As the day was one of those all too rare sunny ones, most of the day has been spent out in the garden or village, loafing about.
A while back I saw someone discussing the area required to create a wild flower meadow. Above is mine. Its a triangle of about a metre across. Nothing has been planted, I have just not mown the grass for about 6 weeks. What a show of, er, Rough Hawkbit? I think. There are lots of plants in this family that all look alike so forgive me for not trying harder to id them. Today the flowers were covered in bees and even an odd Ringlet dropped in for a look.
Another area in the garden was a trench excavated to repair a drain. It is 2 mtrs x 0.5mtr. The backfill was just clay and stones so a 'wildflower mix' containing no wild flowers but several hardy annuals was thrown on and raked in. This is the result. Mallows, Poppies, Daisies, Escholtzia and Phacelia all attract insects and look better than soil.
So, you dont need a paddock to create some interest. Have a go!
Not long ago Speckled Wood was a 'holiday' butterfly if you lived in Northumberland, but now I get them in the garden. A few butterflies appeared today - Green veined White, Ringlet, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral. Makes a nice change.
This afternoon I had a walk to the coast path for a short seawatch.
1 hour on a flat calm high tide was quite fruitful -
Sooty Shearwater 1
Manx Shearwater 7
Pomarine Skua 1 ad complete with a set of spoons, a nice early one, my first skua of 2012.
Roseate Tern 6 inc 5 together and 1 S.
Black tailed Godwit 10 S were a patch tick for here.
Also rans were Good numbers of Puffin, Razorbill and Guillemot, Gannets, Fulmars and Kittiwakes, Shag and Cormorant, Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns.
2 juv Grey Wagtails fed in a runnel over the rocks and a lone Porpoise showed briefly.
A very pleasant day.
1 comment:
Stewart ,
I agree with you , size isn't everything , that is in the wild flower meadow world , of course .
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