Frog End Wildlife

An update

2011-08-01T06:49:00.015+01:00

The garden has been full of butterflies recently - red admirals, peacocks, small tortoiseshells, commas, speckled woods, gatekeepers, whites and blues.

Peacock butterfly.

I spoke too soon about there being no dragonflies emerging this year. We've had about 30 hawkers emerge in the last couple of weeks, but it has still been a terrible year for chasers and it's been months since we had any damselflies in the garden. Some of the exuviae are larger than others, but I'm not sure if that's a male/female thing or if more than one species has emerged. Unfortunately the recommended book for identifying UK exuviae (Field Guide to the Larvae and Exuviae of British Dragonflies) is unavailable on either amazon or abe books.

This female southern hawker emerged on Friday morning, but didn't leave her perch until Sunday lunchtime

It was dry and warm the entire time so I'm not sure what took her so long, but at least she made it in the end.

I haven't dipped either of the ponds for several weeks so will have a go this week to see what else I can find.

I found two larvae of the orange ladybird, a new species for Frog End, on the underside of some hawthorn leaves.

Harlequin invasion

2011-07-19T12:20:00.002+01:00

I wrote most of this blog a day before the BBC wrote an article on ladybird spottting, but I didn't get a chance to add the photos until now.

We've had a lot of ladybirds in the garden this year. They absolutely adore the tansy Tanacetum vulgare that we have in the wildflower border.

These are different colour variants of the invasive Harlequin ladybird:
H. axyridis succinea:

H. axyridis conspicua and H. axyridis succinea

I can't find a name for the red one below. Since the harlequin is so variable it's probable that there aren't names for all the colour variants, but if anyone knows differently please let me know.

We've also had 2-spots and 7-spots in the garden this year:

Worryingly I'm getting more and more used to seeing Harlequins and the native species are beginning to seem really small when I do see them.

Dragonflies every day

2011-07-17T02:00:00.011+01:00

As many of you will know from various family blogs, Ian and I got married yesterday. There will no doubt be posts with photos from the wedding on various blogs, but I couldn't resist putting a couple of wildlife-related photos on here.

As readers will know I am particularly fond of dragonflies and from now on I will be able to look at some every day. After seeing a wedding ring engraved with fish I had the idea to have ours with dragonflies and Smooch Rings very kindly agreed to engrave them for us:

Ian, being a great lover of otters was not to be outdone so he had a cane hand-carved with an otter by the extremely talented Mark Davies:

A poor year for dragonflies and damselflies

2011-07-03T23:06:00.004+01:00

I'm afraid that I've neglected this blog terribly this year, but of late the garden has become full of lots of exciting little critters so I can't keep from posting any longer.

It's been a very poor year so far for dragonflies at Frog End. Although lots of damselflies emerged several weeks ago we haven't seen one for over a month and this female southern hawker is the only dragonfly we've had so far this year

I wonder if the harsh winter killed off a lot of larvae. Certainly the drought earlier in the year would have done - we were very sad to find that one of our favourite nature reserves for odonata - the Old Sludge Beds in Exeter had dried up almost completely by early summer.

I was very pleased that the hawker chose to land on the native flowers in our garden (this one's hemp agrimony) - whilst I do have hundreds and hundreds of southern hawker photos most show them perched on trees or bushes rather than flowers.

Newts

2011-02-24T20:48:00.003Z

Another warm sunny day in Exeter and the frogs were joined in their spawning by some of the newts, two of which were very close to the surface. I also saw a dragonfly larva close to the surface yesterday - hopefully it wasn't considering emerging in February.

Apologies if you're already getting sick of frog photos, but I can't get enough of them at the moment!

The garden is alive with the sound of croaking

2011-02-19T13:24:00.006Z

The larger of our two ponds has been wriggling for the last few hours - literally wriggling due to all the frogs. I had been trying to count the number of new clumps of spawn each day, but with over 30 frogs in the pond today I've had to give up. As usual when I tried to get close most of the frogs dived under the surface, but this shot, rather blurred and taken at a distance should give you an idea of what it was like:

The croaking was so loud it could be heard in the kitchen (the pond is at the bottom of the garden, several metres away). I took some videos with my camera to record the sound of croaking, but the images are terribly poor so I switched to a video camera after lunch. Hopefully I'll figure out how to edit a bit of the video and post it here in a few days.

Frogs at Frog End

2011-02-18T14:30:00.009Z

The clumps of frog spawn in the ponds are growing rapidly in number (totalling over 20 so far) and today I finally managed to sneak a look at the frogs. For some reason frogs at Frog End are incredibly shy and once I'd got closer than 2 metres from the pond they dived under the surface to hide amongst the plants and leaves.

Although there are plenty of crocus and snowdrops flowering in other gardens near here this primula is the only Spring flower to have come out in our garden so far:

Signs of life

2011-02-12T14:09:00.003Z

After several months of only the usual birds we finally have some new life in the garden - frog spawn. It's a warm sunny day here in Exeter and the frogs have obviously decided that it's Spring - exactly two weeks earlier than last year. Hopefully they're right.

Pond Dip - August 2010

2010-08-31T16:23:00.004+01:00

Dad and I had fun dipping the pond last Sunday. I was very pleased to find around 20 southern hawker larvae - the most dragonfly larvae we've ever found at one time.

This one had recently shedded its skin - as the skin is normally hard they have to shed their skin to enable them to grow:

As usual we also found pond skaters, water slaters, leeches, newtpoles and a few tadpoles. It looks as though all the damselfly and mayfly larvae have now emerged.

August

2010-08-28T18:56:00.002+01:00

Late summer at Frog End has brought an abundance of wildlife and the insect lists for the garden are growing rapidly. Unfortunately, even longer is the list of species I've yet to identify.

Speckled woods are only absent at night and when it rains:

We had a wall brown a couple of weeks ago, taking the butterfly species count up to 18, of which we've seen 17 in 2010:

After a poor mid-summer the dragonflies are about again and so far this last week we've had a golden-ringed dragonfly (that refused to be photographed), a common darter:

and a migrant hawker:

This large hoverfly Volucella inanis seems to like the buddleia flowers:

and the goldenrod is covered with green shield bugs of all sizes and stages of development:

More butterflies

2010-07-28T15:31:00.006+01:00

Some more photos of the species currently in the garden:

Red admiral:

Holly blue:

Green-veined white:

Comma:

Just goes to show

2010-07-28T13:21:00.010+01:00

To all those caterpillar squashers out there...

I left our big white verbascum (I don't know which species it is) to be decimated by the mullein moth caterpillars earlier in the year. They must have eaten about a third of the total leaf area and chewed through the central flower stem.

This is a close up of some of the leaves six weeks ago (a week or so before the worst damage was done):

one of the cute culprits:

and the verbascum today:

It's flowered better this year than any other - probably as a result of the main stalk being completely severed. Just goes to show that killing the little munchers isn't always in the best interests of the plant (though I admit our large white caterpillar vs Brussels sprouts episode a couple of years ago didn't go so well for the sprouts!)

Common blue

2010-07-25T21:31:00.002+01:00

Half an hour after commenting that the local garden centre had common blue butterflies and we did not I spotted this one at Frog End:

Doing the rounds

2010-07-25T21:24:00.003+01:00

(please ignore the sound of sawing in the background!!)

The Big Butterfly Count

2010-07-25T11:35:00.011+01:00

Right on time for the Big Butterfly Count the garden is suddenly filled with them.

Our list for the 15 minutes included the following species:

small white
large white
holly blue
brimstone
peacock
comma
small tortoiseshell
speckled wood

No gatekeepers, skippers or meadow browns today, but given how few of them there are about I think that's pretty representative.

