Bulb Pests

[Tony Willis]

It seems a good time to go out at night with a torch and look for cutworms which seem very active on my cyclamen in the greenhouse at the moment. They can be devastating if not caught.

[Thomas Huber]

Good idea, Tony! Two days ago I noticed that something has destroyed my dark wild Crocus medius.
Yesterday in the dark I took my flashlight and found two cutworms having dinner on my Crocus 
Of course it was their last dinner 

[Paul T]

Luc is is very unlikely to be the same bird every year. Sorry to burst your bubble! Small birds dont live more than a year or two.

Mark,

I thought about this comment a few days ago when I was having a discussion with a local birder .... I hadn't realised that small birds in Europe were so short-lived.  Some of the aussie birds are somewhat more robust it seems.  We have something locally called a White-browed Scrub-wren (I also found out that none of our "wrens" actually are related to the real wrens, despite looking like them) which is a small bird that would fit in the palm of my hand and studies of wild birds have recorded individuals living up to 17 years (that I think is the longest lived record for a wild bird).  Apparently a lot of our small birds can live for quite a long time, unlike similar birds in the northern hemisphere.  I'm not sure I would have noted it so much, except that I recalled this comment by you last month.  I'm so glad you made it, as it meant I noted something I quite possibly wouldn't have otherwise.  Thought you might be interested to hear that some of our birds buck the trend!