Category Archives: Uncategorized

Our May 2023 calendar entry has been uploaded to the website. Lots of new species recorded and as stated in our previous post we reached the 550 species mark! DC: 02/06/2023

Yesterday was rather exciting as lazy bank holiday Mondays go in the Garden. For us it was the day the rare spider called Cryptachaea blattea came to visit. Well, probably! We did attempt to get consensus from a Spider ID group but there is a chance this could be a different species called Parasteatoda tepidariorum,Continue reading “Rare Spider Came to visit”

Finally! We recorded our first millipede in the Garden today. We had to dust off the stereo microscope to search amongst the detritus under the hazel tree, but so glad we did. This new species also represents a new class of arthropod for the Garden, The Diplopoda. Not 100% sure on the species though. WeContinue reading “Our first Millipede Species”

Thought we’d share the following. The meadow area (we used to call it the lawn) just about ready to bloom. Amazing warm sunshine today, with lots buzzing about. Our first recorded Odonata of the year visited in the form of the Azure Blue and the Large Red Damselfly, neither new to the garden but alwaysContinue reading “Ready to Bloom!”

We’ve had a number of new species recorded in the garden so far this year. We ended 2023 with 524 species recorded in the Garden, by the end of April this tally had increased to 536 and seeing as we haven’t posted in a while we thought we’d share what’s new in the Garden. TetragnathaContinue reading “New species for 2023 already/April Calendar entry”

What we enjoy about wildlife gardening is that even in a small area, there is an incredible amount to observe. You really don’t need to drive to the countryside to get your wildlife fix, although its not a bad idea to get out and about. For example in just 18 months we have uploaded overContinue reading “More highlights from 2022”

Back in July this year we recorded the video below. It shows a Lasius niger worker ant using its considerable strength to move the dead body of a fellow ant. This is likely a behaviour known as ‘Necrophoresis’, where dead individuals are removed from the nest for sanitation reasons, a behaviour often seen in certainContinue reading “Lasius niger – Regicide”

We never really thought about a favourite garden species before! However, it’s December, and that means a Christmas Break and some time to tidy up/organise all the thousands of photographs and videos taken throughout 2022. It was whilst doing this we came across a little video which we had totally forgot about (link below), featuringContinue reading “The Nosey Ninja’s”

We’ve been a bit quiet of late on the old blog, mainly due to seemingly constant rain in Southwest England hampering our doing anything in the Garden. However we’ve not been idle and as our November calendar update shows, we’ve added 9 species to our Garden List and had a few other nice surprises alongContinue reading “Novembers update”

The sad truth is fungi are under recorded in the garden, in no small part because of past gardening practices. The garden was dug over twice in ten years which isn’t great for fungi as it can destroy their hyphal networks. Fungi can be difficult to identify further adding to a lack of confirmed speciesContinue reading “Candle-snuff Fungus and Soil Condition”