Brimstone on field scabious:

Peacock on buddleia:

Small tortoiseshell:

Holly blue on hemp agrimony:

You can submit your butterfly count here

Since we did the count this morning we've had a red admiral and our first ever common blue in the garden. Suddenly it's not seeming that bad a year for butterflies at Frog End.

Species Surveys 2010

2010-07-23T16:37:00.010+01:00

I've decided to survey the insects present in the garden over the next few days / weeks (depending on the weather and how busy I am). Of course I won't manage to survey everything and I suspect that there are many families that I simply won't get round to, but I shall try to at least begin species lists for the bees, wasps and flies, and to add to the very short lists I currently have for beetles, bugs, moths and hoverflies.

I took a lot of photos today and it's going to take a long time to identify most of the species - particularly as I don't know any bee species, but I can immediately add these two species to the lists for Frog End:

Two-spot ladybird:

Meadow brown butterfly:

There were two really exciting finds of the day:

1) Two southern hawker larvae in the pond:

Southern hawkers have oviposited in the pond both last summer and the summer before, but I'd never previously managed to find any larvae in the pond.

2) This wonderful rove beetle. At least I think it's a rove beetle. It was just sitting there on a buddleia leaf. I've never seen anything like it in the garden before - it was huge!

Out came the sun

2010-07-22T19:01:00.014+01:00

After a few days of urgently needed rain the sun came out again this afternoon and with it came the insects:

Harlequin ladybird on Achillea cerise queen:

Hoverfly (I think it's Syrphus ribesii) on Rudbeckia hirta gloriosa:

I'm not sure which species this is:

Azure damselfly on field scabious:

The common wasps love the Persicaria amplexicaulis:

After a poor start to the summer I've seen several species of butterfly in the garden over the last couple of weeks including small whites, large whites, speckled woods, blues (they never settle so I can't tell which species), gatekeepers, ringlets (a new species for Frog End), small skippers, commas and this peacock:

Small skipper

2010-06-20T15:55:00.004+01:00

A small skipper Thymelicus sylvestris visited the garden today. It was particularly interested in the watering can, but it did settle on the gooseberry for a couple of minutes before returning to its favourite spot.

Although the small skipper is a new species for Frog End it's been a pretty poor year for butterflies in general. Although it's difficult to go outdoors without spotting a speckled wood there have been very few other species about - probably a result of the wet summer we had last year. If the moth caterpillars are anything to go by then this sunny weather should result in a boom in the population of some species at least.

Mullein moth caterpillars

2010-06-15T21:30:00.004+01:00

The mullein moth caterpillars are getting fatter and fatter:

I do love their cute little feet!

Spots and stripes

2010-06-11T11:40:00.013+01:00

Not a single broad-bodied chaser photograph in this post I promise!

I was going to dead-head some of the verbascums that have finished flowering when I noticed that they were occupied by some rather cute individuals. I think they are the mullein moth Cucullia verbasci, but the photos on the web look slightly different and I'm not sure how variable it is. Yet again I've made a mental note to buy a book on caterpillars.

They're causing quite a bit of damage to the verbascum leaves, but I don't mind that at all

The caterpillars were not the only ones enjoying the verbascums. My mother has a fear of weevils after once finding one in her tea so as a child I was always responsible for removing any that were foolish enough to come inside the house. This is by far one of the prettiest I've seen:

I think it's Cionus hortulanus.

Lupins

2010-06-06T21:33:00.009+01:00

The purple lupins are in full bloom at the moment. I'm not sure why, but the purple ones always seem to flower first, followed by the pink and white ones (shame I never seem to get yellow, orange or red ones when I grow them from seed).

Although not native to the UK, lupins are very popular with the insects, especially the bees, but I've not seen a dragonfly on one until today:

Female broad-bodied chaser.

I couldn't resist taking some photographs whilst the sprinkler was on this evening:

Water soldiers

2010-05-30T21:33:00.010+01:00

After two years of doing very little the water soldier Stratiotes aloides populations in the ponds have exploded.

They're proving very popular with lots of the species that frequent the ponds:

common frog

the hoverfly Helophilus pendulus

larva of the broad-bodied chaser dragonfly

large red damselflies in tandem

A poor choice of plant

2010-05-26T10:11:00.007+01:00

Each morning I go down to the ponds a couple of times to look for newly emerging dragonflies and damselflies (big advantage of working at home). Until now I'd found lots of exuviae and lots of recently emerged individuals, but had never caught one in the act of emerging. I was quite surprised (and pleased) to catch this broad-bodied chaser larva climbing up a stalk of mint.

Unfortunately the mint proved difficult to climb, the larva fall back in the water and was unable to climb out again before the dragonfly emerged, on its side. At this point I think that the wings were damaged and although she did manage to climb a little she died a few hours later.

Survival

2010-05-20T09:25:00.006+01:00

I'm very pleased to tell you that the broad-bodied chaser survived the night and that as of around 9am this morning she opened her wings. I think it's now only a matter of time before she'll be warm enough to take flight.

20th May 09:20

I was wrong

2010-05-19T15:15:00.009+01:00

It turns out that despite the cold, wind and rain a brave broad-bodied chaser has decided to emerge from one of our ponds today.

Female broad-bodied chaser Libellula depressa at

14:58

15:03

17:53

Her wings seem close to fully developed, but it's now 19:20 and still she hasn't opened them. There was very little heat earlier in the day and I suspect it's too cold for her to take her maiden flight now. Hopefully she'll make it through the night, but I'm not sure what her chances are. Fingers crossed.

Watery wildlife

2010-05-19T08:24:00.015+01:00

The weather here has been much warmer this week and as a result the plants are beginning to bloom and insects return.

Our first damselflies of the year began to emerge on May 17th and continued on the 18th. It's pouring down with rain this morning so I doubt that there will be any more emerging today.

These are large red damselflies Pyrrhosoma nymphula and their exuviae:

Each time I bent down to look for damselflies this frog leaped to the safety of the pond:

The water crowfoot is flowering for the first time (though admittedly there's only one flower so far) in the larger pond:

The bugle and marsh marigolds are almost past their best now, but hopefully the yellow flag iris will flower soon and provide some more colour around the ponds.

Larvae in a log

2010-05-04T22:39:00.005+01:00

The back garden has been a bit neglected over the past couple of weeks. First the weather was so dry that I spent my time desperately watering the garden to stop the plants from dying and then the rain came and the weeds multiplied and grew. Today I managed to get out and begin finding the plants bordering the pond. Between the plants and the water are a number of rotting logs and whilst weeding nearby part of one collapsed, exposing several beetle larvae.

These are the larvae of the lesser stag beetle. Unlike the larvae of the greater stag beetle that live in logs buried underground, lesser stag beetle larvae are usually found in logs above ground, often in great numbers. Although there are a few other species whose larvae could be confused with those of the stag beetle, these can be identified using the guide to larvae on the Great Stag Hunt website.

Firsts for 2010

2010-04-06T19:31:00.009+01:00

Spring is well on its way and every day we see species that we hadn't previously seen in 2010.

Our first small frog of the year hopped into a hole shortly after Ian had finished digging:

I found my first dragonfly larva (a broad-bodied chaser) of the year in the pond a couple of days ago. Of course it (and hopefully several others) was in the pond all winter, but I'd failed to find any on previous dips this year. I wonder if my finding it this time was due to a change in its behaviour (e.g., the depth it chose to occupy) or to my simply being able to stand the water temperature for longer than earlier in the year!

I fished my first ladybird of the year out of the pond and was pleased to find it both still alive and also a new species for Frog End - the 4-spot pine ladybird (also found to feed upon insects on Ash trees, there being one only a few meters from the pond):

Today a pair of peacock butterflies were sunning themselves on one of the paths

Spring has sprung

2010-03-27T12:47:00.010Z

Spring is progressing in the South of England. The snowdrops and crocus have now finished flowering

The daffodils, primroses and anemones are out

Yesterday the tadpoles emerged from their spawn - exactly one month since the spawn was laid

and today we saw our first small white butterfly of the year. Roll on summer!

