New blog
I have not had great health for the last few years but still enjoy looking at insects and birds in the garden and checking my wildlife camera for night visits of foxes and hedgehogs In 2018 we were able to create raised planters full of insect friendly plants and have increased our plantings of winter flowers such as mahonia We had buff tailed and red tailed bumblebee nests in the ground and witnessed red tailed bees mating We learned a lot about moths and hoverflies as well but have a long way to go A highlight was a vapourer moth caterpillar on our roses and a male vapourer mothh seeking a mate We also kept small and large white butterfly caterpillars in butterfly houses on masturtium Most were hosts to parasitic wasp larva which hatched and were released to the wild We have five pupa overwintering in the garage and hope they are viable We had a small wildlife pond put in a shady corner and soon had frogs toads and newts moved in and got some nice pond dipping microscope vide...