wildlife

[Chris Johnson]

Caterpillars

Frazer, these look like Ground Lackeys but that species is southern and coastal. Can I ask you where you found them and the plant species they were on?

[Hoy]

Had been nice, Mark but I don't think I am allowed to import them


My foxgloves are very often visited by bumblebees and yesterday was no exception. One of the bees was very big - a queen presumably, but late in the season? Thought they were busy laying eggs.




A gang of rather big stinging wasps were collecting nectar at this angelica. The wasps eat nectar as grown-up but meat as larvae to get protein.

[Chris Johnson]

One of the bees was very big - a queen presumably, but late in the season? Thought they were busy laying eggs.

Hoy - In northern and western climates such as ours, bumblebees often don't appear until June to coincide with their particular food-plants. In particularly cold and wet seasons (such as this year), queens can be seen on the wing in July. On Sunday I recorded queens of Bombus muscorum, Bombus lucorum and Bombus distinguendus.

[David Nicholson]

I have bumblebees in the garden at most times of the year. Around Christmas time/early January they congregate around the blossom on my Mahonia x media 'Charity'.

[latestart]

Can someone ID this butterfly or moth for me? Unfortunately it was dead when I picked it up in the parking lot near Carnegie Park in Dunfermline.

[Anthony Darby]

Looks like a large yellow underwing moth (Noctua pronuba).

[latestart]

 

Looks like a large yellow underwing moth (Noctua pronuba).

Thank you. It is apparently a common moth in UK but I cannot recall see those brightly coloured  underwings before.

[Peter Maguire]

It's dragonfly season, so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures from a nearby pond:

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) - immature male (they turn orange-red in a few days)
Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata)

[Roma]

A squirrel yesterday with a bundle of drey lining material.  I think it was some stringy bark from the firewood.

[Chris Johnson]

I wasn't going to show this as it has nothing to do with rock gardens, but I wanted to try out the image-resizing 

Beautiful Carpet, new record for the Uists.

[Growild]

Like Chris thought I'd try the new image-resizing too with some photo's from the farm this week 

Baby Swallow outside my office window (don't you think they have evil faces!)
A mole out in the daylight - something I've never seen here before.
A beautiful birds nest fallen from a tree, more like a work of art and made from mainly badger hair, moss and lichens.

[mark smyth]

Had been nice, Mark but I don't think I am allowed to import them

There are now wild colonies of red masons in Belfast nesting in holes in houses made from Belfast red bricks. I know someone who caught many and brought them to his house

[johnw]

The fabled piebald deer spotted recently in Halifax County has appeared in a garden Ken tends.  Here it is eating a rhododendron today.  He, not amused.

john

[Maggi Young]

Won't munching rhododendrons poison it?  A friend here though that deer died in her garden after browsing rhodos.

[Hoy]

Deer (and sheep) have munched my rhodos without dying. But they select the ones they browse so maybe they avoid the most toxic?