Species identified

2010-03-24T12:47:00.004Z

Thanks to Jeremy at the garden pond blog for identifying some of the creatures in our ponds this Spring...

The damselfly larva at the bottom of the picture is a large red damselfly, of which there are many at Frog End. The individual at the top is either a blue-tailed or an azure damselfly (though I haven't observed the latter mating here so I think it's more likely to be a blue-tailed)

This is a phantom midge larva (family Chaoboridae):

Pond Dip - March 2010

2010-03-20T17:12:00.007Z

This morning I popped out for a walk round the garden during a break in the rain and couldn't resist dipping the ponds to see what I could find. As usual there were lots of newtpoles and hundreds of water slaters. I also found this adult newt, which looks like it might be pregnant:

These are damselfly larvae at different stages of development (though they could well also be different species):

If anyone can tell me what this little creature is I'd be most pleased. Unfortunately I didn't measure it, but it was probably around 5mm long:

British Waterways' Wildlife Survey 2010

2010-03-19T10:18:00.005Z

Like the rest of us, British Waterways are concerned about the impacts that our recent harsh winter may have had upon animal populations in the UK.

You can help them by keeping an eye out for wildlife when visiting your local waterway and completing their online wildlife survey. They're interested in a wide range of species, from water voles to kingfishers, newts, sticklebacks and bumblebees.

Frog spawn

2010-02-26T16:48:00.005Z

After a couple of weeks of daily trips to the ponds I was finally rewarded today with our first frog spawn of the year. Interestingly the frog chose to spawn in the smaller pond, which is currently rather cloudy because we've had a lot of rain recently and when the garden floods the clay particles sit suspended in the water for days.

The sun is currently shining, the first crocuses came out this week and it feels like spring has finally arrived at Frog End.

If you have a garden pond you can help the woodland trust research the impacts of climate change by recording when frog spawn first appears and adding your records to their nature's calendar.

Out with the old

2010-02-14T19:01:00.008Z

The greenhouse that was here when we moved in has proved very useful, but it is missing several panes of glass and has always been a little too small for our growing needs. We have therefore decided to replace it. Unfortunately that means saying goodbye to the weird and wonderful mosses and lichens that it has been home to.

This beautiful lichen is (I think) a species of Cladonia:

We have a norway maple tree behind our back fence and the greenhouse was just one of the many many places that we'd find little maple seedlings popping up:

Five for silver...

2010-02-13T21:18:00.006Z

Magpies are usually only occasional visitors to Frog End, but in the last couple of weeks one has made a daily mid-morning visit. Often it only sits in the tree and looks down at the garden, but sometimes it is brave enough to come down and feed. Today our usual magpie was joined by another four. I can't recall ever seeing so many at once before

One for sorrow,
two for joy,
three for a girl,
four for a boy,
five for silver,
six for gold,
seven for a secret,
never to be told,
eight for a wish,
nine for a kiss,
ten for a time
of joyous bliss.

Hitching a ride

2010-01-25T17:58:00.004Z

When I go through old photographs it often amazes me how I missed things at the time I took the photo. For example I took a number of photos of this little froglet and yet have only now discovered that another creature was crawling all over it. I've absolutely no idea what it is or even if it is a terrestrial or aquatic animal. All suggestions welcome!

Unidentified species

2010-01-23T21:19:00.012Z

I've started to go through my million and one photographs taken in the garden to add to the species lists for Frog End.

The following have not yet been identified. If you recognise any of these species please leave a comment. Thanks!

Hundreds of little larvae in the pond at the beginning of May 2008:

Eggs underneath a frogbit leaf in the pond (July 2008):

I've uncovered several of these orange moth chrysalises when digging in our clay soil:

Some sort of crab? spider (bonus points for the hoverfly!):

There'll be a few more of these in a few days - mostly moths I suspect.

Pond Dip - January 2010

2010-01-23T12:25:00.024Z

Jeremy at the garden pond blog has been receiving lots of reports of dead frogs and other pond animals resulting from the recent cold spell in the UK. I hadn't seen any dead creatures at Frog End, but our ponds are pretty deep so I decided to dip them this morning to see what I could find. I was pleased to find lots of animals happily swimming around and not a single dead creature.

Every dip with the net came back with a number of water slaters - they're definitely the most common species of animal in our ponds that can be seen with the naked eye:

Many of the nets contained water snails and quite a few had baby smooth newts. The newts seem to be doing fine despite the cold weather, probably because our ponds are quite deep and it was easy for them not to get caught in the ice. I found a few leeches and one damselfly larva, but it was very small and I may have missed others amongst all the vegetation that I pulled out. The main absences compared with when I dipped the ponds last summer were a lack of mayfly larvae and pond skaters.

The most exciting discoveries of the day were a bug and a beetle. As when I dipped the small pond in the summer I found a backswimmer, but I also found a common black diving beetle in the larger pond - a new species for Frog End.

Backswimmer in the usual upside-down position:

After a frustrating 10 minutes trying to get it to turn over in the water I resorted to taking it out of the water for a couple of seconds:

Common black diving beetle (I had a feeling my photos were going to be poor so I shot a video as well):

Unlike Jeremy I didn't find any dead dragonfly larvae, but nor did I find any live ones. Not that I'm concerned because I know that several species are breeding in the ponds and it's been difficult to find the larvae in the past - mainly due to the depth of the ponds and the large amount of vegetation they contain.

If you have a pond in the UK you can help UK charity Pond Conservation understand the effects of the cold spell by taking part in the Big Pond Thaw Survey.

Species Lists Update

2010-01-17T11:10:00.007Z

The species lists for Frog End are growing longer every few days, so rather than blogging each addition I've decided to add the lists to the right hand side of the blog. So far I've only put up mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and dragonflies, but I hope to add some other insect groups later in the year (when I've identified some more from my photographs).

This rather bedraggled garden tiger moth?? caterpillar was on the house wall yesterday:

The snow

2010-01-10T12:39:00.000Z

It snowed overnight on January 5th/6th at Frog End, but I didn't get out with the camera until yesterday, by which time the lawn and ponds were covered with hundreds of little footprints... some cat, some bird and a few human where I'd gone to feed the birds

The small pond is only distinguishable by the marginal plants:

In the meadow we can build a snowman...

2010-01-10T10:34:00.003Z

and pretend that he is parson Brown.
He'll say are you married, we'll say no man,
but you can do the job when you're in town
(lyrics from Winter Wonderland)

Parson Brown visited Frog End on the morning of the 6th and Ian and I got engaged :-)

Feeding the birds

2010-01-05T23:34:00.002Z

Exeter appears to be one of the few places in England that hasn't yet had snow this winter, but it is still freezing cold at Frog End. The ponds have been covered in a layer of ice since before Christmas - much thicker than when they last froze in early February 2009.

During such cold weather it's vitally important to put out food and water for the birds and here in Devon farmers have been given bird food to put out to feed the rare cirl buntings.

Upon returning to Exeter at New Year I was surprised to find that our bird feeders weren't empty, but upon closer examination I found that much of the food had frozen inside the feeders. My attempts to clean them out have achieved very little. Instead I've resorted to putting food down on the brick path beside the main pond. No doubt I'll be annoyed when a million little grasses emerge in the gaps between the bricks in the Spring, but for now the arrangement seems to be suiting the birds.

