The Garden Diary 2013

14 August - An almost autumnal day with mainly grey skies the temperature only got to 20C by noon before peaking at 21C an hour later and then dropping again. By 5pm it was just 18C. As the day progressed you could feel increasing amount so f dampness in the air, and there was some drizzle this evening.

There was some broken sunshine in the morning, but with the Buddleia remaining in shade until after 10am it was the far end of the garden that I saw the first butterfly of the day, this rather tatty Speckled Wood.

It was perched on a Hazel leaf in the dappled shade of the birch tree. It opened its wings in response to any glimmer of sunlight that fell on the leaf.

When its wings are folded the patterns of the upper surfaces can still be seen, especially on the forewing, while the hind wing much more closely resembles the colours of a dead leaf.

With the cloud cover thickening, the butterfly remained on the leaf all morning, and a close look revealed that it was attempting to feed during that time.

A assume that it was searching out honeydew, excreted by overhanging leaves, although that liquid is in short supply this year as we seem to have very few aphids (certainly true on the roses at the front of the house!).

Through the rest of the day I saw no more than two or three Large Whites.

The Birch is playing host to at least two caterpillars that are accessible from ground level at the moment.

The first is a Grey Dagger. I never did find the one that I photographed a few weeks ago, and this one too doesn't seem interested in feeding during the day. This caterpillar could be on the Birch until October before pupating either in crevices in the bark or in rotting wood on the ground.

That possibility may make it worthwhile putting some decaying timber around the base of the Birch. That area does need a bit of sorting out so this may be a good excuse for getting that job done.

The second one is a  very colourful caterpillar of a Vapourer moth. Measuring around 13mm, including the dark tufts of hair front and rear it is still a small example. When fully developed it will be nearer 35mm, excluding the hairs.

We had a large Spotted Woodpecker female in the garden today. It was an all too brief visit unfortunately as I was outside, talking to our window cleaner!

Two days ago (the 12th) we had some (what I believe are) Chiffchaffs here. The spent much time in our Birch and that of our neighbour, and I only managed some far from sharp pictures of a couple when they landed on our caravan shelter to search for insects that they had disturbed by their activity in the tree above.

There was also a single Greenfinch at the tall peanut feeder for a short time.

16 August - An overcast, wet start to the day with the temperature 17C at 10am. That is cooler than yesterday when the temperature was over 20C by 9am, reaching 23C in the late afternoon and not dropping back down into the teens until after 7pm. It was quite a humid day.

Over these last two days I'm getting on with various 'catching up' jobs. These include dismantling the rather untidy nestbox monitoring arrangements in my computer corner, although I will be reconnecting the Swift box cameras presently as I need to improve the infra-red lighting in a couple of the boxes ready for next year.

I only took picture of a couple of things in the garden yesterday, the first being this Meadow Brown.

For much of the time the eye spot was hidden from view, and I didn't get the chance to photograph it with wings opened.

While there were Whites about, the only other 'coloured' butterfly seen all day was a single Holly Brue.

The other insect I pointed the camera at was this fly, possibly Phaonia varida, which seemed to be taking a lot of interest in the entrance to one of the solitary wasps' burrows.

I watched it for over ten minutes before I needed to do a job elsewhere. During that time it approached the entrance a number of times, moving away from it quickly each time. Was it sensing the odours produced by the insects taken in by the wasp, or was this behaviour just coincidental?

As the fly moved about the area surrounding the entrance it repeatedly extended its abdomen and probed irregularities in the bark. I can only assume that it was prospecting for egg-laying sites.

During the time that I watched, this was only happening within a couple of centimetres of the entrance, leaving me wondering if there was some sort of link between action and location.

Probably the only picture today - This pair of Large Whites were clearly preparing to mate when I first spotted them on the other side of the pond in the early afternoon. They stayed just long enough for me to dash into the house, grab my camera, and take this one picture of the male making a close approach before the pair spiraled out of sight over the hedge into my neighbour's garden.

Notice the lack of spots on the upper surface of the male's rather worn forewing, and the female's abdomen held high as she releases pheromones.

It wasn't the only photo of the day after all! I went to check on the two caterpillars that I recorded two days ago, and guess what - one has disappeared. There was no sign of the Vapourer caterpillar. The Grey Dagger caterpillar had moved a few centimetres down to the end of the branch.

While I looked for them I came across two very fresh looking Shieldbugs. The first was this adult Birch Shieldbug - on a Birch leaf.

The second was this Green Shieldbug nymph (probably 5th instar).

This was on a Comfrey leaf which is in contact with a Birch branch.

This morning's damp conditions let up by mid-morning and we spent a few hours out before I did a bit more diary catching up between other tasks. As I write this at approaching 7pm the first August page is complete and part 2 is set up on the computer and waiting my attention. Hopefully the garden diary will be up to date by tomorrow morning.

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