Wildlife night and day

Wildlife continues to come to visit the garden, night and day.

We don't tend to see the night-time visitors, for obvious reasons, but the plum tree has been a big attraction for them,   We had feared that the crop this year would be small, but in fact it has been less than usual but not too bad; it looks as though a grass frost may have reduced the flowering low down on the tree, but the higher branches fruited quite well.  As always, however, a good number of plums have fallen into the grass below.  The grass is still long this year (we haven’t cut the area while we’re waiting for the orchids to set seed), and shows clearly where the wildlife has crushed the grass while foraging for fallen fruit.  We know that foxes like plums, which would explain the dog-noises heard one night and the sizeable well-trodden areas under the tree; but they’re not the only nocturnal foragers.

After the recent heatwave, we’ve had warm but occasionally showery weather; sometimes no more than a faint mizzle, but it slightly revived the browner parts of the garden.  Returning to the house one evening after supper in the summerhouse, with traces of dampness in the air, we mused that the wet was 'good for the garden', and would enable the hedgehogs to find slugs to eat.  On reaching the back door, we found that the hedgehogs were enjoying a more varied diet than just slugs.  On the doorstep, in the darkness, was a black hedgehoggy shape, chomping at a handful of plums that D had left by the doormat.  After a pause for thought, he trotted off into the night.  You can’t be angry with a hedgehog; he’s welcome to a few plums, and we’ve taken to leaving a few overripe ones beside a dish of water overnight.  On one occasion the plums vanished completely, stones and all, which was probably a fox’s doing.  There are at least two hedgehogs snuffling round the garden in the evenings; a larger one has also been seen.  Our nocturnal visitors also include a frog, found one evening near the back door; the weather has turned warm and very dry again, so we’ve taken to ensuring that he has a nice damp spot behind the sweet pea pots to hide in.  The things we do for our wild creatures!

The evidence, morning after the feast!

By day, the birdlife has been joined by the summer butterflies.  The buddleja is in full flower, and it’s the season for the larger butterfly species to have their summer hatching.  Quite a good showing this year.  The large and small whites will be disappointed by the lack of brassicas in the veg plot for them to lay their eggs in (there are a few seedlings in the cold frame, but well protected from the butterflies), but there are plenty of the adults; and there are good numbers of brimstones, meadow browns and gatekeepers about.  We’ve had a few peacocks (only three, though there’s still time for more to come), about the same for tortoiseshells, one or two red admirals, two commas and a painted lady.  I was pleased to spot a silver-washed fritillary, a largish butterfly not unlike a comma in its colour and markings but with a more classic butterfly shape; it was around one day, not seen since.  

Silver-washed fritillary on the buddleja

One big difference this year is the number of blue butterflies.  I’ve had quick sightings of blues in the past, and have assumed that they were holly blues; from their behaviour, I’m inclined to think that at least some of them may well have been, but this year the blues are more numerous, lower-flying and quite definitely common blues.  They like basking in the long grass of the cowslip patch (also still uncut), as well as joining the large numbers of bees on the oregano.  It looks like an unexpected benefit of our partial ‘no-mow’ regime; confirmation of the evidence that long grass attracts insect life, and something definitely to be repeated next year!

Common blue (underside) on oregano

Male common blue

Female common blue

Sorry about the size of the blues in the photos; they're only very little butterflies, but their colour makes them quite eye-catching.

As for the weather, the temperatures are up again, with low 30s centigrade (about 90F) forecast for the next few days (and back to the 20s, low 70s fahrenheit, next week, with some very welcome showers).