A bluebell wood

 Either it's a really good year for bluebells this year or I caught the wood on just the right day, but the show seems better than usual this time.

The banks of blue gave off their beautiful scent and the constant calls of the birds made the visit a feast for the senses.

The lack of leaves on the trees meant that it was quite bright and showed off all the flowers from those nearby right to those in the far distance.

It was more impressive this way than in the dappled shade that is usually the scene when I visit a bit later in the season.

There was also a greater abundance of flowers other than bluebells.


Wood anemones and primroses were common and I found a couple of early purple orchids on the bank of a stream.

Another unexpected find was this queen hornet. She had obviously had some sort of problem with the mud around. I hope she was able to clean herself up.

And, remembering the title of my blog, I thought I'd show that I really was "walking the dog". Petra enjoyed a sniff around the woods but was quite tired by the end.

Grub up!

I found this grub when tending to my leaf mould pile. The pile was made up with the 2014 autumn leaves and has been undisturbed since then. The grub is about 5cm long. I am unsure whether it is the larva of a stag beetle or a cockchafer since I get both species emerging in the garden in early summer.

I returned the grub carefully to a part of the pile that will not be disturbed for some time.

October in my garden

Both of these caterpillars walked across in front of me one afternoon.



The first is a pine hawk moth, hyloicus pinastri. Unsurprisingly, I was standing under a pine tree when I saw it!





The second is a pale tussock moth, calliteara pudibunda. This feeds on a range of shrubs, so I don't know which it eats in my garden.







Now to the fungi! It seems to have been a particularly prolific year for them here.




A birch polypore has appeared on the same tree as last year.









These are new to me. There is a huge number of these growing in one of my raised beds. I believe they are white domecaps, lyophyllum connatum. I think some spores must have come in with the compost.










I have five or six of these around my grassed areas. I am fairly sure that they are boletes, boletus cisalpinus.










The blue staining in the cut stem and the bruised pores are indicative of this species.

Another common one. There are lots of these common earthballs around the garden. They seemed to start really early this year and I have never seen so many before.





These are not the only fungi in the garden. There are several others. Small ones in the grass and huge clumps on the old tree stumps, but I have not got round to recording all of them! Perhaps I'll photograph a different set next year.

This week's finds

Still getting some sun between the showers so bugs and butterflies are still around the garden.

 

There have been a few holly blues spending some time here. They were usually looking for nectar sources.  One, pictured left, liked the veronica, while another, right, seemed to prefer heather.

I have pictured a few bugs on the blog this year. Up to now, they have all been adults but I've found some nymphs lately. The first one, left, is a very early stage of the hawthorn shieldbug, acanthosoma haemorrhoidale. The nymphs go through about five stages called instars. They moult their skin at the end of each stage. The nymph here is tiny (only 2-3 mm long) and is probably a first instar.

Below is another nymph. This time it's a much later instar, probably fourth, of the common green shieldbug, palomena prasina. It appears to be feeding on the pollen of a cosmos flower but that may be misleading as they are meant to live on sap from trees and shrubs.

Gatekeeper

A bit worn out from all the gatekeeping! This butterfly took time out for a drink of nectar from the August heather. Lucky for the insects, there's a heather in bloom nearly every month of the year in this garden.

Woody's back!

 

This woodpecker is living up to his name. He is pecking lots of holes in this dead birch tree. Some are big enough for him to get right inside the tree. Others are smaller and shallower. Is he creating nest holes or are the holes just ways of getting to the wood boring beetle larvae that must surely inhabit the decaying wood? He (or another male) made a deep hole last year but did not use it as a nest.

Two more bugs

Another invasive foreigner here. This is the rhododendron leafhopper, graphocephala fennahi. It was introduced into Europe from the USA in the early 1900s. This one is an adult.

Both adult and nymph feed on the sap of rhododendron bushes. So it is one of the very few pests of rhododendrons. Some people would say we could do with a few more!













The pond skater, gerris lacustris, is another bug. These insects are carnivorous, preying mainly on other insects which fall onto the water surface. They rely on surface tension and non-wetting legs to walk on the water.