I’m proud to introduce you to The Barley Hollow Project. This is a project created by my daughter for her Welsh Bacc at school. She needs to do 30 hours of community work and she’s decided to work on improving the wildlife area in our village. This is where I have taken a lot of…… Continue reading Introducing The Barley Hollow Project
Category: Nature
Little Green Bugs
I have been seeing a little green bug around in the garden over the last few months. He really liked the Knapweed when they were flowering. I’d see him on them pretty much every time I went out there. I believe he is a Potato Capsid Bug (Closterotomus norwegicus). Despite his name he seems more…… Continue reading Little Green Bugs
Here be Dragons
Well, it’s been a while since my last dragonfly photo, and I was feeling the lack of it. Lately I’ve taking a lot of photos of horses and ponies and hadn’t had much opportunity for other smaller creatures. However this weekend I’ve been pottering round the garden taking photos, then this morning felt I had…… Continue reading Here be Dragons
Hummingbird Hawk-moth
Today I saw my first Hummingbird Hawk-moth! I managed to get a few half-decent photos, but even without perfectly focused images, it was pretty cool! They’re quite big and as the name suggests they flap their wings quickly and hover, poking out their long proboscis to suck up nectar from the flowers. This one flew…… Continue reading Hummingbird Hawk-moth
Small Copper
The weather has finally changed, and I’m glad to have rain. My pond needs it, the garden needs it, and all farmers and owners of grazing animals need it! It’s unusual in the UK to have had such a prolonged spell of dry, hot weather. Now that the rain has come, it’s harder to take…… Continue reading Small Copper
Peacock
The Peacock butterflies were enjoying the Buddleia in the garden today so I got a few photos 🙂 It’s my birthday today and my garden has celebrated with me 🙂 I got some presents for my pond too which is fab – a solar fountain and a Flowering Rush to grow in it. Hopefully if…… Continue reading Peacock
Moth for lunch
While walking at Cors Caron last weekend I spotted a Damselfly looking a little odd. From a distance it looked like it had a rather distorted whitish head! When I got a closer look I realised it was eating a quite large lunch of a moth. Poor moth, but Damselflies need to eat too! It…… Continue reading Moth for lunch
Marmalade Hoverfly planning for the future
At the weekend I was watching a Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) visiting my Knapweed. She seemed to be checking out various stalks and choosing carefully which one to land on. She then proceeded to do what looked like laying eggs. She seemed to choose the stalks with many aphids attached, so it made me wonder…… Continue reading Marmalade Hoverfly planning for the future
Yellow Loosestrife
Yellow Loosestrife take quite some time to flower. They seem to spend weeks and weeks looking as if they’ll flower any minute, and then finally a profusion of yellow blooms open and make it worth waiting for. The flower buds appeared at the beginning of June: By mid-June (15th) they looked fit to burst, ready…… Continue reading Yellow Loosestrife