Garden wildlife
The sun has finally come out and currently the sky is blue! So what impact has the ‘apocalyptic’ weather had on my garden wildlife. The local badgers are certainly liking my lawn – digging it up late a night!
Amazingly as soon as the sun came out dozens of meadow browns appeared from nowhere. The number of species of butterfly seems limited – I’ve only managed 6 species including a single flypast by a silver washed fritillary. There are however huge numbers of hoverflies including the scarce species Volucella zonaria. The other notable species spotted was a Jersey Tiger moth. Here are a few photos I took today.
A tatty meadow brown
A gatekeeper (note two white spots in the ‘black eye’ compared to the meadow brown)
Jersey tiger – showing a little bit of its red underwings
Volucella zonaria – a hoverfly which mimics a hornet – a localised species in southern England
A garden spider – numerous this year but not abundant.
Lots of badger activity – digging up my lawn – time to put some peanuts out!
Thank you for the butterfly id tips.