Big Butterfly Count and Garden Wildlife and Vegetables

 

Since 2010 Butterfly Conservation has organised a yearly nationwide survey where people can spend 15 minutes counting the number of butterflies they see in their garden or other location.  Butterflies are excellent biodiversity indicators and they react rapidly to environmental changes. Therefore declines in butterfly species can provide an early warning of potential losses in other species too.  Big Butterfly Count helps identify trends in species allowing plans to be made to protect those in decline and also to allow scientists to understand the effects of climate change.

I am sure some of you also take part and it is to be hoped that the results from this year's counts are a marked improvement on the awful year butterflies and other pollinators had last year.

D and I did our first butterfly count on the 21st July at Castle Bromwich Historic Parklands and saw the following butterflies:

Small White x 4

Speckled Wood x 5

Large White x 2

Holly Blue x 4

Gatekeeper x 6

plus an unidentified skipper (it was too far away to be sure)!

On 25th July we did a count in the garden at home and saw the following:

Large White x 4

Peacock x 1

Comma x 1

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Holly Blue x 1  (here nectaring on water mint flowers by the pond)

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Gatekeeper x 1

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Speckled Wood x 3

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Meadow Brown x 1

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Not seen during the count itself here is a photo of a Red Admiral we saw a bit later.

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D did a further garden count earlier this week and managed to spot a Red Admiral during the 15 minutes this time.

Red Admiral x 1

Comma x 1

Speckled Wood x 1

Gatekeeper x 2

Large White x 1

Other Garden Insects

Banded Demoiselle - I was really chuffed this was spotted as I am fairly sure it is a new garden "tick"

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Grasshopper

Mint Moth - you guessed it seen on mint! Pretty as these tiny moths are last year the caterpillars decimated all our mint!

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Sunflower with a Marmalade Hoverfly

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Garden Vegetables and Baking

These days D grows all the garden vegetables.

Here are the first red chilli peppers.

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We are picking courgettes galore

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Ripening pumpkin

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The first crop of beetroot has been harvested.

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Apple and Blackberry Crumble made with foraged blackberries from the garden.

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D made these Feta, Thyme and Courgette Scones with courgettes and thyme from the garden. Lovely served with onion chutney :)

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All photos taken by D with the Canon SX50 HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of my son's or mine I would be grateful for an email first - thanks)

Reading, Garden and Stuck at home

 

Recent Reading

Sadly, this seems to be the last book in the Mitchell and Markby series.  I will try and read some of Ann Granger's other series - I know there are the Inspector Ben Ross books and the Campbell and Carter books; has anyone read any of these and if so what did you think?

This book was good although for some reason I still can't warm to the chief characters in this series.

This was a lovely little booklet - I can really recommend Alex Woodcock's book "King of Dust" it is brilliant.

An interesting Shire book on Medieval Masons - I learnt a lot!

I checked on Amazon and two of my favourite series had new books - I loved both of them :)

I can't stop reading the Hillary Greene books - they are so good even now she is doing a different job.  It is yet another series I am going to finish soon!  I need to find some new authors!!

I really enjoyed this Inspector Banks book.  Another series I am going to miss as there aren't many more left to read!

Garden

The Blue Tit chicks finally fledged - 3 out of the original 6 that hatched. Not brilliant news but better than some attempts in recent years.

The following photos of the garden were all taken by D.

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Holly Blue

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A new beetle species for the garden. I thought I had identified it but D has since come up with an alternative id so now I am not sure. Will confirm in a future post if I get positive id - may put photo on Twitter and ask for help!

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Sage and chives are flowering - so pretty and the bees love them.

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Red Campion in the wildflower meadow.

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Yellow flag in the bog garden.

