Garden watch

[veggiechicken]

Forget counting birds and butterflies for an hour a year, what have you seen in your garden/plot today?
From the humble earthworm, hardworking bee, slimy slug or sneaky snail, make time each day to see what you can spot. Then tell us, of course.

Let's see what else shares our plot. Even if just an ant, woodlouse and fly, they're still part of our great natural world.

So go on, do an Attenborough in your garden. You may be surprised at what you find.

Back later, I have to hack my way through the undergrowth in search of the lesser spotted wildeslug.....................

[Snoop Puss]

Toad - heard but not seen
Unknown insect making a proper racket inside one of my bamboo canes - not seen
Two copulating beetles (Timarchia
Wasps
Grasshoppers aplenty
Snails small and large
Tomato hornworm caterpillar (inside a tomato, which got lobbed as far as I could manage with caterpillar still inside)
Ants small and red and big and black all over the place

Plus, a flock of swifts swooping up and down the valley and three vultures cruising overhead.

[Thelma Sanders]

Snails in the greenhouse and slimy slugs on the path first thing this morning.
Grass hoppers are brown and crispy, they look like dead leaves, 'til they jump
Plenty of wasps (or skinny bees?) on the Iceplant, I'm not going nearer to make sure !
Ants in a scented Pelargonium pot, I wondered why it wasn't doing very well...
Lots of spiders and their webs, do they have to make them across the arch over the path so I walk into them *shudder*

[veggiechicken]

A squirrel in the oak tree knocking off acorns.
Bluetits, robin, dunnocks, wren, woodpigeons. A buzzard flew overhead crying.
A white butterfly on the verbena bonariensis and a small brown one inside the GH - couldn't see what.
Woodlice under a pot.
Small bumble bee on the raspberries.

[Mark_Riga]

Trying to remember what I saw today. I knocked over a plant pot and in the bottom were about 8 Green Cellar Slugs. I don't like them as they occasionally appear in the kitchen sink.
A big black slug inside an apple.
red admirals feeding on windfall apples
a sparrow having a bath in a shallow planter. A great tit drinking from the same.
A mouse making a dash for it down a passageway.

[Tripmeup]

Painted Lady butterflies..lots of them
Slugs
Buzzard overhead
My Robin friend
My cat

[Bren In Pots]

Yesterday
Sparrows,
goldfinches,
grasshopper
cabbage whites and a a painted lady
wasps on my apples
slugs one even inside the GH on the roof.

[veggiechicken]

I watched 2 pairs of buzzards circling and climbing on the currents. The pairs would drift together, amalgamate, circle as a foursome then break apart again. I was so engrossed watching their aerial display that I failed to notice another buzzard, perched in a tree a few yards from where I stood. Suddenly, it flew out of the tree, so close I could see its individual feathers and flew away, ignoring the 4 in the sky. Beautiful
Also saw lots of hoverflies, like thin, shiny bees with black and yellow stripes, on the dahlias.

[Can the Man]

Went to the poly tunnel this evening plenty of spiders and daddy long legs a few snails, outside among the cabbage and kale a few slugs and caterpillars and a small black beetle

[Aberdeenplotter]

slugs and more slugs. I've started off a nematode brew

[burnie]

I am moving flower containers ready to overwinter in the greenhouse, I now know where the slugs hide and woodlice and centipedes and millipedes and spiders lol all underneath the pots

[bario1]

Lifted a Crown Prince squash up and found one of those big long black larvae - i forget what they turn into - had to wait for it to vacate before i could replace the squash.
Under the lid of my compost bin - piles of red worms, armies of slaters, a large snail.
While selecting some pots for potting on greens - slugs of various description.

[Jungle Jane]

I saved a bumble bee from a cob web yesterday,it’s feet were stuck together in a ‘U’ shape so I had to bring it in the kitchen to be really careful & used tiny sticks to help free its legs so it could walk & then fly again. Ive been removing the webs near the flowers but this was on the fence where there’s no flowers really. I moved four seven-spotted ladybirds from my front lawn wildflowers before I mowed it for the first time since spring (the flowers look & spread like poison hemlock but the stems are green so it might be something else) I left a couple of the flowers there for them,I should plant something out there. I saw a hedgehog a few nights ago having a drink from my cats bowl,I haven’t seen any slugs or snails but I haven’t looked,hedgehog probably looks,Ive been putting a few mealworms on the lawn in the evening for him/her,there was hedgehog poo on my front lawn yesterday as well the birdfoods going down daily but I can’t see the feeders at the mo I need to cut the buddleia back. Ive just cut the forsythias height,there’s a whole bed covered that the hedgehog will like snuffling through,I use the bare sticks to cover my peas,onions & garlic to stop our cat going on there,haven’t planted any of them yet though

[Babru]

Found a beautiful beetle, irridescent with red stripes. Sadly, when I looked it up it is a rosemary beetle, fond of rosemary, lavender, sage, thyme. I have all of these, including a newly planted lavender hedge .

I filled out the RHS questionnaire as they are monitoring the spread of these beetles outwards from the south of England. I can definitely confirm they've made it as far as Edinburgh. Oh, and the one I found is now an ex-beetle....

[Mark_Riga]

I've seen a snake in our current compost bin 3 times now recently. Assume it is a grass snake but it moved too fast to tell. Not a very big one though probably about 18" long. In the spring, when I was emptying 1, I came across a cluch of snake eggs. Wasn't sure if they were still viable so moved them to the back of another compost heap.