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[ariadne]

Yesterday I heard sparrows making alarm calls nd went or investigate. I thought I saw a rat on the bird table but my husband thought it looked like a baby ferret. As a neighbour a few doors down has ferrets, we rang him to come take a look. He said it was a stoat.

I've never seen one before and I said how cute it looked with beautiful smooth light brown fur. However, our neighbour told us they are incredibly vicious creatures.

The birds were lined up on the hedge behind the bird table "shouting" their heads off at the stoat eating their food.

Ariadne xx

[CLKD]

OH! a stoat.  Wicked, vicious and fast.  But fascinating.  Better than a rat ...........  .  Due to 'climate change' stoats no longer change to white in the winter, which is where 'ermine' comes from, that fur that is used by many during the various State Openings etc..  What did your neighbour suggest to deter the critter?

[CLKD]

Whilst clearing the pond earlier I found a nymph     - it looked at me, I looked back  [no shepherds though ;-) ]


Suddenly we have wasps everywhere  so I put half a jar of jam to encourage them 'over there'! and we have to eat inside now otherwise   . 

[Taz2]

You might be better to put some ham out or some other form of meat/protein as the wasps are foraging for food for the grubs in the nest. Works on our picnic table. Obviously once the grubs have matured and flown and the wasps are out of a job they will then crave more sweet stuff as their natural supply, exuded from the wasp grubs, has dried up. No job, no home and no more free substance!

Taz x 😊

[CLKD]

I have done that in the past, when outside eating steak or fish.  A small piece on the table for a wasp to collect  .  They are also round the earth where I tip the dregs of tea that I haven't finished: I have 2 sugars 

[Hurdity]

Saw the yaffle in neighbour's garden from upstairs window again - pecking away at the ants. I hadn't realised their beaks were so big! Was watching it for ages. Martins still twittering in two of the four nests - they will be gathering to leave soon...in fact some might have gone already as haven't seen the large flock that flies around village for quite a while.

Hurdity x

[Taz2]

Have you seen the Yaffles tongue Hurdity? It's amazing!!

Taz x

[CLKD]

Mum's lawn has lots of ants, mainly red.  We could hear the green woodpecker in her orchard. 

[CLKD]

Spent an hour last evening watching wasps in jars of cheap jam.  Crikey there was some fisti-cuffs  particular with the hornet-sized beastie; it really didn't want anything else sharing it's jar  . 

Sat out until 11.00 having put meal worms [live and dried] on the patio, 'hog came along and ate and ate and .......... no back up for the report that meal worms are bad for 'hogs ;-).  We have done lots of searches and read lots of reports as well as looking at X-ray films.  There was a large slug but she turned up her snout at that, though it was gone half an hour later.  Maybe she scuttled back for pudding.

One pond fish poorly so have had to treat the water  .  It's that time of year ...........

Have shaken out the jam jar: grape jelly with chilly : onto a larger area so that more wasps can get to it. 

[Roseneath]

I got strung by a wasp yesterday. First time ever I think. It was just hanging onto my arm. Made me squeal.  Very painful. It swelled up a good three inches. The sting stuff I put on it was useless. Still a bit ouchy today. I always say ' leave them alone and they won't bother you'. Wrong yesterday. We have dozens of them here at the moment.

[CLKD]

Wasp stings need treating with '[v]winegar' - bees with bicarb of soda mixed into a paste with cold water.  No vinegar to hand, bite into an apple or onion and apply to a wasp sting. 

OK now?

[Roseneath]

Thanks. Great tip. Just got a two inch red rash around it 24 hours after. Back to the Nature Bit. We have recently joined the British Bat Society. They ask the public to do surveys in the local area. Bats are fascinating creatures. They all have a different sound. Some around today have not changed for 30 million years. We have bought a bat monitor.  First survey sent us out looking for a little common bat (pippistrelle). Didn't find it but saw a much bigger one. Sounded like it had flatulence!  Very funny. We think it could have been a Horseshoe bat but we called it the Farting Bat.

[CLKD]

We used to do a bat count.  Pippestrelles used our eaves as a Nursery, the Mums would hang the babies up and go foraging.  We would sit on the patio wrapped in duvets, counting them out.  Never up earlier enough to count them back inside at dawn  .   Over 100 out one evening.  They would start just B4 dusk, chattering to each other: "I went last night, you go first tonight" :  .  We had to sit away from their route incase they peeeeed.  We sent our count twice a year to the local Batman.

Wasps everywhere.  I have emptied another jar of old jam for them to feed on.

[Hurdity]

So excited - we had our first visit to look for fungi yesterday (rain after long dry spell is good!) and found some HUGE boletes - the true ceps (Boletus edulis) so had a yummy fry-up before our meal. Absolutely delicious!!! Here's to a good fungi season. We've never been out hunting to our "spots" this early before ie in August...

Hurdity x

[Taz2]

I've seen some in our local forest but have NO idea what's what!!

Taz