Sunday 16th August, 2015
I have decided to label the posts as "summer" until the end of August although there are already early signs on autumn . . . like a slight chill in the early morning air, heavy dew and even some condensation inside the bedroom window in the morning, as well as these ripening haws on the thorn which I saw through the dining room window while I was birdwatching.
I doubt whether autumn will be much different from this alleged summer of 2015 which has been mostly cool and much wetter than average. The plants have enjoyed the damp weather though. Every day this week I have been out in the garden with my snips and cut back a large muck bucket of old growth on the perennials and weeds, but the garden isn't looking any neater yet.
The birds that I was watching when I noticed the berries on the hawthorn on Thursday morning were a female blackbird and a couple of robins. The blackbird spent some time on the corner of the lawn - sitting on an ant nest. This "anting" behaviour is weird and this is only the second time that I have watched a blackbird writhing around on an ant nest, preening, scratching and eating some of the ants.
Even this young robin was fascinated and kept approaching the blackbird to study its unusual behaviour.
Then an older robin arrived. This is the time of year when they start to defend their territories and drive out other robins. There was a short threatening flutter, followed by a brief face-off until they both decided to pretend that the other bird wasn't there.
On my way to the laundry I looked out of the study window and saw two blackcaps in the raspberries, so I fetched my camera. When I returned the only bird around was a juvenile blackbird. He (or she) was sitting on the frame eyeing the remaining fruit.
When I returned from the laundry I noticed activity in the bushes and tapped on the window. Three blackbirds flew out. I don't mind sharing the fruit with them but they do tend to strip the bushes, leaving nothing for us and the small birds.
It was a good sunny "butterfly morning" so I went out to examine the buddleia near the garage. At first there was only one meadow brown enjoying the nectar. Then it was joined by a small tortoiseshell, and then another small tortoiseshell arrived, and then two more - four in all. On my way back to the house I noticed one sunning itself on the Sky dish and got a close-up. The photo was rather disappointing because of the glare from the background.
Then I saw a white butterfly in the back garden, and a hummingbird hawkmoth on the white buddleia. I went out on another butterfly hunt, this time in the back garden. The white butterfly circled overhead a couple of times but didn't land in the garden. The only one at ground level was a meadow brown.
The first flowers are opening on the knapweed, a good plant for attracting butterflies so we may get some more visiting the garden soon.
Friday was mainly cloudy and overcast after overnight rain. The Island just got the edge of the weather system that brought heavy rain to the mainland. But we had butterfly weather again on Saturday. There were no butterflies on the mauve buddleia but I saw a peacock sunning itself on the bedroom windowsill. There was no point in taking a photo because of the bright background.
Later I saw a small butterfly up on the wildflower bank and a white butterfly feeding on the oregano by the summerhouse. The white one was a green veined white. They seem to be by far the most common whites in the garden this year.
The small butterfly was more exciting. It turned out to be a female common blue. The first blue that I have seen this year. I can't post an accurate life-size image because the photos will be displayed as different sizes on phones, tablets and computers but this is one of our smallest butterflies - with a wingspan of approximately 32mm.
Today was pencilled in as mowing day and was supposed to be "Dry and bright" but turned out be overcast for most of the day with one or two brief showers. I wandered around the garden looking for things to photograph. The clouds looked rather threatening so I decided to put off the mowing until tomorrow and did another session of clearing under the hawthorns behind the house instead.
There are very few new flowers at this time but I found a patch of astilbe which hasn't been photographed yet this summer.
Then I wandered around looking for insects. One of the Manx bird sites sometimes features insect photos under the heading "The little stuff". Some of the subjects are named but the photos are usually accompanied by this comment "Dunno, by all means tell us . . . " Insects are difficult because there are such a vast variety. For instance my little insect book says there are 5000 species of hover-flies alone.
This is one of the smaller varieties of hover-fly which I have seen in the garden. I am not going to attempt to identify it!
And here is another "unknown". The only yellow flies I could find on the internet were yellow dung flies - but this doesn't look quite yellow enough and surely not even a stupid fly could mistake a knapweed flower for dung.
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