BADGERS AND BUTTERFLIES

The weather and temperatures have picked up this month, but not to heatwave levels – and certainly not enough to prevent the heating being required on some nights.

The warmer and sunnier weather has brought out plenty of butterflies, and a new butterfly has been seen in the garden.

A speckled wood was seen on the ivy, sunning itself, and I managed to grab a quick picture before it fluttered away.

I also managed to capture a red admiral too, although they have been seen many times, feasting on the buddleia.

They have more than made up for the lack of bird activity, albeit a small flock of house sparrows are now roosting in the wall climbers – something that seems to happen quite often at this time of year.

They are literally about a foot above the front door and can be seen and heard about an hour before sunset.

It’ll be a few weeks before they need to find a new roost site, when the leaves start to leave it fairly exposed.

Our summer visitors have definitely not been sticking around for this warmer weather, even if it would be feast time for them.

The garden wildlife is undergoing the usual transition as autumn starts to take hold, and it might be a few weeks before the birds are regularly seen.

However, I can’t help but feel that the stupidly high level of cats in neighbouring houses, along with feral cats that are being fed by the same neighbours, are having an impact on the birds being seen around.

I saw one of the cats with a small vole only yesterday morning, which does make you wonder if this small area of countryside is being restrictive to many species of wildlife, because the cats are either killing prey or the animals themselves.

There might be one saviour in this though. For the first time ever, a badger visited the garden, the closest badger I’ve seen to the house by about 500 metres.

I’d noticed a few small holes in the grass verges on the lane, which can now be put down to foraging badgers.

Great news for them and also my girls who managed to see a ‘real life’ badger right by our house.

It helps bring the closer to wildlife and hopefully encourages them to take a keen interest in wildlife when they grow up.

WARMER WEATHER ON THE WAY?

Is the weather playing mind tricks with us? The wet weather over the last few days came after some glorious days with plenty of warmth and sunshine.

The swallows made the most of the warm and dry days, and were often joined by local swifts in the early evening swooping low over the hedges and small trees in and around the garden, feasting on a seemingly endless supply of small insects.

Both groups of birds were calling throughout the feeding frenzy, the swallows with their dance-like tunes, while the swifts shrieked with delight at the abundance of insects lifted above the treeline by the warm air.

It’s possible that the swallows are already on their second brood, and if weather conditions continue then a third might just be squeezed in.

The other birds are infrequently visiting the garden, with the young blue tits being recently spotted again, this time without any parents nearby.

A couple of great tits have also been seen, along with recently fledged robin chicks.

The crane fly hatching continues at a fast pace, although many falling foul of the house and seemingly dying before being able to mate.

One pair was caught mating in the house, so were gently moved outside to continue their rituals in privacy – well as much privacy as outside in the garden can give!

Growth of the garden plants has been good, with the tomatoes and broad beans already flowering and producing a few early fruit, while the sunflowers are all getting taller by the day.

Whatever the rest of July brings, a good harvest of broad beans is hopefully on the cards.

The sunshine did bring out plenty of butterflies – orange tip, red admiral, small tortoiseshell, painted lady and green-veined white.

They were mainly attracted by the buddleia flowers and with both buddleia plants growing rapidly, this summer could be great for seeing the beautiful butterflies in the garden.