UK Nature Blog

Brown lacewing - not dead, just resting

This is a poor photo taken in the corner between wall and ceiling of a dimly lit bathroom, but it clearly shows a Green lacewing becoming increasingly browned off with the weather. No longer a pure green, it is fading and turning brown, which is how it will see out the winter months before taking wing again next year.

So don't assume like I once did that those faded brown lacewings have died - they are perfectly fine and just hibernating. For a better picture of a fresh Green lacewing in close-up, check out my original blog post.

Return of the birds

The bird feeders in my garden have been largely silent all summer - I don't think I've refilled them in months, until just two days ago when I got out the special sanitising spray, a bottle-brush and hose and gave them a good clean, then refilled. Because it seems the birds are back so I felt I should put the effort in.

So far it's been mainly tits of various sorts and the odd Robin, but hopefully thigns will pick up as they refind it.

Is everyone else finding the same pattern through the seasons this year and others?

Autumnwatch starts tonight!

As I mentioned once before Autumnwatch is nearly upon us. In fact as I write this it's a mere 15 minutes away, so settle down with your beverage of choice, watch the end of Gardeners' World and prepare to manage with Kate Humble.

I wonder if this year's unusual weather will mean that they're got some unusual stories as a result.

Extreme weather tricks UK flowers

I've noticed a resurgence in many flowers in my garden, with a healthy crop of new leaves and flower spikes pushing up from the lupins that I only cut back a few months ago, expecting them to lie dormant until the spring. I'm not the only one noticing this, with the BBC posting an article and a separate video on the topic. It's fair to say that it's been an odd year weather-wise with extreme heat in May, a lacklustre 'summer' and now heat again as we head towards October.

Apparently we're also in for a colourful Autumn more generally, as the weather patterns should result in vivid leaf colours, which are already apparent in many cases.

Autumnwatch: Strachan + Packham dream team

Autumnwatch returns to our screens from Friday 7 October at 8.30pm on BBC Two. The big news this time around is that Kate Humble is no more and will be replaced by Michaela Strachan, hence reforming the Really Wild Show dream team with Chris Packham. I fully expect Terry Nutkins to get involved next year! Martin Hughes-Games reprises his role as the likeable layman - kind of like Alan Davies on QI.

The live shows will be coming from the National Arboretum at Westonbirt for the first four weeks, then the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge reserve for the final four.

More information courtesy of the BBC.

Nature notes - September 2011

Here's a few things I've noticed of late:

• There have been a lot of Seven-spot ladybirds around, and I've hardly seen any Harlequins this year compared to last. Perhaps it's just a local thing. Maybe even even local just to my garden.
• The conkers are falling off the trees and the leaves are turning - autumn is upon us. Doesn't time fly!
• The bird feeders have been largely devoid of any action for many months now. I can only assume that natural food supplies are plentiful so they have no interest in the feeders. Or I've killed off all the local birds by failing to clean the feeders as often as I should. Or next door's cat has killed off all the local birds (plausible).
• Wasps just haven't been as irritating this year. Normally August and September are the time to be driven out of the pub garden, or your own back garden by an onslaught of wasps intent on your food or drink.
• Even though there seems to have been a lot of heavy rain over the last month or two, the garden often seems extremely dry with plants wilting. Which just shows how much rain it takes to redress the balance after a long dry spell. Actually the BBC reported just today that some areas are still officially in drought.

August nature notes

A few things I've noticed of late:

• Lots of ladybirds about, especially 7-spot.
• Garden full of Gatekeeper butterflies all of a sudden, often in pairs. This is their time of year apparently.
• Slugs and snails living it up in the recent boughts of wetness (and eaten all our courgette plants) though it's still fundamentally dry out there and some plants are struggling.
• I have a large wasp's nest in the hedge - about the size of a football. I think they're Median wasps, so not the usual sort: bigger but much less agressive and bothersome. I blogged about them once before when I saw a single wasp before I discovered the nest.
• I saw a Red kite circling above the garden lower than I've seen it before - probably just 50 feet up or so. Their successful comeback seems to continue apace.
• Smooth newts are easily terrified and they just freeze. They also looks just like little lizards. I found one crawling across my decking the other night - frozen stiff at my sudden appearance. The picture above is a pair I found on a previous occasion.
• Wasps of all sorts are particularly evident now. Presumably their numbers have swelled as they built up the size of their colonies over recent months. August is traditionally a waspy time of year and before long they'll be drunk on rotten apples.

One good Tern deserves another

UKNB has been on tour to Northumberland, which included a boat trip to the Farne islands at the height of the breeding season. Whilst being dive-bombed from all directions I managed to get some great pictures of Terns, Puffins and other seabirds.

First up is a couple of Arctic terns in flight. I'm pretty sure these are Arctic rather than Common terns as the bill is pure red. The terns were nesting right by the path and often I had to back off in order to photograph them as my big lens has a 6 foot minimum focus!

More pictures to come.

Nature notes - July 2011

Here's a few things I've noticed recently, now we've ticked over into July.

• Many a mushroom is growing in my lawn, big and small. I put this down to the recent heavy rainfall, but I'm only guessing. I'm sure they wouldn't normally be there at this time of year.
• The sheer variety of bees and wasps I'm seeing in my garden is staggering. Are they on the up or am I just noticing them more?
• Actually if you dig into the soil it's amazing to find that all the rainstorms haven't actually wet it more than a few inches down.
• When you've taught your daughter that birds go "tweet" it's gratifying to have a Chaffinch do exactly that in front of her - issuing a series of plaintive tweets and nothing more complicated.
• There just don't seem to be that many butterflies around so far this year.

Chafers are on the wing

Last year at the end of June I noticed big fat insects buzzing around the tops of the birch trees in the fading light of the warm evening. It took a while but I determined that they were Chafer beetles of some sort. And this evening after a surprisingly warm day, they were at it again, presumably triggered by the right weather at the right time of year.