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Garden birds

By Richard Jones on 13/02/2013 07:09:00

I got up out of my sick bed to post this, I hope you know. Our brief dusting of snow may have gone, but it was too grim and grey to go exploring in the garden after hibernating ladybirds or flat-backed millipedes. Instead, I ventured upstairs


Wireworms

By Richard Jones on 18/02/2009 15:48:08

in the moist soil is a wireworm. I know these are supposed to be notorious garden and agricultural pests, but like so many insects, I can't really treat them as pests unless they reach pest proportions. A few of last year's potatoes had small holes in them


More mischief

By Richard Jones on 14/09/2007 10:09:49

on the front garden wall is full of spares, on offer to passers by for a few pence to be dropped into the honesty box. However, they have fallen victim to tomato pirates. A scene of riotous desolation now awaits our thoughtful neighbour, as pips and pulp


Magpies and mice

By Richard Jones on 13/02/2008 09:20:00

there, chattering loudly in the apple tree, was old black and white, cocking its head first one way, then the other.I was really chuffed. Not about having the bird in the garden, but about the boy correctly identifying it. I congratulated him on his


Wagtails

By Richard Jones on 08/10/2008 14:29:00

I was in Peckham Rye Park on Monday and saw a wagtail strutting about by the small stream that runs past. They're not rare birds, but I watched it for some time thinking I had not seen one in ages. Although maybe not really a suburban garden bird


Hibernating wasps

By Richard Jones on 04/02/2009 10:15:38

elsewhere in the garden. Even raise a new wood stack around them. Anything found indoors, disturbed by the central heating, can be let go into an unheated shed or outhouse where they will settle back down again until temperature and day length switch


Jays

By Richard Jones on 18/03/2009 16:02:44

with sunbathing beasts: shieldbugs, spiders, ladybirds, bees, and two cats nestled in at the bottom. The newts have returned to the pond too; four of them were swimming about in there. These are the regular denizens of my garden, but two unusual visitors were a


First damselfly of the season

By Richard Jones on 20/05/2009 11:58:34

to the edges of the pond liner like miniature paper dragons.Since I had to replace the pond liner early in 2008 I have not seen any adults in my garden. I did dredge up a damsel larva one day, so I am hopeful they are still about despite the large number


Toad in the garden

By Richard Jones on 02/09/2009 11:02:26

The last few days we’ve had a toad wandering about near the back door. It ambled out from under the guinea pig’s carpet off-cut weather cover when I rearranged the hutch, and although I released it in the hedge it reappeared in the same place the next day.At first I wondered if i...


Butterfly chrysalis

By Richard Jones on 06/01/2010 13:59:27

time last September or early October. It had been waiting, undisturbed, ever since. I don't know why we have these toys if they are going to lie around the garden, untouched, half the year.


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