Emerging damselflies

I noticed 4 damselflies emerged from their larval stage today, three quite close together (see below)

The newly emerged damselflies rest and dry their wings. They really are quite striking.

At the bottom of the plant stem is the newly moulted skin from the damselfly larvae.

Several blackbirds were calling this afternoon from different directions. I know there are at least two nesting pairs nearby. The swifts are now evident most days screaming over head as they come to and from the nests in next doors eaves.

Great tit and juvenile slowworm

The great tit is still visiting the garden foraging for food.

A small flock of starlings landed for a frantic feed, on the small piece of lawn in the back garden. They probed the grass with their long beaks, pulling out grubs many of which feed on the roots of the grass beneath the soil.

One starling kept a close eye on its neighbour and every time it found a tasty morsel, this startling would dart in and try to steal it, albeit unsuccessfully. (Photos taken through kitchen window)

Later in the day I noticed a juvenile slowworm on the path just outside our front gate. I picked it up and moved it to the long grass just inside out garden.

I'm not sure where it came from as it a fair distance (for a slowworm) across path and road to get to any other cover.

dead sloworm

Hera (our cat) is still confined to the house, which she has been for 2 days now. However this morning I noticed another dead slowworm in the garden on the path. As she has been confined to the house, maybe I have been wrong in blaming her for all the previous injured or dead slowworms!

Injured cat and great tit

Yesterday, our Cat Hera received a nasty bite to her ear which has become infected. Following a trip to the vet for a check over and antibiotics, she returned home with collar to prevent her from scratching it. This will mean the slowworms and other wildlife in the garden should have a reprieve.

Hera is an unusual cat with some very strange behaviours. She brought up solely as a house cat by her previous owners so she prowled her internal territory, hunted spiders and woodlice and never came face to face with another cat. This lack of contact with other cats has been part of her downfall and confronts trouble head on rather than retreating. I think she has missed out on learning the social skill so of cat society. This is also the route of her invertebrate catching skills. She will blow a spider from its web or from beneath a window sill to eat it. She can leap and catch a fly in mid air or use her cupped paws to catch one against the window.

Today, when the wind and dropped and the weather turned to an intermittent drizzle, a great tit flew into the garden foraging for insects.


It checked out the foliage growing up the side of the shed and then search beneath the gutters before flying down to check out the cracks in a low wall. The pictures are not brilliant quality as they were taken through the window and there was a lot of light reflection.




It hung for a while from the underside of our window sill before flying back out the way it came.

Baby birds and damselflies

I was attracted by a commotion in the tree that overhangs our garden. A cat was up the tree, attracted it seems by the wood pigeons flapping about. While looking up into the higher branches, from below I noticed what appeared to be a couple (at least two) young birds. Pictures below, very blurred due to lack of light and trying to focus up through so many branches. Any ideas?

I found another slow worm left by the back door, probably by our cat. This one seemed relatively unharmed. I put it into a space fish tank to see if it was okay and after 10 minutes it was moving around okay. I carefully released the slow worm into our garden again underneath and bush with thick vegetation.

I made another attempt to clear some of the excess pond weed from the pond before the damselflies start laying eggs on it. While removing weed from the back of the pond, which was also covered in some blanket weed, I came across some tiny damselfly larvae.

They were about 1 cm in length. I returned these to the pond, but found more on the weed. I used the same technique as last time to ensure pond creatures were not accidentally removed from the pond. As with last time I also found over 12 fully grown larvae, which looked close to being ready to emerge from the pond and become winged adults. Later on I noticed this damselfly which had recently emerged from its larval stage.

Mating snails

While hanging the washing out I noticed these two snails mating in one of my newly planted window boxes.
I moved them to the window sill to take this picture and then took them for a walk down the back alley to find them a better place to lay their eggs than my window box.

Swifts

There are now 4 swifts flying around this morning. As often the case, I heard them screaming past the house, which attracted my attention to them. I look forward to watching their nesting progress this year