Just a couple of days after last week's posting, my own specimen of the Jersey tiger moth was flying about in the front garden.
Just a couple of days after last week's posting, my own specimen of the Jersey tiger moth was flying about in the front garden. I was putting up a 'rustic' wooden arch over the front gate so that the Chinese Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus henryana, can spread to the rest of the fence, when one of the girls, who was helping by playing on the step ladder, pointed out what she thought was a butterfly flying by. It landed on the decorative painted brickwork over the front door, completely uncamouflaged against the white. It does not need to be hidden, its bright colours are a warning that it is revoltingly poisonous should anything be foolhardy enough to try and eat it.
My garden pond has got a puncture. We were really proud of the original design, using railway sleepers, three high (about 50 cm), to make a raised water body. Triangular in shape, 2 metres long, with a deep corner dug down a further 50 cm and a shallow corner for marginal plants. Three species of damselfly, two species of dragonfly, water skaters, boatmen, frogs, toads and common newts all moved in. But now, four years later, the water level has dropped, leaving 20 cm of ugly butyl liner exposed and the shallow end high and dry. I don't know if one of the children 'fishing' with a stick has done the damage or if the ivy from the fence has punched its vigorous way through. The only thing to do is clear it all out and start again with a new liner. I'll have to make sure I have plenty of buckets ready for all the dragonfly larvae in there.
The garden spiders, Aranaeus diadematus, are starting to get very large and obvious, especially those round the compost bins. We compost everything we can, including kitchen waste, so clouds of fruit flies emerge every time I lift off the lid. Even though they are tiny compared to the spiders, each burst leaves 20 or 30 struggling in the webs and they are quickly wrapped up by the spiders to eat later. It does mean that we get quite a few of the flies coming indoors to pester the fruit bowl. I'll soon have to get new fly papers too.
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