Thursday 16 August 2012

Star Guests - August 2012


We had breakfast with two Willow Warblers yesterday.  They were taking aphids from the Sweetpeas ... luckily we had something more appetising.  These little birds are on their way back to Africa now.  They have one of the longest migrations of any bird that size: they go all the way south of the Sahara for the winter (some of them migrate over 12,000km) before returning to us next March. The British population has declined by 70% over the last 25 years so they are on the Amber List for species of conservation concern.

The garden is attracting lots of butterflies now the sun is shining.

We always get loads of Peacocks and Small Whites....

....and Red Admirals:


The original name for these was Red Admirable but we're a lazy lot so shortened it to Red Admiral.

The name butterfly is thought to come from the Old English for BEAT (beatan) and FLY (fleoge). 
We have seen Holly Blue ...

and Meadow Brown this week.

The eye spots on the Meadow Brown help deter predators.

It would be nice to see what is visiting your garden this month.  Please leave a link below.

The Bird Fair takes place this Saturday so I might be the proud owner of a night vision camera in a few days.

1 comment:

  1. Excited to see what the night vision camera finds. Keep us posted x

    ReplyDelete