Garden Wildlife and Afternoon Tea

There were no moths in the trap after last Friday's moth trapping session - minimum temperatuare 1.3 degrees centigrade and soggy, wet egg-boxes suggest quite a lot of rain overnight.

I have, however, managed to add 2 new species to the garden list for 2013 - Early Grey found in the garage and Brindled Beauty trapped on 20th May together with a couple of Clouded Drabs

Early Grey



Brindled Beauty



The first Blue Tit egg was laid in the nest box on Saturday morning and another added yesterday. I can't see if we are now up to three because she has completely covered them with moss and feathers.

The frog tadpoles started emerging last Tuesday, 23rd April and two butterflies spotted flying through the garden were the first garden sightings for this year - Male butter-coloured Brimstone on 23rd and Peacock on 20th. Common newt numbers are increasing in the pond since the first sighting this year on 20th April.

Afternoon Tea

Last Tuesday afternoon Emily and I went for a treat at Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel - Champagne Afternoon Tea. Emily had given me a voucher for my birthday but I wanted to wait until the weather had improved and it was lovely and sunny last Tuesday.

Castle Bromwich Hall Hotel





Champagne tea is served!!



We went a walk round the Best Gardens attached to the Hotel after tea. There were several peacock butterflies fluttering around though none within reach of camera lens!

Best Garden looking towards St Mary and St Margaret's Church



Best Garden looking towards rear of Hotel



Emily and I were surmising on the rather lovely views you would get from this tower of Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens.



The Hotel has been beautifully renovated and restored and I do hope they make a success of it.

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens - 10th April

I haven't visited Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens for a while so I went along yesterday afternoon - it was pleasantly mild (for a change!!) but it was obvious straight away yet again how far behind Spring is this year.

No sign of any blossom yet in the North Orchard although daffodils are flowering throughout the Gardens.





Lots of feathers on this patch of grass - looks like a Sparrowhawk is visiting fairly regularly.



Hyacinths, daffodils and crocuses











Tulips, however, are still mainly in bud with just the occasional flower.



Lower Wilderness



I left the walled part of the Garden to walk around the Extra Gardens - all the hazels in Nut Ground have been coppiced.



A pair of Mallard were on Mirror Pond - no sign here yet of Snakeshead Frittillaries flowering.



Sparrowhawk has been busy again - yet more feathers on the lawn in New Orchard.



No frogspawn to be seen in South Pond - Great Crested Newts can be found in this pond.



Had a magical encounter with a pair of Long-tailed tits that drank just a couple of metres away from me - totally unconcerned by my presence. Unfortunately close as they were, they were too far away for the lens I was using - photo below heavily cropped.



Plenty of Lungwort in flower around the Gardens.



Re-entering the Walled Gardens into the South Kitchen Garden



The Secret Garden



There were a lot of Hellebores in flower especially around the Lower Wilderness.



No sign of any butterflies but there were a few bees around - mainly on the hellebores





I really liked this particular Green Hellebore



Back in the Secret Garden



Lower Wilderness



Primroses looking rather lovely.



Parterres



There is a new water feature by the Visitor Centre





Castle Bromwich Hall (now a Hotel). I'm off to an afternoon tea here later in the month which I'm rather looking forward too :)



Sadly, the Hall still has the rather ugly Hotel signs :(






Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens are well worth a visit if you are in the area. For further information please visit their website www.cbhgt.org.uk or visit their blog - link on the right under "My Blog List".

Thankfully, Blogger has behaved itself today :) apart from one of the Hellebore photos being printed the wrong way up!!!!

Signs of Autumn at the Gardens

I haven't had much to blog about recently as a bad cold meant I didn't feel much like going out. Bird-wise the garden here at home has been fairly quiet although goldfinch numbers are increasing up to a maximum of twelve and a pair of greenfinches have made a welcome return to the feeders. Sparrowhawk sorties are becoming more regular although I have yet to see her catch anything and we have an acrobatic magpie who is determined to hang onto the coconut to get beakfuls of fat.

I did pop along to Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens towards the end of last week and first of all here are a few pictures from around the Gardens

Green House



North-west Pier



North Orchard



Lower Wilderness



South Kitchen Garden and Summer House



There were still plenty of leaves showing autumn colours











And plenty of berries - not sure what the first ones are



but these are Spindle Tree berries



and plenty of holly as a reminder that Christmas is not far away.





There were several species of interesting looking toadstools - I am a complete novice at toadstool id so any help would be greatly appreciated!

I found these beautiful yellow toadstools (after a tip off from a friend) in the Secret Garden. Lots of record shots - are these by any chance yellow or golden waxcaps?









These tiny toadstools were growing on a grassy mound near the South-west Pier



The Stumpery and area near the South Pond had several different types. I think this is a bracket fungus but no idea what species.



There were loads of these grey toadstools - at a guess clouded agaric?????





The black spots on this sycamore leaf are tar spot fungus



I did see a couple of great spotted woodpeckers flying over - a new species for the Gardens Bird List.

St Mary and St Margaret's Church



I stopped off at the new Hotel to take a couple of photos



Not sure if I like all the hotel type signs - would have preferred them to be a bit more discreet! but its great to see this beautiful Hall lived in and used again