Early September

The wild pond has been far too full of vegetation this year and it’s hard to spot much open water. It is clear that drastic clearance action is needed this autumn to avoid the same thing next year.

So, here we are. The work has started:

It is quite a bit of effort involving lots of pulling and an awful lot of mud and so it’s being done in phases.

The reeds are left on the side of the pond for a day to allow animals to make their way back into the water and then they are stacked by the fence.

Much like worms pulling autumn leaves down into the soil, we are expecting these reeds to soon disappear underground as badger bedding. They seem to love them. Or rather, they love the ease of having them stacked ready for their use.

Now that the reeds have been cleared away, here is the pond at the end of Phase 1 of the work. Phase 2 will follow soon(ish).

It’s early September and the Ivy is in flower. Timed to perfection, the Ivy Bees have also arrived to feast on the Ivy pollen and nectar. These are solitary bees because each female bee digs her own tunnel down into the soil with chambers off into which they lay their eggs. However, they do tend to dig their tunnels all in the same area. There are already swarms of many thousands of them here and their time has only just begun.

Another Grey Wagtail arrived the other day. They do move in autumn – some go across the channel somewhere warmer, but others simply move within the UK away from their breeding grounds to a place to spend the winter.

Yesterday was a glorious day and the bird ringers were at work along the weedy strip. They had another great catch of Linnets – 35 yesterday, bringing the total number of Linnets ringed in the last fortnight to 83.

A male. In the process of losing his flambuoyant red breeding plumage but still looking a bit like he has been daubed in lipstick.

Butterfly numbers are gradually dropping off. However, we did see this Clouded Yellow and I include this photo to point out its large green eye which is something I haven’t noticed before.