The Wildlife (and Gardening for Wildlife) thread

[mikeprice]

Not fully a gardening for wildlife, but close.... With holidays looming, I may have to rely on neighbours to keep my tomato bags, hanging baskets and a few planters watered whilst away. However, has anyone had success with an inexpensive irrigation solutions?

 

Bloke next door to me many years ago was walking through Liverpool and noticed some workmen were dismantling an old Gents toilet - they used to be in the middle of the road down a staircase for some reason

 

He saw the old stuff dumped in a skip and asked it he could take the water timer controls

 

the workmen were not bothered so he brought it home and hooked it up to some hosepipe so his greenhouse go watered regurarily

 

dunno how you get hold of one - but he said it was quite simple once you got all the bits

[6Foot2]

...dunno how you get hold of one - but he said it was quite simple once you got all the bits

Link: Amazon.co.uk : Watering Timers

[Ditto]

Link: Amazon.co.uk : Watering Timers

I've decided to wait until out-of-season when prices are much lower to buy a timer based solution. In the meantime, a neighbours son is signed up - only fair, as my lad had looked after there rabbit when they were away and they both earn a few quid along the way!

[6Foot2]

Link:

[Video Tweet]

 

🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 Let's make this viral - hedgehogs are dying of dehydration - please please share this post and offer some shallow bowls of water for wildlife (pop a few pebbles in to make sure insects that fall in can escape) 🦔 💧

 

🎥 Paul Bunyard

[6Foot2]

Link: Bugs Matter [Kent Wildlife Trust]

 

The Bugs Matter Survey - Become a Citizen Scientist

 

Insects pollinate three-quarters of our food crops, as well as being critical components of ecosystems. However, their numbers are declining.

 

Bugs Matter is a Citizen Science survey. We want to repeat the survey every year to fully understand local insect populations and how to protect them against further population losses. Monitoring insect numbers also provides a good indicator for measuring the success of our conservation work at a landscape-scale.

 

Download the app to take part

 

Sharing the findings from your journeys will help us understand more about our insect populations, as growing evidence highlights their declines on a global scale. Your participation in this nature survey is vital for us to monitor population trends, address causes of insect loss, and halt and reverse them.

 

By taking part in the Bugs Matter survey, you are contributing important data to identify insect population trends...

 

Survey duration: 1^st of June until 31^st of August 2022.

 

 

Link 2: Bugs Matter Splatometer [Presentation: 1-Page PDF]

 

 

^ Print the downloaded PDF at A4 size (100%) More instructions in the PDF.

[Dos_Box]

Link: Bugs Matter [Kent Wildlife Trust]

 

 

 

Survey duration: 1^st of June until 31^st of August 2022.

 

 

Link 2: Bugs Matter Splatometer [Presentation: 1-Page PDF]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66039[/ATTACH]

 

^ Print the downloaded PDF at A4 size (100%) More instructions in the PDF.

 

Not doing to bad for insects this year. I have a couple of buddliah and a teasel which are all in flower atm and packed with bees and hoverflies. Not seen many butterflies in the garden yet this year though (a hummingbird hawk moth in the garden last week was a nice sight though).

I'm just hoping the recent warm weather will bring them out. Some rain might help there though, and that is coming in the next few days.

[elsiegee40]

I have identified a three new bee species in our garden this year:

 

Willughby’s Leafcutter - a big chunk of a leafcutter. We have only had the smaller Patchwork Leafcutters before.

 

Sharp Tailed Bee (which is a kleptoparasite of the Willughby’s. She got caught while trying to lay her egg in a tube by a Willughby’s. She escaped and then the Willughby’s started pulling her nest material out clearly knowing there was something she didn’t want in it.

 

And today a teeny Large Headed Resin Bee that’s nesting in a wheat straw in my bee house

[southhamster]

We have a plant called hemp agrimony flowering in the garden which is attracting every flying thing there is! Butterflies, bees, other, hoverflies and something I hadn't seen before - a hornet mimic hoverfly. We do get the odd hornet looking for things eat too, and in the evening sometimes a bat picking off insects attracted by the scent.

[LeMarchand]

We have a plant called hemp agrimony flowering in the garden which is attracting every flying thing there is! Butterflies, bees, other, hoverflies and something I hadn't seen before - a hornet mimic hoverfly. We do get the odd hornet looking for things eat too, and in the evening sometimes a bat picking off insects attracted by the scent. [ATTACH]66122[/ATTACH]

 

As long as it's only wildlife and not humans attracted by the smell and shape of the leaves!

[southhamster]

I don't think it's that sort of hemp! It's also known as holy rope so presumably can be used for fibres - maybe those cords monks tie round their waists!