2009 at Frog End - a summary

2009-12-20T14:03:00.022Z

I've been looking back at the species lists I wrote for Frog End a year ago and as I'd expected 2009 wasn't a particularly great year for wildlife in the garden - not compared with 2008 at least. We had quite a warm winter followed by a very warm spring - I remember getting sun-burn in April. From May onwards (unfortunately coinciding with when my family came to visit) we had several weeks of rain followed by a really dry end of summer / early autumn (I was out watering the garden every day in September). The wet summer was quite poor for insects and we saw two fewer species of butterfly and dragonfly than in 2008. Although we saw a couple of baby slow worms and one adult the female didn't sit and sun bathe on the fence every day as she did last year (probably because there wasn't any sun to be found).

The good news is that the pond plants have become established and the ponds themselves have had many more species this year including water beetles and mayfly larvae. Our first dragonflies and damselflies emerged and the frogs spawned for the first time. My father also spotted our first hedgehog.

A squirrel drinking at the pond

Grasshopper on the house wall

We had our second thick frost last Thursday and despite rain overnight last night the frost is still thick on the ground. Both ponds have frozen over and we now have some rather ugly blue ice cream tubs sitting on the ponds leaving an air gap in the ice. The cold weather appears to have doubled the number of birds feeding in the garden and I've seen chaffinches and dunnocks for the first time at Frog End this week. We've also had a few goldfinches - a species we hadn't seen since the early summer. Most of the birds are not yet brave enough to come close to the house (there being little cover established at this end) so I have no good photographs, but all that should change in the New Year when I shall be attempting digiscoping for the first time.

I said that MOST of the birds are not yet brave enough to come close to the house. Yesterday morning a pigeon sitting on the roof presumably slipped due to the frost and fell down the chimney. Luckily Ian removed the old fireplace in the study earlier in the year and we've yet to block it up again so it was relatively easy to remove the pigeon. Of course it had to sit in my seedtrays on the windowsill before we got it out the window so now there is soil all over the christmas presents, but I'm sure my family won't mind much.

Common darter exuviae

The highlights of the year for me include our first dragonflies emerging, watching a squirrel hug a flower and dipping the ponds. Looking forward to 2010 with anticipation...

The front garden

2009-12-18T16:11:00.021Z

Looking back through this blog I've noticed that it may look as if Frog End only has a back garden. In fact we have quite a large front garden. Not large compared with a house out of the city, but it is the largest front garden on our street and probably the largest I've seen in Exeter for a terraced house this size.

The reasons that I rarely blog about the front are twofold. Firstly the front has comparatively little wildlife, 95% of the houses on our street having drives or paved over front gardens. Birds can be seen passing overhead, but I can't recall seeing any actually in the front garden. Similarly I've not seen any reptiles or amphibians in the front. Insects are more frequent visitors and in the summer the front has more grasshoppers than the back garden (though I've no idea why). Secondly I have to admit that our front garden has never really been presentable enough to photograph - at least not since we started playing with it.

When we arrived the front garden was much like the back - very lumpy grass on a slope containing the odd tree stump and a single border round the edge filled with gravel and a couple of shrubs. Since then we have toyed with a number of ideas. At first I had my way and convinced Ian that it should all be flower borders (with no lawn at all). Next we decided that we had better have a drive in the hope that it would increase the value of the house and stop next door from parking in front of our house all the time. The drive seemed like a good idea as we had tonnes of gravel from the back garden to get rid of. We brought over half of that through to the front before deciding that we didn't really like it and the builder pointing out that without a solid base it would just sink with the car on top. Next we considered having someone in to put in a paved driveway, but looking at the prices and considering that we probably wouldn't bother driving the car on to the front we quickly rejected that idea. Now we are back to the original plan of flower borders and I have to say that I am relieved.

Over the last couple of years I have planted a third of the garden (the part that would not have been driveway) and began making a native hedge on the right hand side. Yesterday we finished the native hedge, added a beech hedge along the wall next to the pavement and some other native trees next to the wall on the left. Ian is currently in the middle of changing our water supply from lead to plastic piping. He has now finished digging a two-foot deep trench for the pipe from the street to the house and is starting to dig under the paving next to the house to the house wall. As soon as the new pipe is in I will have my fun, remake the path to the front gate and plant the rest of the garden.

August 2007 - just after we moved in to Frog End

April 2008

June 2008 - the real low point when the front was filled with all the junk we unearthed in the back garden before the skip arrived

9th December 2009 - Ian clearing away the gravel to prepare for the trench

18th December 2009

The new beech hedge:

Despite the big trench I still think our messy front garden looks nicer than next doors tidier, but rather blue, back garden:

Hedging

2009-12-17T18:05:00.000Z

Our hedging and other assorted trees arrived today - a bit later than planned, but well in time for Christmas. We bought 15 beech trees for a hedge along the front wall, the following native species to put in the mixed hedges to the left and right of the front garden

Buckthorn, Alder
Dogwood, Common
Rose, Sweet Briar
Rose, Field
Rose, Dog
Blackthorn
Hawthorn
Hornbeam
Rowan/Mountain Ash
Maple, Field

some non-native dogwoods to put in the borders, a crab apple to replace the hydrangea by the front door (Exeter city council obviously thought planting a hydrangea in every council house garden was a good idea, but personally I don't like them), a couple of currant bushes and I couldn't resist buying a Korean Fir and a walnut to go in pots until we have a bigger garden. By the time we'd got everything into the ground and watered it had been dark for an hour so I shall have to take some photos tomorrow.

Having watched "The age of stupid" the other night we're quite pleased to be planting and not digging things up for a change.

Our first 'proper' frost

2009-12-01T21:45:00.002Z

We may not have had any snow so far this winter, but we did have our first 'proper' frost today. We've had a few small frosts before, but they've always melted prior to Ian leaving for work at around 8am. This stuck until 11am.

Of course we were bound to start having frosts now that we have a load of hedging that will need to be put in the ground next week.

Down at the bottom of the garden...

2009-09-19T17:22:00.008+01:00

One of the (admittedly several) reasons we fell in love with the house was the field and row of trees at the bottom of the gardens on our section of the road (our road being an L-shape most of the residents are unlucky enough to back on to other houses).

The trees block the view of the houses on the other side of the field (except in winter), provide us with squirrels, birds, insects and lots of little tree seedlings. Mostly these are norway maples and we have a lovely little collection in pots at the moment.

Unfortunately they seem to do better when they haven't been moved, like this one growing in the gravel next to the house wall. Unfortunately it's going to have to be dug up before the builder arrives in a couple of weeks to put in french doors and I don't like our chances of extracting its roots.

We're very lucky in that some of the trees directly backing onto our garden are elms. Although there is actually an Exeter elm my father ruled that out when trying to identify them and they remain unidentified. Three of the trees at the bottom are dead. I assume that they are elms, but confess have never tried to identify them. Unfortunately one keeled over in the wind and landed on our back fence a few days ago.

Luckily the tree is not too heavy and didn't bring down the fence that Ian and my father put up last year.

Technically the removal of the tree is a job for the council, but our council are a little 'chain-saw-happy' and I fear that they would remove a lot more than just this tree if we called them in. The slow worm family also live around the roots of the tree so we'll have to be very careful when dealing with it.

The unknown plant/shrub

2009-09-18T09:22:00.006+01:00

I found this plant/shrub in my wildflower border last year. It grew rather large (as you can see from the first photo) so I moved it to the border next to the back fence. My attempts to identify it have failed, but it now has some rather distinctive flowers.

Coincidentally my father who lives about 250 miles away also has the same unknown plant in his garden (also flowering for the first time this year).

Does anyone have any idea what it is please?

Fruit and nuts

2009-09-09T14:05:00.011+01:00

Although we do have a few trees actually in the ground in our garden the majority are currently living in pots. I, or other members of my family, have grown most of them from seed and they currently range from a one inch tall norway spruce to a two foot tall horse chestnut. There will, however, come a time when all these trees need a new home. Hopefully we shall own some land by then. Fingers crossed.

