somewhere else.

Great year for butterflies

What a great year this has been for butterflies. Today was warm and sunny and the bramble bushes along the garden fence were alive with butterflies - dozens of them, mostly Gatekeepers (sometimes called Hedge Brown) and Ringlets.

This is the first time I have seen Ringlets in the garden, but I find them very difficult to identify without getting a photo. That is difficult in itself because they don't keep still for long.

Two new moths this week

This week I have found 2 very pretty moths that I have not seen before, both emeralds.

They are attracted to the windows when the light is on and the curtains open. The Light Emerald has a very distinctive shape and colour and has a tiny red dot on the tip of each wing.

The Large Emerald was very bright green. I believe that the colour fades very quickly so I was lucky see to both of them while they were so colourful.

The Grasshopper Season

Every year around this time for a period of about 2 weeks, we seem to have a plague of grasshoppers. They hop into the house both upstairs and downstairs and when we pick them up and put them outside, they come straight back in again. They don't cause a problem, but I would love to know what attracts them inside.

I am not sure which kind of grasshopper this is - a Meadow Grasshopper, perhaps?

Wild Onion

Each year this plant grows in the same spot. But, each year, it gets cut down before flowering, so I have not been able to identify it until now.

It is Wild Onion - allium vineale, sometimes called Crow Garlic.

The stems are about 80cm high and they are hollow with a distinct onion smell when broken.

Slender St John's Wort

Another new wild flower that I have not found in the garden before today, Slender St John's Wort - Hypericum pulchrum.

It was the reddish stems that helped to identify it. And, looking closely, there are black dots along the edges of the petals.