The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: PK on January 29, 2016, 01:43:39 pm
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When I was taking the dog for a blustery walk around the fields here today I saw a brimstone butterfly flutter by. I know it is relative balmy Suffolk, but even so.
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I am in wet and windy Wales. There was a red admiral in the living room yesterday. I let it out but it would probably have been safer inside.
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When I was growing up in Norfolk, we often had butterflies indoors in winter. They would hibernate in the curtains etc then be tempted out when it got warm (pre central heating). They wouldn't survive outdoors though. The winter may have been hyper mild so far, except for some chilly bits up here, but there's plenty of time for all the unseasonal plants and creatures to be killed dead by the cold and wind. We have blizzards forecast for tonight, with strong winds. I find it sad.
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Butterflies bees and lizzards out here but even more disturbing for January is cranes flying south and others flying north. Confusing weather for migratory birds as well as us.
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The last of the flower tip on our remaining lupin died a week ago . All our big Daffs are up & smiling , so are some flowers that wouldn't normally blom till mid March .
I don't think that any of our six hanging baskets have gone winter dormant like they usually do , we have flowering marigolds in two of them as well as quite a lot of winter pansies just starting to bloom in most of them .
Two weeks before Christmas day I was astounded to see dozens of fat healthy tadpoles with their leg stumps forming in a garden centre pond ( owned by a friend ) . He too was rather surprised for he hadn't noticed any frogs spawn even though he feeds the fish in the pond every few days
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On Tuesday I saw buds (just few days away from blooming) on the field forget me nots!
Had vetch and phacelia flowers into December, but the coldish bits and wet have ended those.
It has been a strange few seasons, summer was so wet, wettest winter, it's so mild compared to normal.
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There was a red admiral in the living room yesterday. I let it out but it would probably have been safer inside.
A red admiral in the living room eh bionic? :innocent: :roflanim:
The weather has been so cold here lately that I haven't seen any form of wildlife except for the odd fly and the little sparrows in the hay shed. Having said that someones daffodils had popped up in their garden
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Lots of reports of bees dying. The mild weather is encouraging them to fly and use up their reserves before the queen has had time to lay sufficient brood to replace the ones that have kept the colony going through the winter