Most of the trees are native species, but I do have a number of others, the majority of which are fruit or nut trees.

These pear and apricot trees were grown from seed.

I do hope that they produce edible fruit, but the majority of fruit trees being grafted these days they probably won't taste anything like the fruit that they came from.

This damson was bought from a garden center (I haven't seen damsons in the shops for years and therefore couldn't grow one from seed). It produced a single fruit for the first time this year:

Ian's grandad gave us this grape:

Pretty much all the white mulberry seeds I bought from Nicky's Nursery germinated, but my black mulberries from the New Forest Otter and Owl Center have yet to germinate:

This is an almond I grew from a nut in one of those big multipacks of nuts that they sell in supermarkets at Christmas.

I also tried growing walnuts at the same time, but although they germinated they went mouldy before the seedling made it to the surface. Will have to try again this Christmas.

These varieties of walnut are more exotic and therefore bought as seedlings:

White walnut or butternut.

Heartnut.

I particularly like that the heartnut is supposed to readily split into two halves.

Migrant hawker

2009-09-03T21:15:00.004+01:00

The pair of migrant hawkers returned for several hours today. This is the male:

As you can see he was not at all bothered by my presence:

In the garden

2009-09-01T21:34:00.012+01:00

Today Ian spotted two hawker dragonflies hawking over the garden and I was lucky enough to catch this female migrant hawker when it settled on a fence post:

Inspired by the dragonflies I decided to have a good root around the garden to see what wildlife I could find. The nettles at the bottom of the garden have been well and truly munched by these caterpillars of the comma butterfly

one of which had already formed a chrysalis:

We've kept a pile of logs and broken fence panel slats near the pond for nearly a year now in the hope that reptiles and amphibians would hide underneath. Until now we've only been rewarded with slugs, but today we were pleased to find an adult slow worm - the first we've seen this year:

Found it!

2009-08-17T15:48:00.004+01:00

It turns out that I spoke too soon regarding the large moth and that it had in fact remained inside the house (though I can't imagine where). It showed up in the bathroom this morning and was very relieved to be let out after being photographed.

To the naked eye and with the flash off it looked a very dull brown - similar to a ringlet butterfly, but the flash revealed quite a distinctive pattern. It's the largest moth I've seen here in Devon and with wings spread was the size of a peacock butterfly. All suggestions as to the species are most welcome.

Inside and out

2009-08-16T10:30:00.007+01:00

This week we've had a huge variety of insects in the garden including several Jersey tiger moths:

We've also had some insects in the house including a huge moth last night. Unfortunately our tabby cat William chased it and it flew under the cooker in panic. It did come out later on, but I was unable to photograph it before putting it outside.

This grasshopper hopped into the kitchen on Tuesday (it hopped back on to the house wall when I came in for the camera)

and this ichneumon fly spent much of the week on the dining room ceiling before coming down to the window and being helped outside

Planting combinations

2009-08-12T20:30:00.005+01:00

I've spent many hours looking through gardening books and on the internet trying to find the best plants to group together, but as yet I've rarely managed to get it right in practice. Either a key plant dies or never flowers (as was the case with all my delphiniums and echinaceas that I had such high hopes for) or decides to flower a whole two months earlier than it says in the books (we did have a particularly warm spring) or flowers late because it is only the first year of growth.

Consequently most of my perennials have moved at least twice in an attempt to group things sensibly.

This month there is one little area of the garden that I am particularly pleased with and have no plans to change. It consists of a patch of only three plants: Persicaria amplexicaulis 'firetail', the beautiful Calamagrostis acutiflora 'overdam' grass and Monarda (commonly known as the herb Bergamot) 'Cambridge scarlet'.

A guide to mulberry growing

2009-07-26T10:13:00.012+01:00

Having seen a beautiful black mulberry tree at the New Forest Otter, Owl and Wildlife Park yesterday I'm determined to grow one. I've bought some mulberry seeds in the past, but they failed to germinate. This time I've picked up a large number of fallen mulberries and am reading up on the matter before I plant the seeds.

This is the key information that I've gleaned so far...

Black mulberry seeds are best planted as soon as they've been removed from the berry.

All of the fruit should be cleaned from the seeds to prevent moulds forming.

Seeds should be planted below 1mm of compost in a warm propogator and kept moist.

Seedlings have very fragile roots so shouldn't be handled too much.

Whilst the tree can survive outside, small seedlings should be brought inside or under glass during winter.

Mulberry trees drop their leaves at the first sign of frost, spending much of their time in a dormant state. Sometimes the dormant seedlings don't 'wake up', andt if a tree is still dormant by summer then it's unlikely to come out of dormancy. There is a solution... chopping off the top of the seedling and any existing leaves sends it into shock which encourages it to put out new leaves.

After a year or two the mulberry can be transplanted to their proposed location.

Helophilus pendulus

2009-07-18T16:02:00.008+01:00

One of the most regular insect visitors to our pond is the hoverfly Helophilus pendulus. Today I found a pair mating. Upon closer examination it turned out to be three of them. Not something I've seen before, but as Ian put it I obviously need to get out more!

It looks like the pair underneath are mating and the male(?) above is waiting his turn. Given that he's grabbing her by the eyeballs I'm surprised that she hasn't driven him away.

Chrysalis

2009-07-09T22:31:00.006+01:00

We have a little friend on the kitchen window at the moment. Like so many others last year this large white caterpillar decided to climb up the house wall and window to form a chrysalis on the upper sill of the window. This one fell a couple of times and eventually gave up, instead forming a chrysalis right in the middle of the window.

June 20th:

July 3rd:

Fingers crossed that we'll be lucky enough to catch it emerging in a month or so.

Pond Dip - July 2009

2009-07-02T11:51:00.009+01:00

Having seen Jeremy's blog yesterday I was determined to get some more photographs of the dragonfly larvae in the pond.

This is a common darter:

I found two in the pond this morning.

It looks like all the broad-bodied chasers have emerged because I couldn't find any larvae today. The photo below was taken in June:

I wonder why they are so muddy compared with the darters. When they emerge from the pond they aren't muddy - maybe it's a method of avoiding predators?

I photographed this larva in August 2008. I suspect it's either an emperor dragonfly or a southern hawker.

Native plants

2009-06-30T11:47:00.018+01:00

To date we've had a lot of success with wildlife in and around the ponds. Although living in the south of the UK does help, this is probably mostly due to the large number of native plant species that we have in our garden. I'm still compiling a complete list of the native species we have elsewhere in the garden, but for now here's a list of the 39 native species that are either actually in the water or in the bog gardens next to the ponds:

Acorus calamus (sweet flag)
Alisma plantago-aquatica (water plantain)
Athyrium filix-femi (lady fern)
Baldellia ranunculoides (lesser water plantain)
Butomus umbellatus (flowering rush)
Calla palustris (bog arum)
Caltha palustris (marsh marigold)
Cardamine pratensis (cuckoo flower)
Carex pendula (pendulous sedge)
Carex pseudocyperus (sedge hop)
Dipsacus fullonum (teasel)
Eriophorum vaginatum (cotton grass)
Eupatorium cannabinum (hemp agrimony)
Filipendula ulmaria (meadow sweet)
Geum rivale (water avens)
Hieracium brunneocroceum (orange hawkbit)
Hydrocharis morsus-ranae (frogbit)
Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag iris)
Juncus effusus (soft rush)
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife)
Mentha aquatica (water mint)
Menyanthes trifoliata (bog bean)
Mimulus luteus (monkey flower)
Myriophyllum spicatum (water milfoil)
Nasturtium aquaticum (water cress)
Nuphar luteum (brandy bottle)
Nymphaea alba (white water lily)
Nymphoides peltata (fringed water lily)
Plantago media (hoary plantain)
Ranunculus aquatilis (water crowfoot)
Ranunculus flammula (lesser spearwort)
Rumex crispus (curled dock)
Scirpus cernuus (fibre optic grass)
Scirpus lacustris (true bulrush)
Silene dioica (red campion)
Stratiotes aloides (water soldier)
Trifolium repens (clover wild white)
Typha angustifolia (narrow reed mace)
Veronica beccabunga (brooklime)

A few of these species of native plants can be found in your local garden centre, but there's a much greater selection on the internet. Some of the best sites that I've found for native pond and marginal plants include Puddle Plants, Wetland Plants and Naturescape (though if you order pond plants from Naturescape then be prepared to wait much longer than the delivery estimates on their website).

