Sunday 26 September 2021
Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Chiffchaff, Christophstal September 2021

Common blue damselfly, Christophstal September 2021

Common blue damselfly, Christophstal September 2021

Common blue damselfly, Christophstal September 2021

Common blue damselfly, Christophstal September 2021

There were three chiffchaffs in our bird cherry today. This is fairly standard for this time of year - they seem to be finding some insects on the leaves.

After the morning rain, it brightened up and was quite warm. Not quite warm enough for this common blue damselfly that was sitting in the grass, unwilling to fly.

Thursday 23 September 2021

This weevil was inside the house this morning. I've identified it to a family Cionus sp.

I thought I'd got a new bug for the garden too with this well-marked species on our great burnet. It is actually a species I've already recorded, Eurygaster testudinaria.

This weird fungus is growing on one of our woodpiles. I've got to ID this one.

We were clearing up our raspberry stands in the afternoon and I found this behemoth 6.5cm caterpillar. This is a peppered moth caterpillar, but is the biggest one I've ever seen.

Cionus sp, Christophstal September 2021

Cionus sp, Christophstal September 2021

Cionus sp, Christophstal September 2021

Cionus sp, Christophstal September 2021

<em>Eurygaster testudinaria</em>, Christophstal September 2021

Eurygaster testudinaria, Christophstal September 2021

Fungus TBI, Christophstal September 2021

Fungus TBI, Christophstal September 2021

Peppered moth caterpillar, Christophstal September 2021

Peppered moth caterpillar, Christophstal September 2021

Peppered moth head detail, Christophstal September 2021

Peppered moth head detail, Christophstal September 2021

Saturday 11 September 2021
Common Carder Bee, Christophstal September 2021

Common Carder Bee, Christophstal September 2021

Common Carder Bee, Christophstal September 2021

Common Carder Bee, Christophstal September 2021

We've been trying to avoid disturbing some nesting bumble bees which have taken up residence below a tarpaulin where we're storing some stones. We've been slowly moving the stones around the entrance to the nest, but today we uncovered the central core of the nest. It wasn't huge and although the occupants weren't exactly pleased that they'd been disturbed, they weren't aggressive. I took a few photos to help identify them. They are Common Carder Bees, Bombus pascuorum - a new species for our garden, but that's only because I haven't been trying my bee identification skills. In the photos you can see that they've chewed up our tarpaulin and incorporated it into the structure of their nest.

Saturday 4 September 2021

We had a garden dormouse on one of our peanut feeders today. He was a real fatty. This photo is through a window. I tried to slowly open a window to get a better shot, but he was wise to me and shot off into the shed.

In the evening, I had a bit of excitement thinking there was a red-flanked blue tail in the garden. Once I got a photo it was clear that although this common redstart did indeed have red flanks, if was singularly lacking a blue tail.

Garden dormouse, Christophstal September 2021

Garden dormouse, Christophstal September 2021

Common redstart, Christophstal September 2021

Common redstart, Christophstal September 2021