Hummingbird Hawk Moth!

As a family we all enjoy looking in our moth trap in the morning. You never really know what you might find as you delve in to it. 

One moth that you won't see in the trap is a Hummingbird Hawk moth, so we thought we were unlikely to ever see one. 

A few years back we were given a Verbena Bonariensis, a hardy perennial, which produces tall stems with a head of small purple flowers. Not only are these nice to look at, they are great at attracting butterflies and moths. 

A few days back whilst have a little wander around the garden, I spotted something shooting and whizzing around the garden, it was Hummingbird hawk moth! 

I called the family over and even had time to take a few pictures, although the wings beat so fast it was hard to get a decent picture! 

The closest thing you are ever likely to see to a humming bird in the UK.

Amazing to see, and a great result from our targeted planting idea. Put the correct plants in and things will make their own way in! 

Tristan Bawn

As part of out plan, we decided to let the grass grow long down the bottom of our garden to see what benefited from it. We were quite amazed to see a Common Blue and a Brown Argus basking in the sunshine! 

They seemed to arrive early evening, just right for when the sun came across on to the long grass. 

We have had quite a few butterflies in the garden this year, but these have really topped it off for us this year! 

More on the other butterflies, including our butterfly count to be added soon.

Tristan

Common Blue

Brown Argus

Welcome to Our Wildlife Garden Journey!
We are a family of four, Tristan, Vicky and kids, Kaelan 3 1/2, Luna 7 months, and we live in a small village on the outskirts of Bristol.  When we moved into our new home in 2011, we decided to try and welcome wildlife to our garden by making our garden as wildlife friendly as possible, as well as being a usable garden for the kids and growing some vegetables.  A bit of a balance, with successes and failures, and loads learnt!

Our aim for this blog is to share our successes and failures and any tips we have picked up and discovered along the way, with the hope that we may pick up a few more tips from you!  Perhaps we can inspire someone, or be inspired by someone else along the journey, but most of all to enjoy the amazing wildlife the UK has to offer!

We are continually being surprised by what turns up in our garden, one of our favourites being a little rabbit who spent 4 months keeping the grass down!