Broad-bodied chaser

2009-06-20T19:38:00.007+01:00

We were incredibly luck today. As usual I had taken a trip down to the pond to have a look around, but managed to miss a recently emerged dragonfly. Ian joined me and we sat on the bench. Only a minute before it took its first flight it caught Ian's eye and I managed to get a few photos before it took off. When it flew it actually hit the camera on the way past.

The dragonfly is a female broad-bodied chaser. We saw a male last year and another female earlier this year, but this is the first confirmation we've had that they're breeding at our pond. The species breeding at the pond also include the large red damselfly, common darter, golden-ringed dragonfly, southern hawker and the emperor dragonfly.

To the right of the chaser you can see the exuviae from which it emerged.

We have also had common blue damselflies and migrant hawkers in the garden, but I've yet to confirm if these are breeding at either of the ponds.

Banded demoiselle

2009-06-20T19:21:00.006+01:00

Ian and I have seen banded demoiselles twice this month - firstly at the river Clyst and then again at the Old Sludge Beds Nature Reserve. I've seen banded demoiselles before, but not recently and never in Devon so this was the first time I'd managed to get a digital photograph.

Banded demoiselles are one of only two species of damselfly in Britain that have obviously coloured wings. Although quite common in Britain they prefer stream and river habitats rather than still water.

This is the male:

The Big Pond Dip 2009 - our results

2009-06-07T19:35:00.020+01:00

Today we did the big pond dip and found a surprising variety of wildlife including tadpoles, newtpoles, an adult newt, leeches, a backswimmer, mayfly larvae, water slaters, pond snails, pond skaters, water measurers, a dragonfly larva and lots of smaller things that I've yet to identify.

Dragonfly larva:

Mayfly larva:

Backswimmer:

Pond skater:

Water measurer:

Newtpole:

Leech:

Water slater:

Water snail:

The squirrel joined me to have a drink at one point:

and William supervised from his new favourite spot on the bench:

The Big Pond Dip 2009

2009-06-07T18:07:00.005+01:00

UK charity Pond Conservation have organised the Big Pond Dip 2009. The dip aims to find out what wildlife people have in their garden and school ponds and to determine what type of ponds support the most animal life.

Today Ian, William and I did the dip in our big pond (okay William watched). I'll write another post with the results once I've identified a few more of the species, but for now here are some pictures of one of the really cute smooth newts that we disturbed:

Summer flowers

2009-06-06T20:18:00.003+01:00

Over the next few days I'm going to blog some pictures of flowers from the garden. There's a (completely unintentional) blue / purple / pink theme at the moment.

Penstemon true blue:

Aquilegia and sweet william:

Veronica spicata:

Delphinium King Arthur

The results of a thunder storm

2009-06-06T11:17:00.009+01:00

I've been wishing for rain for over a week now and this morning we finally got it. It's been ages since I just lay and listened to a thunder storm - lovely.

The smaller pond is looking a little the worse for wear after the run-off from the clay soil caused lots of clay particles to be suspended in the water. The larger (more established) pond has cloudier water than normal, but fared much better because of the surrounding vegetation.

Lesser stag beetle

2009-06-05T20:16:00.007+01:00

It's been a good week for insects at Frog End. A few days ago we had our first blue damselfly of the year. I suspect it was a common blue damselfly, but have yet to check - a lot of blue damselflies look very alike.

Yesterday I found a dragonfly exuviae. Unfortunately it fell in the pond in my attempts to access it, but I still managed to get some photos. I assume it's a common darter exuviae because it's very small, although it could be a broad-bodied chaser (though I've not seen them breed at our pond).

Today I found this female lesser stag beetle in a pile of fence panel slats. I've now thrown them away, but have moved the stag beetle to a lovely big log near the pond so I'm sure she'll be just as happy.

If you do see a stag beetle you can report your sighting via the great stag hunt.

New species for Frog End

2009-05-16T09:25:00.002+01:00

I'm pleased to say that we had two new species in the garden whilst we were away in Cumbria: baby goldfinches and a hedgehog. Thanks Dad for keeping an eye out and photographing them.

Slow worms in the pond

2009-04-24T12:12:00.009+01:00

On Tuesday I saw my first slow worm of the year whilst planting some annuals in the wildflower border. Around this time last year we had to fish two different adult slow worms out of one of the ponds. I've been searching through my natural history books and on the internet, but there's very little information on slow worms and water. They clearly can swim, but whether or not they entered the pond intentionally and whether they were capable of getting out on their own I've no idea.

A frog blog

2009-04-20T22:13:00.004+01:00

Today I was given a frog by a kind man and his two children. They found it a couple of days ago and had been "looking after" it. Whilst looking for somewhere to release it they happened to see our pond (lucky we haven't managed to put up our last fence panel yet) and so they offered their treasure to me. The frog seemed very relieved to be in the water and this evening he could be seen sitting on one of the ledges in the pond.

Squirrels need hugs too

2009-04-19T18:42:00.004+01:00

I love the squirrels that visit our garden, but they do like to cause trouble with their antics. I learned long ago not to put nuts in the feeder nearest the house as I keep all my pots and seedtrays by the house and the squirrel loves nothing more than to dig up my little seedlings and replace them with peanuts.

A few minutes ago Ian pointed out that one was digging in a pot of rosemary. I opened the back door to shoo him away. He proceeded to what we call pond 2 (the smaller pond that we put in at the end of last year) and I thought he was looking for somewhere to bury something, perhaps a nut he had dug up from the rosemary pot. Just before dinner I divided the bugle in the larger ponds bog garden and planted a piece in the pond 2 bog garden. The squirrel proceeded straight to the newly planted bugle. Since we have clay soil it's pretty normal for the squirrels to bury things where I've recently been gardening as the soil is much easier to dig. To our absolute astonishment, rather than bury something in the soil, the squirrel got up on its hind legs, put its front paws round the bugle flower and gave it a hug. The flower is now sadly leaning, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Emergence

2009-04-18T18:19:00.004+01:00

I had a lovely surprise when I went down to the pond today. I'm proud to say that our first damselflies have emerged from the pond - large red damselflies.

Upon further investigation of the surrounding vegetation I found another damselfly and a further 8 exuviae.

A week away

2009-04-15T19:33:00.007+01:00

I'm always surprised how much the garden changes whilst we're away. In particular, the plants round and in the pond have grown substantially and started to flower for the first time.

I love marsh marigolds

Dad gave us this bugle in the bog garden

and the pendulous sedge.

Yesterday I divided a large clump of red campion in the bog garden and disturbed two small frogs in the process. They were the first frogs I've seen this year.

Across the pond

2009-04-01T00:01:00.002+01:00

The larger tadpoles have made a new home at the shallow end of the pond, presumably because the water is warmer there.

Spring

2009-03-27T19:35:00.003Z

The first spring flowers are now out in the garden...

Anemones

I've moved the polyanthus round the garden at least 4 times, but they seem very happy by the back fence:

Flowering currant

Walking on water

2009-03-21T17:52:00.003Z

The level of the water in our pond is a bit low at the moment, probably due to the lack of rain, but it can't help that William, the squirrels and birds all drink from it daily.

I've filled two large buckets with tap water and am waiting for the gases? to settle before I tip them into the pond. Today I fished out an ant from one of the buckets, but before I fished it out I watched it for a couple of minutes as it walked across the surface of the water. I never knew that they could do that.

Tadpoles again

2009-03-21T17:48:00.001Z

Here's a picture of our tadpoles, taken a few days ago.

Although the main group is still there, around a third of the tadpoles have been more adventurous and set off across the pond. We're really looking forward to lots of little froglets later in the year.

Tadpoles

2009-03-11T16:49:00.002Z

In response to my father's blog I went out to the pond today on a search for newts. There was no sign of any, but the frogspawn has hatched and now there are hundreds of wriggly little tadpoles at one end of the pond. My photos didn't turn out very well so I shall try again tomorrow.

Fur loss

2009-03-10T15:23:00.003Z

One of the squirrels that visits our garden has a strange pattern on its back, which appears to be caused by a loss of fur in a diamond shape. Does anyone have any ideas what may have caused this?

Rain

2009-03-03T12:41:00.002Z

Finally, for the first time in ages it's raining in Exeter. Until this morning I had been considering getting the hosepipe out to water the garden - it's incredibly dry and I have lots of small vulnerable plants in the borders at the moment. I'm not sure if it's being in the South or having clay soil or a bit of both, but we don't seem to have much of a balance throughout the year - either the garden is muddy, sticky and has surface water or the soil is dry and cracked.

We're hoping to turf the back lawn this March. Hope that coincides with a wet spell or I will be out with the hosepipe very soon.

Frog spawn

2009-02-25T13:28:00.003Z

I'm pleased to say that the frogs at Frog End have spawned for the first time in the big pond.

The smaller pond doesn't have as much cover for frogs at the moment, but I hope to plant it up in the next couple of weeks.

Don't forget to put your frog spawn records on the Nature's Calendar site.

Squirrels on ice

2009-02-20T13:56:00.002Z

I often use my camera to take videos. Recently I've taken quite a few of animals and birds in the garden. Here is one of two of our squirrels exploring the frozen pond. If you're worried that they were thirsty they did have water at the feeder at the time.

This video has no sound.

Planting time

2009-02-20T13:52:00.002Z

It's that time of year again... every windowsill on the house is covered in seedtrays. So far in February I've planted 23 types of seeds including grasses, annuals, perennials, wildflowers and vegetables. We got some of the seeds on freecycle and despite them being best before 2004 all but one set have germinated. The first thing I do each morning is to check all the trays, make a note of any new species that have germinated overnight and take some outside for watering.

Pea seedling

I think the ones I'm looking forward to the most are

Pennisetum macrocorum

Monarda panorama red shades

Rudbeckia hirta gloriosa

Ratbida columnifera

Wildlife at the pond

2009-02-07T22:17:00.003Z

Yesterday I went out to feed the birds and noticed that there were quite a few holes in the snow, caused by a mammal of some sorts. They led from the pond to the side of the garden where there is only a leaning fence panel - an easy way into the garden for mammals. The holes didn't seem like the ones William made when he walked in the snow, but unfortunately there was a bark path underneath the snow so there were no other clues.

I spent the last 10 minutes listening to the scream of a fox - probably on the field at the back of our garden, although I don't know how far the sound could carry. I'm pretty sure it was a fox after checking what a fox scream sounds like on youtube (can't believe I ever lived without it). I wonder how I can get more clues as to what is drinking at the pond at night. The garden is really muddy, but in the absence of snow I can't really see even the cat prints that I know must be there. Any ideas?

Red fox at Formby pine woods.

Feeding the birds

2009-02-06T10:22:00.003Z

According to the BBC "Up to 17cm (6.7in) of snow has been reported in Exeter." I'd say we have around 2 inches - would that be because we don't live on a hill?

What do my fellow bird feeders do when it snows? Living in the South I've no experience of these situations. The pigeons, doves, squirrels and blackbirds are okay as one of our bird tables has a roof. None of the smaller birds use this table though. Should I keep clearing snow from the other seed trays in the hope that they will snatch a bite before it gets covered over again?

One thing I shall do regularly is to break the ice on the pond. It amazes me how many creatures rely on it for drinking water. Our cat William refuses to drink from a bowl and last time I broke the ice he ran out for a long drink (despite having had water in the house all night). We also had another cat walking over the ice a couple of days ago searching for a spot of water. Then there are the squirrels and birds. I wonder where they all used to drink before we put in the ponds.

As requested...

2009-02-04T10:31:00.003Z

We gave the otter a scarf:

Also managed to make a little snowman yesterday. Apart from a few small patches he's all that's left to remind us of the snow today.

There's snow even in Devon!

2009-02-02T19:08:00.006Z

It took a long time for the snow to reach Devon from Russia, but reach it it finally did.

Unfortunately I was in a meeting when most of the snow fell (typical - the only meeting I've had this year) and by the time we got home the light was fading. Still, we managed to go out in the garden, play with William, give the birds and squirrels some fresh water and then watch a squirrel jump around in the snow. Fantastic!

William ventures out onto the pond

Animal homes

2009-01-28T18:59:00.009Z

The search for land has taken me on a journey of discovery over the last few months. Although we've spent only a few hours actually looking at land I've spent days thinking and planning for the future.

Most of my thoughts have been about trees and plants and what we could grow to attract wildlife. I've also decided that the (first?) book I shall attempt to write will be a sort of diary / account of the creation of a nature reserve from scratch. Not that the land we'll buy at this stage is likely to be turned into a nature reserve, but we shall use it as a sort of trial to see what does and doesn't work - particularly regarding habitat creation.

Recently I've been thinking about artificial habitats - homes for animals that can be erected immediately and don't require time for trees or undergrowth to establish. Obviously bird boxes spring to mind, but there are all sorts of others out there on the internet and in garden centres. Ian is keen on the idea of making them - a fun hobby and also a response to how much they cost.

dormouse box

hedgehog house

bat box

There's an enormous range of specialised bird boxes these days:

tawny owl box

Treecreeper box

barn owl box

duck box

and a floating duck house.

Cold frames

2009-01-12T19:03:00.004Z

At the weekend we assembled 3 cold frames for our vegetables. Unfortunately 24 hours later we had some very strong gales which lifted one on top of another and pulled 2 of them apart. It appears that the lids catch the wind very easily. Having removed the lids they haven't moved at all. Any suggestions for easy ways to hold the lids down in bad weather?

Cones

2009-01-12T14:45:00.007Z

Over Christmas Ian and I visited Formby pine woods, Grizedale Forest and Tarn Howes, primarily with the aim of collecting cones so that we could plant the seeds. We managed to find a number of different species. They're currently drying out, but I'm looking forward to extracting and planting the seeds. Not that I'll be going through the entire process undertaken by the Canadian Forest Service, but hopefully some of the seeds will germinate nonetheless.

Assorted pines

Western hemlock
Larch
Sitka spruce
Norway spruce

Douglas fir

A name!

2008-12-29T15:38:00.003Z

We named the house frog end soon after we moved in, but until now hadn't managed to find a good sign. Ian bought me this for Christmas. Can't wait to go home and put it up.

Hazelnuts

2008-12-07T21:58:00.002Z

I love the big packs of nuts that you find in supermarkets at this time of year. Hazelnuts, walnuts, brazil nuts... they all look so appealing with their shells still on. Whilst it does take much much longer to eat them when you have to crack them open it's all great fun.

I wonder what happens to the nuts between the time they come off the tree and the time they are to be found on the supermarket shells. I ask this because I'm wondering what the chances of me getting them to grow are. Presumably the worst condition that they could have been exposed to is cold, but simulating a natural winter is often necessary to get tree seeds to grow in this country anyway. Unless anyone suggests a reason why I shouldn't I think I shall plant some as an experiment.

An appeal

2008-12-06T22:06:00.011Z

One of my life goals is to turn a piece of land into a nature reserve, including planting a large area of woodland. Ian also aims to grow and sell topiary to fund the opening of topiary gardens, similar to those in Maryland...

and tamborine mountain in Queensland (unfortunately I can't find a picture on the internet).

Although we've started planting tree seeds and boxwood cuttings we've only managed to do this on a small scale in the garden and greenhouse. Buying a piece of land now would enable us to get started growing box and privet for topiary on a large scale as well as trying out some other commercial enterprises, including growing trees and plants for sale on ebay, trees for the future nature reserve, pumpkins for halloween, christmas trees etc.

As some of you will know we put an offer in on a lovely piece of land near Okehampton a couple of months ago, but sadly our offer was rejected and it has been taken off the market. Today we looked at another piece of land for sale only a couple of miles from our house. It had massive potential as both a nature reserve and a place to grow all we could ever need. Of course it has a couple of ponds and I'm already wondering how many species of dragonflies and damselflies we could attract ;-). Anyway, whatever happens with this piece of land we do aim to buy some in the very near future and we would really appreciate your help in getting started with the growing...

We're going to be growing as many native trees as we can so if you have any seeds or happen to pass an oak, beech, hazel etc next autumn please please could you collect and save them for us. Similarly if you have hollies, hawthorns, rowans etc sprouting all over your garden then rather than digging them up and discarding them could you please pop them into a pot and we'll come and collect them from you. Obviously I'm not asking you to start digging up seedlings in your local park, but if you do know anyone with seeds or seedlings that they don't want please rescue them for us and allow them to be part of a future nature reserve.

Thank you. You will all be most welcome to visit our land when we buy.

Species lists

2008-11-10T21:17:00.007Z

I was going to wait until the New Year to blog the species lists for the garden, but there's very little wildlife about now (the odd bee, slug and red admiral being all I've seen this week). All the species below were seen in 2008, with comparitively few in 2007 (the garden being only grass and gravel back then).

MAMMALS:

harvest mouse
grey squirrel
house? mouse

BIRDS:

herring gull
wood pigeon
collared dove
song thrush
blackbird
house sparrow
robin
blue tit
coal tit
greater spotted woodpecker
grey wagtail
wren
crow
magpie
grey wagtail

REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS:

common frog
slow worm
smooth newt

DRAGONFLIES & DAMSELFLIES:

broad-bodied chaser (male)
common darter (male, female, ovipositing)
emperor (female, ovipositing)
migrant hawker (male, female)
southern hawker (male, female, ovipositing)
golden-ringed dragonfly (female, ovipositing)
blue-tailed damselfly
large red damselfly (ovipositing)

BUTTERFLIES:

large white
small white
green-veined white
brimstone
holly blue
gatekeeper
speckled wood
comma
small tortoiseshell
peacock
red admiral

Grey Wagtail

2008-11-07T12:15:00.003Z

Just a few minutes ago a grey wagtail flew over the house, into the back garden and had a drink at the pond. It stayed for only about 2 minutes and it made me wonder how many other visitors we have to our pond that we are unaware of.

One of my new years resolution's was to make a list of birds that we've seen in the garden. This has been quite troublesome since we have little cover at the house end of the garden and even with my glasses I can't identify the birds at the bottom of the garden. I shall try to take more photos over the next few weeks and then I shall blog a species list for 2008.

Pond 2

2008-11-02T16:53:00.006Z

Finally.. something to blog about in the garden! It's been very cold in Exeter this last couple of weeks (though we've had no snow or hail like in Ottery St Mary), but this weekend we decided to put in our second pond. We had not originally planned to have two ponds, but after Ian dug up the bush (http://frog-end-wildlife.blogspot.com/2008/08/bye-bye-bush.html) we were left with a big hole and no plans for that bit of border yet. We expanded the hole this week and today we lined it with loft insulation and then with pond liner.

Wrestling with 4 x 3 m of pond liner is not easy (it was even bigger last time), so Ian made the very sensible suggestion that we fill the pond with water before sorting out the edges of the liner. It made it so much easier this time, as did having a hose to fill it with.

The south end of William was in the pond!

2008-09-18T23:19:00.007+01:00

Ever since we put in the pond William has refused to drink from a bowl. Instead he prefers to balance rather precariously on the rocks by the side of the pond...

Three nights ago Ian warned me that William was wet. I thought that odd considering that it wasn't raining. Upon examination, his rear end, tail and one back leg were thoroughly drenched. We can only assume that he must have slipped and fell in! He spent the remaining part of the night leaving wet patches all over the place and finally washing himself dry. I refrained from photographing him in his soggy state.

For those of you who don't understand the significance of the title, you must read 'Once upon a lilypad' by Gilly Meredith. A classic childrens book. Can't find a picture I'm afraid.

The back fence

2008-09-05T20:43:00.012+01:00

On Tuesday south west water were doing some repairs at work. Since they weren't sure how long the water would be off for we stayed at home. Whilst I did some work (of the sitting at a computer variety) Ian and Dad decided to spend a couple of hours doing some 'real work' putting up our new back fence.

the old fence last year

during

after

Thank you both for a fantastic job.

Dunsford Wood

2008-08-23T21:45:00.005+01:00

This morning we visited the Devon Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Dunsford:

http://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/index.php?section=places:reserves&reserveid=26

The reserve has 6 species of fritillary and the rare wood cricket. Today we saw many insects including two species of cricket:

male dark bush cricket

female dark bush cricket

male speckled bush cricket

Dragonflies

2008-08-22T21:11:00.003+01:00

Another dragonfly species arrived in our garden today - the migrant hawker. We had two females - one on the damson tree and the other on the house wall.

Frog End Wildlife

An update

Harlequin invasion

Dragonflies every day

A poor year for dragonflies and damselflies

Newts

The garden is alive with the sound of croaking

Frogs at Frog End

Signs of life

Pond Dip - August 2010

August

More butterflies

Just goes to show

Common blue

Doing the rounds

The Big Butterfly Count

Species Surveys 2010

Out came the sun

Small skipper

Mullein moth caterpillars

Spots and stripes

More questions than answers

Lupins

Water soldiers

A poor choice of plant

Survival

I was wrong

Watery wildlife

Larvae in a log

Firsts for 2010

Spring has sprung

Species identified

Pond Dip - March 2010

British Waterways' Wildlife Survey 2010

Frog spawn

Out with the old

Five for silver...

Hitching a ride

Unidentified species

Pond Dip - January 2010

Species Lists Update

The snow

In the meadow we can build a snowman...

Feeding the birds

2009 at Frog End - a summary

The front garden

Hedging

Our first 'proper' frost

Down at the bottom of the garden...

The unknown plant/shrub

Fruit and nuts

Migrant hawker

In the garden

Found it!

Inside and out

Planting combinations

A guide to mulberry growing

Helophilus pendulus

Chrysalis

Pond Dip - July 2009

Native plants

Broad-bodied chaser

Banded demoiselle

The Big Pond Dip 2009 - our results

The Big Pond Dip 2009

Summer flowers

The results of a thunder storm

Lesser stag beetle

New species for Frog End

Slow worms in the pond

A frog blog

Squirrels need hugs too

Emergence

A week away

Across the pond

Spring

Walking on water

Tadpoles again

Tadpoles

Fur loss