nature notes

Glad to be of help Hen-Gen.
OH has a book called "The Language of Birds" full of all sort of facts. Including a section on myths and legends. If you eat a Jay your spouse will drop dead, if you sleep on a bed of partridge you will have an easy death, but don't eat one if you're pregnant because you will have quads at the very least.
I love this one.
The magpie, didn't wear full mourning to Christs crucifixion and was punished by having to carry a drop of Satan's blood under it's tongue, therefore the devil can see you if a magpie is around. So you have to say Good Morning Mr Magpie, then Satan knows you are aware he is about. For good measure, take your hat off and cross your fingers to ward off any evil spirits that may be hanging around at the same time.
A stick from a Kites nest will cure a headache !
 
It’s Throssel Hole, HenGen. We spent over 20 years in Buddhist practice centred there. Beautiful, wild, isolated place way out in the moors. Curlews calling all through meditation sessions.
Also sudden, low-flying jets to keep you awake in the afternoon.
 
That’s right Marigold. Apologies for my spelling error.
It is indeed an awesome place and one which has stamped an indelible mark upon my consciousness. Sometimes I feel as though my life is running to a pre ordained script with different experiences being visited upon me as and when I am ready to receive them. Certainly Throssel Hole is one of those half dozen or so that have been defining moments.
Bit serious on a poultry website on a cold sunny Tuesday afternoon!
I too remember the curlews. Hence the inscription on my gravestone:-

light and water dance
a curlew summons the wind
no questions remain

I’m sure my husband would not mind me revealing his which is:-

frosted reeds of light
timeless pools of gay colour
endless searches end

(even at the end he can’t resist a double entendre)

(with apologies to all Haikuists)
 
They are both really lovely Hen-Gen. Such an evocative sound the Curlew. From the moorland in summer and on an estuary in winter
 
Yesterday I saw 3 firsts for me. I was just getting the car out in the afternoon when I saw a sparrow or something similar chasing something else, flying through the air after each other. It turned out to be an egyptian grasshopper, which is like a locust, so pretty big, smaller than a wren but to all intents and purposes it is like a mini-bird. I don't know what the sparrow was doing, as the grasshopper was surely too big to eat?

Later we saw a pair of redstarts doing a vertical dance in the air - not sure if that was mating or aggression! Looked more like mating.

And lastly, shortly after the redstarts, we saw 3 hoopooes flying across, one after the other. I presume it was a family?
 
3 Hoopoe's lucky you.
Warning Moth pic alert for those of you that find them scary.
But we finally got a hawk Moth in the moth trap last night. A Poplar Hawk Moth, also a Canary shouldered Thorn which was colourful
 

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I've heard of the poplar, but never seen one. Its odd how we find butterflies so charming, but moths less so. I am in awe of their abilities to disguise themselves as bits of random twig or whatever. Thanks for sharing the photos, BYM.
 
just for you MrsBiscuit the pale prominent looking like a piece of wood or bark.

I must look up your Egyptian grasshopper
 

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Just brilliant! I remember the first time I saw a moth in disguise, I would have had no idea what it was until it moved. I found it completely wonderous then, and I still do! In the past couple of days I have seen an ant carrying a small spider and managing to look like it was a small scorpion. OH always says its a good job ants aren't larger or we will all go in fear of our lives!
 
BYM - are you a moth enthusiast then? I rarely see them where I live. Get the lovely butterflies in Spring, that's all. Looking at pics of some moths over time, some are more elaborate than butterflies. I think that red one last year I saw must have been the cinnabar.
Wasn't sure about the Pale Prominant. At first glance I thought it was a broken oyster mushroom hee hee
 
Only since meeting the OH and off on birdwatching trips, I started noticing day flying moths and OH told me what they were, and various insects. For Christmas 2018 I bought her a moth trap to use, I am not an enthusiast as such but I am amazed at the variety and size difference.
OH has introduced me to the wonderful world of nature in all it's forms.
The moth trap came from Anglian Lepidopterists Supplies, and it is easy to assemble and dismantle and put away somewhere if need be
This was last nights special and we had another two Poplar Hawk Moths.
 

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That is beautiful. Is there a gypsy moth, just out of interest?

I have just come back from a walk along a track I haven't used for 2 months. Its absolutely covered in wild plants, mostly cistus, but a good spread of wild flowers, because nobody is around to maintain their patches of land, you nearly can't walk through as there are so many bees. Anyway, I had to pass a small stand of pine trees and a butterfly flew out and landed on me. Then it danced ahead for a short while, landing on the trunks, then flying off. When it was on a trunk, with its wings folded, I couldn't see it easily, even though I knew exactly where it was. With open wings it was some sort of fritillary type of thing but less patterned, but with its wings up it looked like a piece of the deeply ridged pine bark. I am going to look it up now, I didn't have my phone with me for a photo, so its from memory.
 
