Wildlife in the garden - Indian summer?

[Peter Insole]

Hi Ian, I'm afraid the larvae in your image appears to be of a non native pest. The Harlequin Ladybird is causing some alarm, as it's incredibly rapid spread across the UK is having a serious impact on our own species.

I understand that anyone coming across one is being encouraged to report the sighting!

This year is turning out to be greenfly bonanza time, while their natural predators are clearly struggling.

Pete.

 

[40057]

Hi Ian, I'm afraid the larvae in your image appears to be of a non native pest. The Harlequin Ladybird is causing some alarm, as it's incredibly rapid spread across the UK is having a serious impact on our own species.

I understand that anyone coming across one is being encouraged to report the sighting!

This year is turning out to be greenfly bonanza time, while their natural predators are clearly struggling.

Pete.

I too think that is a harlequin ladybird larva.

 

[Lancastrian]

Pete and 40057,

Thank you both, you are quite correct. I'll be making an online report.

Ian

 

[Dai88D]

Does anyone know what this is ?
View attachment 188783
Ian

Ladybird larva, one of the best predators of greenfly on the planet!

 

[Dai88D]

Pete and 40057,

Thank you both, you are quite correct. I'll be making an online report.

Ian

The worries over Harlequin domination over our gallant native species—- now not seen as problematic. they are voracious eaters of greenfly and scale insects. However, native ladybirds have only fallen in certain areas, and scientists are now looking for other causes of this: in most areas, they coexist ok.

 

[Dai88D]

I have just installed a free app on my phone, called Merlin Sound Id. It picks up bird song in your area, and matches it to the bird. When there us a dawn chorus, it can still pick up individual songs, so you get a complete picture of what is singing.
I need a device like this as I am hopeless at bird song, apart from the very common ones. The other day, it picked up a greenfinch in my garden, and I haven’t seen one of those for about two months.
I’d heartily recommend it!

 

[Dog Star]

I recollect reading in some publication, might have been a BBC one, that the moment that one can put a name to a bird by recognising the song then one stops looking.... I have come to realise that there is a good dose of truth in that comment.

 

[Dai88D]

I recollect reading in some publication, might have been a BBC one, that the moment that one can put a name to a bird by recognising the song then one stops looking.... I have come to realise that there is a good dose of truth in that comment.

I’m nowhere near that stage yet, even with this app.

 

[Dai88D]

Not my garden, but definitely my holiday! Black winged Stilt close up in Norfolk. Hope the picture has downloaded properly

 

[Rob Pulham]

We were really surprised to see an Oystercatcher exploring the puddles left after a thunder storm yesterday afternoon. When I first spotted it I thought it was one of the family of magpies that we have in the vicinity.

Ironically it had been there for about 20 minutes when the three fledgeling magpies all came for a look see at the newcomer.

 

[Lancastrian]

This morning's visitor, rummaging amongst the undergrowth in a part of my garden which is slowly being tidied from some tree pruning.

Ian

 

[pcalkel]

Snap, we had a visit as well eating dropping from the fat balls put out for the birds, it a wonder there are any left as the foxes come in the night and clean up, first one I have seen for a few years.



Best regards
Paul

 

[Mike W]

Recently had a visit from a friend in New Zealand where, apparently, hedgehogs are pests because they eat birds eggs, and many birds there nest on the ground. He was amazed that we actually feed our hedgehogs!

Mike

 

[40057]

Recently had a visit from a friend in New Zealand where, apparently, hedgehogs are pests because they eat birds eggs, and many birds there nest on the ground. He was amazed that we actually feed our hedgehogs!

Mike

But in New Zealand hedgehogs are non-native and are preying on species that evolved without them or other introduced predators. The same in parts of the UK, notably the Uists in the Western Isles. Hedgehogs were misguidedly introduced in 1974, apparently by a gardener who thought they would help control the slugs eating his plants. They became serious egg predators of various ground nesting birds that went into serious decline. A fortune has been spent over two decades trying to eliminate hedgehogs from the islands where they should not be. I believe a recent find of a road casualty has suggested some animals are still at large.

There was a dead one on the road near us (not in the Western Isles!) last week. I hadn’t seen one here for twenty years.

 

[Suddaby]

Hi,

I found an unexpected visitor to the garden recently, I haven't seen one for years. Here he is inspecting the so called "squirrel proof" bird feeders! Slightly more welcome than the rat that visits!!

Cheers Kevin

 

[Suddaby]

Hmm, not sure why the jpegs are there. I ended up with 3 jpegs on my first posting, so Edited, but it only lets me amend the first of the 3 images to a full size one??

Kevin

 

[Ressaldar]

Here is Buddhie, a very regular visitor, always goes to the same feeder, the other one is only six feet away, but he never visits it.



here in his normal position and pose (taken on the Lumix GX7), just like a Buddha, he also perches behind the feeder and plays hide and seek.



here is this mornings photo, taken through the kitchen window on the iPad which was the nearest to hand. The feeder is just off to the left of this shot and the shrubs are pruned around the feeder so that we get the best view and never prune the actual perch.

cheers

Mike

 

[pcalkel]

This morning feeding off the feeder scraps which the Starlings and Magpies drop while feeding and fighting on the feeders.
Best regards
Paul

 

[Rob Pulham]

We went out for an evening walk the night before last and found a very strange thing. just down the road from the end of our drive, there is a high retaining wall for a field alongside the road. An old wall, it has lots of crevasses where plants grow. On the way out we saw this



Upon closer examination we could see that it was breathing without any signs of panic so we concluded that it was roosting without realising that half of it was exposed in the warm night air. We left it be and went on our walk. It was still there as we came back so Chris took the photo on her phone.
We walked down the village early next morning and it was gone so hopefully it had a good night's rest and went hunting for breakfast.

Someone in our village saw this yesterday, not really a stranger in the southwest of the country but not a common sight in North Yorkshire.

 

[Peter Insole]

That is indeed most unusual to see a Swift that has "landed"!

Those little birds have evolved to do everything on the wing, including sleep, except that is when incubating their eggs or feeding hatchlings!

I do fear that in the same way as observing Hedgehogs in daytime, it is an indication that the animal is most likely to be in distress?!

Pete.