Due
to a variety of reasons wildlife and the outdoors did not play a
major roll in the weekend. However, that did not stop me from having
a few interesting encounters at various stages. So, I took hold of
what little time I had, which, resulted in the major part of the
wildlife spotting taking place in the garden. The first opportunity
was on Friday evening when we enjoyed a champagne cocktail sat
outside on a warm evening. From a wildlife perspective this meant
listening and watching the swifts. There was a total of 33 counted at
one point in the evening. In addition to the swifts we spotted
Collared Doves, House Sparrows, Mistle Thrushes, Blackbirds and of
course the Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
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| Champino Cocktail in the Garden |
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull |
Worcester
is fortunately home to around 250 breeding pairs of this gull of
conservation concern. 40% of all Lesser Black-backed Gulls live in
the UK and their numbers are in decline. However, their numbers are
increasing in our cities and Worcester is one of them, this has
really boosted their numbers. I find them fascinating birds and I
was initially pleased when one decided to nest on the roof opposite
us.
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| Lesser Black-backed Mother and Chick |
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| Lesser Black-backed Gull Chick |
However,
not all Worcester residents are as happy about them as me. They can
cause problems in the city. They make mess both by ripping apart bins
and spreading rubbish around the High Street and the obvious bird poo
situation. The other problems are the noise and the fear factor as
they swoop low over peoples heads. There have even been some reports
that they have taken food from peoples hands. In resent days it has
been the noise issue that I can sympathise with as approximately 4
o'clock every morning we are woken up by the continual squawking. On
balance, however, I would want them to stay.
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| Black tailed skimmer |
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| Marbled White |
I
did get a short walk around Grimley on Saturday afternoon. It was a
hot but pleasant afternoon. It was great watching the large numbers
of Black-tailed Skimmers and the damselflies that darted across the
causeways. The thing that stood out was something quite plane and
simple: Knapweed. It is a common and, I think, over looked plant but
has stunning colours. It was also proving to be an excellent
pollinator. The most common visitor was the Meadow Brown butterfly
but quite a few other insects were enjoying their lunch at the
Knapweed table. Sometimes I just enjoy sitting back and marvelling at
some of the more common species. It is not always about the rare and
endangered species.
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| Knapweed and Meadow Brown |
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| Common Blue and Red-eyed Damselfly |
The
weekend ended up back in my Garden on Sunday afternoon and I took a
few photos of the insect life that I could spot. Rather
disappointedly I discovered the larva of the Gooseberry sawfly doing
it best with the Gooseberry bush. It was also nice to see two species
of bee and a small collection of hover flies. The real disappointing
species was the Green Bottle Fly. It was there for one reason only:
to lay its eggs in the cat faeces. Yes unfortunately the
neighbourhood cats use our garden as their toilet.
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| Gooseberry Sawfly |
I think it is sometimes easy to overlook the wildlife potential that can be found in our gardens. Especially when our gardens are very small like mine. However, they can occasionally produce something interesting and intriguing, just have to keep looking.
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| A Hoverfly |
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| A hoverfly |
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