The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: Ina on May 24, 2013, 12:03:11 pm
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Saw the first (for me) butterfly of the season today.
Guess what: it was a blimming cabbage white attacking my last kale plant... ::)
But a butterfly nevertheless! ;D
Anybody else seen any around yet?
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Yes - have seen a few whilst out riding the horse and a couple around the garden but quite few and far between. Have only seen one honey bee this year so far and 1 x bumble bee :-\. I am really pleased though that for the first time ever we have a pair of those little black and white birds that wag their tails(sorry, not sure of their correct name as I always call them wagtails!), nesting in our barn. :fc: there might be some young ones hatching in due course.
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Wagtails is their correct name, as far as I know!
Haven't seen a lot of bees, either - honey or otherwise.
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I saw a small tortoiseshell the other day, and one bumblebee :)
Yes, those little black and white birds are pied wagtails. They arrived here (Cumbria) a few weeks ago, the grey wagtails last week.
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What country do the pied wagtails fly from? Always amazes me how the swallows we have in one of our old sheds return year after year from Africa.
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It's another one that comes from Africa. It's amazing isn't it, them and swallows, such tiny little things.
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Have seen a couple of Orange tip butterflies and a few bumble bees.
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Just tortoiseshells here, but several and they've been around for about 10 days :bfly: . Tonight will be a frost though so don't know if they will survive :(
Just bumbles here too, but various insects doing the pollination. We have grown plenty of nectar flowers this year which are very popular :bee: even if they are late flowering.
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Checked my red currant yesterday which is full of flowers - but very few of them set. Now I don't actually know how pollination works for red currants - but if they need insects then all the flowers in the world won't give me any fruit. They did say it would be a great year for fruit because of the long cold winter - but if there aren't any insects, fruit won't happen no matter how cold it was!
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Saw a few more white butterflies today with 2 chasing each other. Also had a honey bee in the chickens water that couldn't get out, so I got a piece of stick and it crawled on to it. It took a little while to fly away but it soared off in to the sky after about 5 mins so I hope it will be ok.
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Yep, cabbage whites have been out and about for a couple of weeks round here. I've got netting up over the cabbages and only just got it done in time. There have been other butterflies but i haven't noticed specifically what they are.
I didn't realised pied wagtails migrated - I've had one helping create my pumphim patch for the last three weeks.
H