Hobbies and Crafts

There are lots of Butterflies around here at the moment Ann,but none have settled long enough for me to see what they are !! (Other than the Cabbage Whites !! )

Lots of butterflies locally too. I've seen plenty of cabbage whites, but this week there have been tortoiseshells and one peacock one.

I wish there weren't so many moths around. Apparently there is an invasion of them in the south east counties and some homes have had clothes moth damage on wool carpets and natural fibre materials. They got to a beautiful Welsh honeycomb/ waffle style wool bedspread at my daughter's house.

Hello Gwyn, We have had a couple of OH's wool sweaters damaged by clothes moths, not sure of the best way to prevent that, none of my sweaters are pure wool these days.
We have had the comma I mentioned ( seen once), plus a few tortoiseshells and lots of cabbage whites and one small ble early on in the summer, not seen it in the hot weather.

We also have two very juvenile blackbirds in the garden, male and female.

Ann
I guess the answer is wrapping freshly laundered items in plastic bags, if storing things made of wool.
On TV, I saw a programme saying you can wrap a damaged item in plastic to contain any grubs, then place it in the freezer for a while to kill any eggs, so halting the cycle.

On a brighter note, I saw a garden tiger moth yesterday. It flew onto the footpath in front of me and closed it's wings. It was the first time I'd seen one that close. It was very striking.


Saw on TV this morning that there is an on-going moth and butterfly survey and they are asking for people to send in records of their sightings.

I think I might have to have a check on woolies here then :-S. I have seen some very small moths in the house.
I saw the request for people to do the Butterfly Survey but I imagine it might be quite difficult as unless they land on plants it could be hard to tell what they are. No problem spotting the Cabbage whites though !

It is as black as your hat here right now but only a few tiny spots of rain. I got quite excited LOL But I have a feeling we may not get the rain after all. Areas around us have had a deluge this afternoon .Just not here. We have had the Wasp Man this afternoon to deal with a wasps nest . It has meant keeping all the windows shut for a while ,but I think now it is safe to open them up again. At least a little bit.

We got back yesterday evening from holiday. We had a week in Cornwall and spent a couple of days each way on the journey, so about 10 days in all. We saw plenty of birds but nothing different to what we see at home, apart from a few buzzards.

We went to the Seal Sanctuary, which OH and I had visited many years ago. There weren’t so many seals there this time and there were none in the hospital area so there wasn’t so much to see this time, but it is good really as it means most of the seals are being rehabilitated and returned to the wild.

When we got back home and walked round the garden we found that the birdbath had dried out but was filthy and about half the water in the little pond had evaporated. We topped them up but I haven’t had time to clean the birdbath yet. Another job to do :-|

Welcome home Vera. Cornwall will have been beautiful in theis weather. It is good as you say about there not being too many Seals in the Sanctuary as the staff there sre dong a great jog in getting them rehabillitated and sending them 'home' :-D

All water in the bird bath and various other things we have that hold water for the birds evaporates so quickly now in this horrible heat. OH is just refilling everything again.
The Pidgeons are the worst culprits in the main Birdbath as once they get in half the water goes out over the sides :-S The Pidgeons are driving us potty at the moment with their courting /fighting or what ever it is they are up to. Plus the usual mess they leave :-| :-|

buzzards are definitely more common than they used to be, we see them often round here, although not usually over the gardens. After it rained yesterday we had 4 goldfinches back on the feeder plus a robin, a lot of sparrows and one great tit. Have not seen a blackbird for a week or so. Oh yes we still get wood pigeons and collard doves, both have a go at the feeders, no wonder we go through a lot of feed.

Ann we have a few Buzzards but more Red Kites, although just lately not too many of either. The Goldfinch I am happy to say have been visitors and unusually in the birdbath :-D. They normally just sit on the TV Aerial .I think they must have been really thirsty in the heat . Blackbirds. we have plenty of those and don't mention the Woodpidgeons .Just the mess everywhere :-S :-S. How can they poo so much???
Just hanging out the washing is a nightmare trying to miss stepping into anything nasty.It is difficult trying to tiptoe around it :-S. My peg bag which is black now is beginning to look white :-S

So nice today to see 6 baby Bluetits all having a bath in the Birdbath . Once again I was too late to get a pic :-S At the same time they were bathing there was a young Woodpecker on the lawn :-D
It is time now for the Bats .So I will go and sit outside to see them :-D

Lots to see today then Jane lucky you

Just had a big flock of Goldfinch land in the Pine Tree :-D A couple have been down for a drink in the Birdbath. Two Woodpidgeons are having a bit of a smooge on one of the branches of the Conifers,and I just saw a Heron fly over. The window feeder is surprisingly quiet. Maybe Thomas is hanging around in the bushes :-S

All happening up in the air then Jane.

Not much happening here on the wildlife front. I did see four little bluetits together on the peanut feeder the other day. It has a fine wire mesh so they can only peck little bits out at a time, so no danger of them choking. I think any birds around must be coming in before I am up as the feed is going down each day and the bird bath is constantly dirty, though I am sure that’s the pigeons.

My daughter moved about 6 months ago to a house with a small pond in the garden. No one had looked after it for years and she decided to drain it and fill it in. Once it was drained and she just had a couple of inches of sludge in the bottom she found herself facing 53 very disgruntled frogs! Daughter and grandson managed somehow to gather them all up, “helped” by their two dogs and find them all new homes in various local ponds :-D. I like frogs but 53 in one go is too much of a good thing.

Goodness Vera that must have been a lot of hopping around. As you say 53 is a bit too many. No doubt they will thrive when they have more room. Let's hope they don't have a homing instinct.

About 20 minutes ago it started to rain here, I thought, as it was only a few drops, it was going to be a light shower but no it is quite heavy steady rain. The garden was certainly ready for it, this is the first for about 3 weeks.

I have a question for you clever people - what could have tipped all the seeds out of a feeder and left the feeder hanging from the tree intact?

I filled the bird feeders quite late yesterday evening. When I looked out this morning the feeder with the wild bird seed was empty. I thought all the food had gone very quickly but went out to refill it. I then saw that all the seeds were on the ground under the tree - not just a few, a whole feeder's worth. But the plastic feeder was still hanging in the tree and screwed tightly into its top and base :-S.

Pigeons have occasionally swung on it till they manage to unscrew it and the seeds and part of the feeder drop to the ground but I don't think they could have emptied it and still left the feeder in one piece. OH suggested a squirrel but the same thing would apply to them and I think they would have been more likely to go for the peanuts.

I am really puzzled. Any ideas folks?


EDIT: I forgot to say that OH didn't want all the seeds germinating in the warm, damp earth under the tree so decided the best way to get them up would be with the vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a snap but I do wonder what the neighbours thought if they saw him vacuuming among the flowers

Lol Vera. It could be a squirrel but I think it would have eaten most of the seeds on the flour if it was. Strange could a cat have gone after a bird and pushed the feeder?

I am sure you know the type of feeder I mean. It’s a clear plastic tube with a few small cut outs at the bottom end which screws into a little tray with a few perches around. Some seeds come through the cut outs onto the tray and as the birds eat them some more drop down.

I can’t see how it could be a cat. An animal pushing it in some way would only knock out the seeds in the tray bit. I can’t empty it without unscrewing the base or the top lid that hangs from the tree but it had been completely emptied. It’s a real mystery :-S

The Culprit sounds very much like a Squirrel to me Vera :-D

It does sound like a squirrel doesn’t it, but I cannot work out how it could have emptied all the seeds out without unscrewing the base or at least knocking the feeder out of the tree. Whatever did it has more brains than me because I can’t do it.