Chucky's Nature Notes

Well to start spooky October - here is the little male house spider that is collecting Beau and Florances seeds that they throw out to make his little hidey hole - definitely a spooky little guy here. He has a female living just down the back of the footstool too - I think he might be waiting for her to mature, but he is quite small, so I am not even sure if he is mature himself as yet. We also had this little guy that mummy brought in on the brambles for the stick insects (there are hundreds of babies if anybody wants any!) No idea what the caterpillar turns into though. Mummy and Gav Gav also got some Hawk Moth caterpillars that were bright green: and they have now become Hawk Moths! There was a garden spider who kept building her web across the front door but luckily mummy was going through it and so she kept just moving the web off to one side. The little lady has now started building it off to the side - but the web is quite large for such a small spider - it goes...

Firstly I think the harlequin ladybirds are starting to look for their hibernation areas as the nights start to draw in and the temperatures start to drop. And the spiders are also making there way inside (although I think this has more to do with Gav Gav bringing in the brambles for the stick insects that the spiders are trying to hide underneath to keep dry! They went to visit the new WWT reserve, Steart Marshes, the other weekend - while it was nice and sunny still. Mummy enjoyed trying to capture some Dragonfly's - mainly Common Darter's though: They were making the most of the late season sunshine to try and continue their genetic lines and get as many eggs laid as possible before winter sets in. She also tried to capture a cute little grasshopper - but this was the best she managed (all the others were out of focus lol). There was also this lovely family of swans on the reen - although they had a nice little niche to hide away. Mummy thinks there...

Sorry it has been a while - mummy has been hogging here computer, and the nature cam is currently down and awaiting repair, so I am short on photo's to share with you. The crows, magpies and rats are still visiting the garden, as are the blackbirds, but we are not seeing much of the wagtails now. We did have a collared dove that nearly landed on mummy's head the other day though! The garden is a little overgrown at the moment as mummy likes to have a 'wild' garden. Gav Gav says it is a bit too wild at the moment and mummy has to cut it all back. Hwever, there are benefits to having a wild garden - such as this pretty little grasshopper. You don't tend to see these in highly cultivated gardens as they appreciate - well I would say long grass, but the rabbit ensures there is none of that - so I guess green stuff in general? There have also been a few little jumping spiders about - this one was helping mummy doing work on her laptop. How cute is tha...

...well first off the weather brightened up a little bit at last. Although I do have to admit to quite liking seeing the birdies outside all fluffed up in the wet, whilst I am nice and snug indoors (especially those naughty crows!). Mr Wagtail is still visiting the garden, but not as regularly anymore - I guess he has his hands full with the fledglings - teaching them to forage through the woods. And Doris was a little terror when mummy went out to a BBQ and left her having the run of the garden - but she does the innocent face so well! You wouldn't think she had burrowed under the garden gate and gotten onto the front street!!  Anyway, the hedgehog is once again a regular visitor to the garden, but we haven't heard the second hedgehog coming in as yet. Mummy wants to make a hedgehog house and get some proper hedgehog food also (although I am sure there are plenty of slugs - you only have to watch the nature cam to see that!).  The Blackbird want...