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In other news I haven't been very well and have had to stay at home to rest my leg. The week before last my ankle, lower leg and foot swelled up. I assumed at first it was due to a side effect of the blood pressure tablets I  take as it  has happened before but the foot got worse so I had to go and see the GP. She diagnosed cellulitis and gave me pencillin but I also had a blood test as a precaution!  To my horror early that evening I received a phone call from her saying that one of the tests was positive and could I go to the medical assessment unit at the local hospital.   Well I have a  phobia about hospitals and that particular one has bad memories for me for certain events re my family in the past so it was a nightmare.

We were there about 3 hours which I suppose wasn't too bad! Blood pressure taken (sky high no surprise there!), another blood test, ecg. Finally saw a doctor who thought it was cellulitis too but I had to have a blood thinning injection "in case" (they were worried about clots as cellulitis symptoms similar to another condition). I could then go home as I wasn't prepared to wait another 4 hours for more blood tests results! I have to say despite the waiting the staff there were excellent!

I had to go back next day for ultra sound scan of leg  - thankfully there were no signs of any clots and then up to what they called the Emergency Day Care Unit for the results to be confirmed by a Dr.  We were there over four hours.  Another blood test - finally saw a Dr who confirmed there were no clots and doubled my dose of pencillin and gave me 10 days supply - far more  than the GP gave me!

My leg is slowly recovering and is now almost back to normal. I had another blood test at the GP's and the only cause of concern is that  my sodium levels are borderline and I have to eat a bag of crisps a day! -you couldn't make it up! Another blood test next month to check on that and I have to go back at some stage for another scan of leg to check (I think)  that the lymph glands have gone down?

One  thing I have learnt is to be grateful for good health when you are well because things like this can strike out of nowhere.  I remember  B had cellulitis last year but nowhere near this fuss he was just given pencillin although he did see a different GP!

I hope everyone is staying safe and well. Take care.

Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 and those by my son with the Canon SX50HS.  (I don't particularly rate my photos but if any one wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would appreciate an email first  - thanks)

"Bits and Pieces"

Another week passes and to be honest, even though places are beginning to re-open if you book in advance, I still don't feel confident enough to go out and about so another post mainly about the garden.


A little vase of Mock Orange Flowers

Large Orange Lilies are starting to flower.

Verbena bonariensis

Another one of those shrubs we bought years ago which I cannot put a name to!

Birds-foot Trefoil flowering by the pond.

Corncockle in the wild flower area

Herb Robert and an unknown little pink flower with clover shaped leaves.

Edit Many thanks to Dean at "Punk Birder" the mystery plant is Pink Oxalis.

Wall Pennywort seems to be doing ok although, horrors of horrors, I went up to check the few planted by the stone wall this morning and the leaves have been nibbled which is not good news :(

D found a Devil's Coach Horse in the front garden.

Red Admiral

Ladybird larva

D found this wasp species in his bedroom last night. Thanks so much to Stewart from "Boulmer Birder" via Twitter who suggests it is a Digger wasp and possibly one of the Ectemnius species.

Reading


This Batsford book on hidden villages was very good.

I've been meaning to read Mrs Moreau's Warbler for ages and finally got round to it - it is excellent and very informative.

Baking

This is the "Fast Cakes" book by Mary Berry that my daughter and I are working our way through in a random fashion.

Fairings were made last week - too hot this week to bake!

It was B's birthday yesterday and this is his cake - A Thornton's Chocolate Cake which is melting in the heat!

Hopefully, we may be able to visit our caravan in Herefordshire on or after the 4th July following yet another easing of the lockdown restrictions. It would be good to be able to take all the items we have bought and as Rosie said "make it our own" as we haven't seen it since we bought it last October! I am not sure we will yet be doing many of the things we planned such as visiting places like Ludlow, Hereford and Cathedral, Croft Castle, Brockhampton, etc. etc. but the caravan site itself is lovely with a pool and hide and wildflower meadow so it will be a good place to relax and there are always country lanes to walk which I hope will be quieter than those round here!!



I hope everyone is staying safe and well.



All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera