Species lists

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.