[sunshineband]

Post no 2 following from above

You can see the amazing metallic colouring of the pupae in this one --some are bronze and some pale gold

Plus of course the Old Lady Moth  Not the best photo in the world, but you can get the general idea

[Springlands]

What amazing photos Sunny. And an amazing thing to do to try to increase the number of those lovely butterflies. 

[sunshineband]

This was a major family pastime when I was a child, so it is nice to have time to do this again, albeit in a very small way. Might tackle one of the hawk moths next year


(I even made it onto TV once  when I was about ten years old --- got a £10 book token as a gift. Ten pounds was small fortune then to me  )

[archibtbm]

Saw a grey squirrel on the plot the other day,  never seen them at the before...wonder if he\she ate my seeds.

[LosingThePlot]

Found him or her under my upturned wheelbarrow on the plot among a folder groundsheet yesterday. I'm assuming it's a frog and not a toad (how do you tell the difference?)......

[snowdrops]

I think it might be a toad as it is very warty, also I think it is in the toes you can tell the difference

[RubyR3d]

Its a toad. Warty skin, copper eyes and they waddle rather than jump. I go toading every year ,moving dozens across the road to stop them getting killed by cars. I move them to their spawning ponds

[LosingThePlot]

Thanks for clearing that up. He does waddle, pushing himself into the crevices in the sheet. I'd quite like him to hang around as I believe they eat slugs. I've left the ground sheet under my upturned wheelbarrow and he's always in there.

Yesterday, he had a frog for company under there, which had crawled into my watering can. It's like Animal Magic down our plot!

[surbie100]

Yesterday, he had a frog for company under there, which had crawled into my watering can. It's like Animal Magic down our plot!

Does that mean you do all the voices...? 

[sunshineband]

Yesterday, he had a frog for company under there, which had crawled into my watering can. It's like Animal Magic down our plot!

Does that mean you do all the voices...? 

In the privacy of one's plot, of course 

[Paul Plots]

Toads around the town? You lucky lot!! They are lovely creatures.

I discovered - or rather they discovered me - two frogs hiding in our greenhouse. I guess they'll move out now the chickweed cover has gone. It's about time they were busy slug hunting in the veg patch. 

[Aled]

The otter got his revenge, by scaring the blo*dy life out of me by moving river reeds like something out of Jerassic park on Saturday evening whilst i was out fishing!
He swam off with a big grin....
Cheers
Aled

[Snoop]

A very small scorpion. No idea if it's true that the sting of a small scorpion is more painful than that of a large scorpion. It went shooting off into the weeds and I moved on to another patch, thankful that I hadn't grabbed it in my hand in my bid to remove as much bindweed as possible.

On the insect front, a couple of years back, I saw a beautiful tarantula in among my Brussels sprouts as I was weeding them. I've stopped putting down hay as mulch, so there's no chance I might be caught unawares again. Have been got on two occasions by a wolf spider and that was more than enough for me.

Just to be clear, we regard any insects in the house as fair game. Out in the veg patch, only caterpillars, snails and aphids are subject to culling.

[tosca100]

The otter got his revenge, by scaring the blo*dy life out of me by moving river reeds like something out of Jerassic park on Saturday evening whilst i was out fishing!
He swam off with a big grin....
Cheers
Aled

 

[Springlands]

Working in the GH this morning and a frog jumped out at me. Pleased to have one in the GH again but just wish they would not jump about they way they do. 

Still lots of lady birds in the garden - need to watch where we are walking at present as they are crawling along the paths.