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An article in 'The Countryman',
a lovely little magazine we have every month from the news agency in the Village, had an interesting
article covering a statement by scientists of the British Trust for Ornithology (birds). The
breeding of some small birds (robins, tits, blackbirds song thrushes etc) have been hit by
the wet weather but long tailed tits, and chiffchaff fared better with a rise in their broods.
Two years of bad summers is not good. If you want to know more you will have to buy the magazine.
The world is finally getting warmer and there is a growing interest in the nature world for
their opposite number i.e. the opposite sex so I was summoned to remove the bird boxes the
other day having put the job off for a number of days. I finally got the steps out, found
a screw driver and started on the box that was not used by the birds last year for reasons
only they would know.
I unscrewed the box from the wall and upon lifting it away revealed, to our surprise, a large
number of ladybirds of all sorts of colours and spot numbers perhaps one to two hundred, of
them huddled together for the winter (the position is sheltered and out of the wind and warmed
by the sun and heat from the house). It was lovely to see so many of them and hopefully when
the warmer weather starts they will do their stuff eating the aphids and other harmful insects
in the garden. As the box has got to be moved at some time I had to put it back on the wall
and was charged with bunging the birds entrance hole up with "something" to stop
any birds taking up residence until May when the air will be warmer and the ladybirds hopefully
will have gone elsewhere.
The larva of the ladybirds are long black creatures with red splodges these also devour many
pests. They are very useful beetles to have in the garden.
Beginning of March, we are at last seeing the sun, the days are getting longer and the weather
is not so cold as it has been ( I cannot say 'warm' yet). It is nice to see the spring
flowers emerging into the day light . We have crocuses on the front lawn and daffodils under
the trees, Hellebores in the flower border and tulips coming up in flower pots (we have given
up having them in the flower border as the deer eat them.). The Sparrow Hawks are around with
two pairs over the river meadows just floating around in circles and I have seen rather a
lot of dead badgers beside the roads. Usually a road kill, the badger is his own worst enemy.
He is strong and fearless and expects the oncoming car to give way as other animals would
do if they saw him; he does not understand cars, being an animal and inevitably suffers for
it.
Bees
I was very pleased to see the bees (not bumble bees)
on the Hyacinth blooms in our window box. Bees are having a rough time of it the moment and
anything we can do to provide nectar rich flowers for them has to be a bonus. There is a fungus
that is causing colonies to die which is in the UK at the moment.
Richard and Diana Terry.
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