[6Foot2]

I don't think it's that sort of hemp! It's also known as holy rope so presumably can be used for fibres - maybe those cords monks tie round their waists!

 

Link: Wednesday Weed – Hemp Agrimony Revisited | Bug Woman – Adventures in London

 

...Hemp Agrimony is a native plant in the UK, and like so many plants that have been here for a while, it has some interesting folklore. One alternative name for the plant is ‘Holy Rope’ – the leaves of Hemp, which this plant resembles, were used to make rope, and it was believed that such a rope was used to bind Christ before his crucifixion. A more day-to-day belief was that if bread was placed on a bed of Hemp Agrimony leaves, it wouldn’t go mouldy...

[LeMarchand]

 

Found a hedgehog in the garden on Saturday; it later moved more into the shade. Put out some kitty bix and water.

[Andrew_C]

It was probably sheltering there - they make a sort of temporary nest. We have one that does it in the front of the house when the rest of the local tribe are out the back with the kitty food.

[elsiegee40]

I agree. In warmer weather they often don’t bother with a proper nest for the day. Unfortunately that is how so many get injured by gardeners who don’t check before using sharp garden tools

[E_G_R2]

Just been out in the school grounds to check on the Blackberry situation and scared a Muntjac deer! Going to see if it comes up on the CCTV

[LeMarchand]

Photographer gets lucky shot of osprey with dogfish shark.

 

[mikeprice]

Due to teh weather we have been sitting outside in the evening more than before

 

Last year we would see quite a few small birds around

 

this year - not one

 

Magpies are still around as are the pigeons - but the robins, sparrows, wrens and blue tits are just not here

and we haven't heard a woodpecker this year

 

Strange

[elsiegee40]

Due to teh weather we have been sitting outside in the evening more than before

 

Last year we would see quite a few small birds around

 

this year - not one

 

Magpies are still around as are the pigeons - but the robins, sparrows, wrens and blue tits are just not here

and we haven't heard a woodpecker this year

 

Strange

 

At this time of year, most birds are going through the post breeding season moult and typically keep their heads down until they are fully feathered again. It’s not unusual for garden birds to ‘disappear’ at this time of year.

 

That said all wildlife is really struggling in the current drought. We are getting so many dehydrated creatures in at the rescue at the moment… especially hedgehogs.

 

Please put loads of dishes of water out, even if you have a pond, as the less competition there is for water the better. I use terracotta plants saucers

[smurfomatic]

Had a visitor in the garden for the last few evenings...

 

[elsiegee40]

Had a visitor in the garden for the last few evenings...

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66222[/ATTACH]

 

Lotd of water dishes. You can’t have enough. By having several you reduce competition and everything gets a look-in without fighting for it. They won’t say no to some cat or kitten biscuits too. Hedgehogs are really struggling in the drought. Not enough worms, beetles and water. We are getting loads of starving, dehydrated hedgehogs in at the rescue [emoji20]

[smurfomatic]

Lotd of water dishes. You can’t have enough. By having several you reduce competition and everything gets a look-in without fighting for it. They won’t say no to some cat or kitten biscuits too. Hedgehogs are really struggling in the drought. Not enough worms, beetles and water. We are getting loads of starving, dehydrated hedgehogs in at the rescue [emoji20]

 

Just out of shot on the right are two water dishes. I'm also collecting some unwanted cat food from a friend this week. The hog has merrily munched his way through a load of mealworms from the bird food! Hopefully he'll be okay, both my neighbours are keeping an eye out.

[elsiegee40]

Just out of shot on the right are two water dishes. I'm also collecting some unwanted cat food from a friend this week. The hog has merrily munched his way through a load of mealworms from the bird food! Hopefully he'll be okay, both my neighbours are keeping an eye out.

 

Now for the bad news @smurfomatic. Mealworms are bad for hedgehogs. They have a high phosphorus content which causes Metabolic Bone Disease in our native species. (This is also true of peanuts and sunflower hearts). MBD is usually fatal. We can’t fix the hedgehogs that come to us with it.

 

Please don’t feed mealworms to hedgehogs and sweep under any bird feeders at dusk if you can too.

 

Further information from a rescue vet on YouTube

Edited August 15, 2022 by elsiegee40

[smurfomatic]

Oh dear, thanks for the advice @elsiegee40. I've run out of mealworms now, think most of them were eaten by the young starlings.

[6Foot2]

5Foot2 spotted a visitor to our (partly dismantled) decking while I was working on it today:

 

 

*Photography isn't great, but it was the camera on my phone.

 

[Andrew_C]

I've had wildlife on my decking project too. Didn't start when it was outrageously hot... Now gopping down!

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BD8vrbjmPGSV8pAX6