Fly eating competition

The male flycatcher

has installed (one of?) his mate(s) in a nestbox outside the polytunnel

which provides him with a handy all-weather fly catching zone

Plenty of insects here

but he may not know he is competing against some fly-hungry plants

Sunbathing time

Today was the first hot sunny day in the life of this juvenile Robin and he took full advantage of it

Meadow Browns arrived in the Meadow for the first time this year

And while the damsel flies have been around for some time

the Broad-bodied Chaser also made its first appearance of the year

as for us and the bees

no time for basking.

Insects and other small treasures

We only need the windscreen test to know what is happening to insect life.

A recent analysis published in Biological Conservation reported “The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”. More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.”

So we don’t take for granted the smaller occupants of our plot

Who knows what lives in the depths of the ponds, from where bubbles mysteriously rise

On the surface, where waterboatmen row by

there is evidence of metamorphosis

Above fly a variety of damselflies

One we have not seen before:

The spider that chooses this spot

can ensnare a colourful meal

A Bird on a Wire and other Solstice Sights

A swallow preens on the wire

A busy spider

A bee on the catmint

A woodpecker brings its young to the peanut feeder

and a duck on a nest

… a duckless nest (there are eight eggs in there)

… because the duck is on the stump

June Blooms

Some blooming bits and other botanical bits currently on display

In praise of Rhinanthus minor

The fields around us look like this

a grass mono-culture.

Ours looks like this

an ever changing mix of species with new ones arriving all the time

(There is a rather out of date list of species here)

We scythe off the vetetation after each flowering season to reduce the soil fertility.

Another major agent is this

Yellow Rattle – Rhinanthus minor

Because it gains some of its nutrients from the roots of neighbouring plants it helps to weaken the grass to allow space for a greater diversity of plants.

Our Rattle has been spreading well over the last couple of years, partly by its own efforts and also due to us collecting seed and spreading it further.

Here is a patch with a low density of Rattle

and here is one where it is more dominant

Long Live the Rattle

Down among the Saxifraga

Down among the Saxifraga

the bees are busy

getting red legs

red heads

red pollen all over

While the bees are busy

we take a look inside

to see how things are getting on