Wasps have a tractor which I use for grass mowing fields and taking water to our field for the horses kept there. The tractor lives under a plastic sheet and when I uncovered it the other day a wasp nest had been established there between the wing and the tyre, there being a gap of some 4 inches available. As it was small I ignored it and took a load of water to the field and returned, covering the tractor again.  The wasps didn't seem to mind. Last week it had got bigger but still caused no trouble. This week it was quite large and fielded a number of quite active inmates so something had to be done and I reluctantly dislodged it late one evening with the aid of a number of drain rods which meant that I was some 20 ft away from the site of the operations. I could have treated the nest with a branded exterminator but wasps are something of a rarity at the moment, they are only just recovering from a vicious frost we had a few years ago in early May which killed many queens as they started their nest building activities. Despite their bad press the wasp does enormous good, one wasp will kill 1000 flies or other insects during its year. Hopefully the queen in this nest will fly off and rebuild elsewhere.

Foxes, Rabbits, a Deer and a Snake
A village person commented that he saw three fox cubs playing in the middle of the road at 2am in the morning outside our house.
I lifted the top off a large compost heap recently and disturbed a Grass Snake. We looked at each other in  surprise, for a few seconds before it went off down the heap into the undergrowth. Di says a female Grass Snake can grow to about 2'6" and it was probably laying eggs, although it looked as if it was sleeping to me.
A young buck sporting a pair of small antlers crossed the road in front of me late one night as I came back from a meeting. He was fresh and very proud as he walked across the road.
Rabbits are back in the fields and woodlands; the young ones can now be seen on the road verges. They had been held down by the re-emergence of Mixamatosis but seem to have become resistant. I clapped my hands when in the field and saw a good 20 or more rush into the surrounding woods.

Hawks    Two pairs of hawks were slowly circling high in the sky a few days ago. The height they were up and the size suggests that they were bigger than the Sparrow Hawks in the woodlands. Di wondered if they were Buzzards.

Baby Birds The first lot of  Blue Tit chicks have fledged from the nest box which faces South East. We have discovered a second nest inside the bargeboard of the north corner of the house and they fledged a few days later. Di felt very sorry for them as the weather turned out to be very wet, windy and cold; but a few days later with more sun we now have a garden full of baby birds.  The parents will still continue to feed their offspring for a few more days . Robins continue to feed their chicks for up to three weeks after they have fledged.. Many baby birds look nothing like their parents. The robins for example have a flecked breast, not a red one and the starling young are a completely different colour to their parents, being grey.
A short while ago during one of the cold wet days we have had, our son found a baby chaffinch sitting on the grass, shivering and wet. He put it in to a warm greenhouse on a bed of moss. Several hours later having dried out and warmed up it was feeling well enough to go outside again. I advised him to put it high up on a branch near to where it was found. As soon as he had done this the bird started to call for its parents. Lets hope that they found it. There is a good chance that they did. It is much better to do this than trying to feed a baby bird yourself.

Insects        There are many grasshopper larvae around. These are tiny replicas of the larger adults but have no wings and they still seem to hop quite a long way.
The tiny daytime micro moth that lives and breeds on the lemon balm herb is so much in evidence. It is so pretty, being  a rusty red colour with yellow markings - I haven't been able to identify it in any book - perhaps it is rare.