I spotted a colony of Tree Bumblebees in a tree in the Magic
Garden, high up in an old woodpecker’s nest. This is the first parish record of
this recent immigrant from Europe and
only the second local colony I have heard of (light was so poor it’s really just
a picture of a hole but they really are in there!).
This same dead tree is also home to these King Alfred’s
Cakes (or Crampballs) fungi.
If you are into bushcraft these fungi are great for making fires as, once dried, they take a spark and burn slowly and can then be applied to tinder.
The fen area of the garden attracted this buck Roe, the only
species of deer we get in the parish, which effortlessly jumped the double
garden/field fence before running for cover. There are small populations of
deer both to the north and south of the main road but given the lack of
woodland cover in the parish they are surprisingly elusive.
The other morning as I was rushing for work I saw the first
garden Bullfinches since the winter. They were feeding on the seeds of
Geranimum phaeum and even made graceless attempts to imitate fat hummingbirds
to get the higher seeds.
And finally to continue my popular long-running series of poor-quality
long distance shots of birds… this Little Egret was on the Swale the other
night with a good show of its ‘aigrettes’
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