Yes there is a Gypsy Moth. Native to southern Europe, where it can be a serious pest as the caterpillars food plant is broadleaved trees. Only appears in UK as a vagrant.
We thought "wonder if we will get anything", when we first switched the moth trap on as it got dusk, it was quite exciting in the morning when we looked, you have a couple of egg trays that go in the bottom and picked one up and just loads underneath it.
There is a whole different world happening whilst we are asleep.
That is the other good bit, place in garden, switch on, go to bed and go out in morning see what you have. Different species appear throughout year so you always have chance of something good
 
That's a beautiful moth. Isn't it funny how we accidentally become interested in other things around us. Ilove nature. Birds, insects, flowers,trees, I also love cloud formations. My Oh would probably say my head is always in the clouds....

Now then Mrs Biscuit, that Cistus.......I have had to pay £10 per Cistus plant (rock rose), I absolutely love them. You are sooo lucky to have them in the wild. I believe they like coastal areas? Two of mine are not doing so well, I must try to establish the problem, it is probably the type of soil they're in.
 
Cistus like alkaline soil Tweetipie. If they get leggy, they don’t respond well to hard pruning, but if you dig a really deep hole you can sink them up to their necks with the stalks underground. Then they look nice and bushy and have the advantage of root access to deeper, damper, cooler soil in very hot weather. I don’t think they’re very long-lived but can be grown quite easily from cuttings. You can do this with leggy lavender plants as well.

Confusingly, Cistus is often known as rock rose, but rock rose (Helianthemum) is different from cistus although the two plants have similarities and belong to the same family. You can and should prune back rock rose quite hard when they finish flowering as they will grow back from the end of their stalks, whether or not these have been shortened and shaped up by pruning back. This doesn’t work for cistus and if you cut into old wood it won’t shoot again.
 
Over here in our area they are super-common, they cover the hillsides as 'scrub' and are good at holding the soil together. There are 2 basic types here, but there are loads more in cultivation. Ours are all wild. First there is the large (3ft high and quite leggy) type with large white flowers in April with a maroon splodge around the yellow stamens in the centre (I hope you are following my technical terms!) and smaller ones, which are maybe 10 inches high, they form more of a shrubby mound, with small white flowers and yellow stamens. There is also a shocking pink version of the small ones, but it is much less common. I keep meaning to dig some up and put it in my garden although all types are vigorous and are treated as weeds by some people; they are invasive as they tend to smother whatever is in the way.

Our area is actually all slightly acidic, so I'm not sure about soil preference. However, they definitely need good drainage. The land here is all free draining (actually very rocky) and that is essential. We get bucket loads of rain in the winter, as much rainfall as the UK gets in a year, so they need wet, but they also need loads of sun, they withstand our arid summers brilliantly - the flowers are over by then. The leaves are dark green and a bit sticky, I am not sure if that is something to do with how well they withstand drought. They won't want to stand in water anyway, so improve the drainage where you are planting if necessary, that is the most important thing.

I think you have green fingers, so I'm sure you'll manage, good luck!
 
Ahhh, now I know why....the first year it was flourishing like mad, absolutely gorgeous, but last year it seemed to have a dead part. It has become very leggy and only has a few flowers again, so after it has finished, I will dig it up and put it somewhere else. The soil it is in is rock hard, like clay, the water doesn't soak well. I have another area where the abutilon thrives, that has better soil, so could put it up there. I didn;t know I had to prune it. Eek. I realised late with my leggy lavender, too. Luckily the more recent ones I planted are OK. You know what? My husband is a nightmare. He always has a go at me if i cut anything back. He thinks I am Edward Scissor hands. I have to prune things when he pops to the shops. I tell him to google the fact that some shrubs need pruning hard. All the flowers and shrubs I trimmed last year when he wasn't looking and moaned about all winter, are now thriving and he has to eat his words - but he won't. Stubborn creature! Oh and before I end my rant, he has set up CCTV on the front, I wonder if he's checking up on my gardening antics :lol:
 
Yes I think you’re right, Mrs B, about the soil type - they grow well here on our fully drained chalk, so I assumed they need alkaline soil, but maybe it’s the sharp drainage that’s most necessary. Our garden is so dry at the moment, after a drought Spring, that I can’t get a daisy grubber in to the soil to extract weed roots, an electric drill would be more efficient. I’m gradually watering my way round to try to soften the next section for attention next day!

Agree about marital problems over pruning - Tony tends to prune shrubs into a lollipop by going over them with a hedge trimmer, instead of removing larger branches down to the base to thin out the growth and maintain an arching shape with new growth from below.
 
Pruning, don't get me started. My OH is not allowed to do it, except under supervision for the bits I can't reach.

Tweetypie - perhaps try telling your husband that if you prune correctly, what you are doing is promoting growth as the plant decides it has to compensate for the cutting back by growing twice as hard. Also, you have to know when to prune as that will get you/not get you fruit and flowers for the following year. Basically, you are saving the plant from becoming all long wavy branches which don't do anything and look a mess. The bit you don't tell him is that when you prune, assuming you don't kill the plant, it will just grow back twice as hard. This is not always what we want when we cut things back, sometimes we are trying to reduce them to size to fit into the space we have allocated them!
 
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