Some recent garden visitors

Spending more time than usual in our garden recently has given me the opportunity to record some of the recent visitors, which have been quite varied.

This seven spot ladybird this made a welcome visit as so often the ladybirds we see in our gardens now are of the Harlequin type, an invasive species from  Asia. The latter out compete our native insects and will eat their larvae and eggs too.

We often come across slow worms in our garden and we have seen both tiny young and adults this week. They are neither worms not snakes as some think, but legless lizards. They can live for an average of 20 years and they don't tend to stray far from where they were born, perhaps an area of 200sq m. They particularly like warm spots to live in, such as a compost heap. You can attract them by providing a piece of corrugated iron laid on the ground in a sunny spot. Females incubate the eggs in their bodies and give birth to about 8 live which are about 4cm in length, like this one on the left. The adults, like the one on the right, can grow up to 50 cm.

 









The birds are getting very active now that spring is here and one bird that is calling loudly at the moment is the nuthatch. This is a very agile woodland bird that can work its way up and down as well as backwards and sideways along a trunk or branch, collecting insects in summer and retrieving nuts that it has hidden in cracks in the bark during winter.

It is a territorial bird and prefers woodland and gardens with mature trees, especially oak and beech.