Well as winter is pretty much upon us, a lot of the plants have died back in the garden, revealing hidden plants we forgot we had.
We have avoided clearing the seed heads of a lot of plants to leave food for the birds, but we have also filled our feeders up with seed too. In the last month we have had a range of tits and finches in the garden, with one of my favourites being the Greenfinch. If the light is right, you get a sudden green flash shoot across the garden, really nice as the rest of the colour starts disappearing!
I recently walked around the small wooded area at the end of our road and watched Gold crests jumping around the trees chirping away. We had one on our feeder when we first moved in to our house and hopefully we might see some more this year!
This time of year you still get to see a few things around the garden and my attention this year has turned to the Vapour moths thats seem to do well. Over the last few years we have had them in the front and back garden as larvae and even found the flightless female with eggs as shown below:
I have taken note of their food plants, which include Lady's Mantle and Dock leaf, and have introduced more around the garden. Hopefully this will help them over the next few years. Its a real privilege to have them to look at!
Another thing we have plenty of in the garden are furry caterpillars. Sadly not the Garden Tiger moth, a favourite from my childhood, but instead Ruby Tiger moths and Ermines. I'm not complaining though its a nice replacement, but worrying for the Garden Tiger moth that used to be a very common sight, but seems rare now!
Tristan Bawn
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