May I say what wonderful creatures you all have. I love the little frogs and the amazing blue butterfly. When I was a child I used to collect butterflies and had a pond with 200 frogs in it. I love wildlife and may I say some fantastic photography there. Some wonderful gardens. I get white butterflies in mine with the odd small tortoiseshell. One small tortoiseshell butterfly came right into my home one day. They are wonderful.
How about this little cutie?! I heard a noise in the chimney for the log burner and made my husband dismantle it, to find our local little owl inside. He is normally brown... at least I don't have to clean the chimney now!! We saw him a few days ago in the garden and he is brown again, none the worse for wear for his adventure!
That sounds wonderful a lovely story there. I expect you treat him like a little pet? A great find and a lovely surprise to see. Have you any photos of him?
Hi clattnow, no he is wild, just visits the garden each night for food. He only ever usually comes out at dusk, so no other photos unfortunately! I'm just glad it wasn't winter, or else he'd have been toast!
yes me too. Nice to have a night time visitor. A lovely little soul. I had a wood pigeon in a tree at a house and he tells the other birds to leave his nest alone they visit him in the morning and you can hear him having quite a row with them. It is amusing to hear.
I was skimming the top of the pond with net yesterday to remove some of the surface weed and came across a tiny, baby newt - which is great as we introduced 5 or 6 adult newts to the pond a few years ago and I hadn't seen them since. I wish I had taken a picture but I didn't have the camera handy. What is the life cycle of a newt - do they need a male & female to reproduce? I am also feeding a baby hedgehog each evening.
Great news about the hedgehog GD, we had one in our garden last week and it's the first one I've seen for years (first ever in this garden), biggun too! Btw Newts breed in the same way frogs do.
I uncovered an Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar at our allotment last night. It made me jump when I pulled up the weeds it was sat on because it was so big, thought it was going for my throat!
Hi there GD. The answers to your questions are that yes the female needs a male to reproduce they lay their eggs in strings or clumps under leaves. They live for 3-4 years normally. There are many The Crested Newt, The Smooth Newt and the small newt called a palmate newt. They love worms and damp grass but cannot live for long out of a pond or a lake. In winter they live under stones and go to sleep until Spring. I hope I have helped. I used to collect them as a child so know just a bit of knowledge not a lot. Also nice to hear being visited by a hedgehog they are also known as hedgepigs in France as they live in hedgerows.
Your wildlife sounds exciting there Bob lovely to see hedghogs and moths. I collected some caterpillars once and they turned into Chinese Silk moths flying around the light in my room my mother said "get them out of here!" They were 15 inch wingspan. Elephant Hawk moths sound similar?
Thanks Bob and clattnow, I think I have got the newt's life sorted in my woollen head now. So we have at least three newts now, but some must be coming towards the end of their lives, so let's hope that newbie newt survives and lives on to produce (with help) more newts. As for the Elephant Hawk moth - that must have given you a surprise Bob, they are huge as the name suggests and lovely to come across one like that. Thanks for sharing your stories.
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Hello everyone,
May I say what wonderful creatures you all have. I love the little frogs and the amazing blue butterfly. When I was a child I used to collect butterflies and had a pond with 200 frogs in it. I love wildlife and may I say some fantastic photography there. Some wonderful gardens. I get white butterflies in mine with the odd small tortoiseshell. One small tortoiseshell butterfly came right into my home one day. They are wonderful.
How about this little cutie?! I heard a noise in the chimney for the log burner and made my husband dismantle it, to find our local little owl inside. He is normally brown... at least I don't have to clean the chimney now!! We saw him a few days ago in the garden and he is brown again, none the worse for wear for his adventure!
Hi there Renee Frenchy,
That sounds wonderful a lovely story there. I expect you treat him like a little pet? A great find and a lovely surprise to see. Have you any photos of him?
Hi clattnow, no he is wild, just visits the garden each night for food. He only ever usually comes out at dusk, so no other photos unfortunately! I'm just glad it wasn't winter, or else he'd have been toast!
yes me too. Nice to have a night time visitor. A lovely little soul. I had a wood pigeon in a tree at a house and he tells the other birds to leave his nest alone they visit him in the morning and you can hear him having quite a row with them. It is amusing to hear.
I was skimming the top of the pond with net yesterday to remove some of the surface weed and came across a tiny, baby newt - which is great as we introduced 5 or 6 adult newts to the pond a few years ago and I hadn't seen them since. I wish I had taken a picture but I didn't have the camera handy. What is the life cycle of a newt - do they need a male & female to reproduce? I am also feeding a baby hedgehog each evening.
Great news about the hedgehog GD, we had one in our garden last week and it's the first one I've seen for years (first ever in this garden), biggun too! Btw Newts breed in the same way frogs do.
I uncovered an Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar at our allotment last night. It made me jump when I pulled up the weeds it was sat on because it was so big, thought it was going for my throat!
Hi there GD. The answers to your questions are that yes the female needs a male to reproduce they lay their eggs in strings or clumps under leaves. They live for 3-4 years normally. There are many The Crested Newt, The Smooth Newt and the small newt called a palmate newt. They love worms and damp grass but cannot live for long out of a pond or a lake. In winter they live under stones and go to sleep until Spring. I hope I have helped. I used to collect them as a child so know just a bit of knowledge not a lot. Also nice to hear being visited by a hedgehog they are also known as hedgepigs in France as they live in hedgerows.
Your wildlife sounds exciting there Bob lovely to see hedghogs and moths. I collected some caterpillars once and they turned into Chinese Silk moths flying around the light in my room my mother said "get them out of here!" They were 15 inch wingspan. Elephant Hawk moths sound similar?
Thanks Bob and clattnow, I think I have got the newt's life sorted in my woollen head now. So we have at least three newts now, but some must be coming towards the end of their lives, so let's hope that newbie newt survives and lives on to produce (with help) more newts. As for the Elephant Hawk moth - that must have given you a surprise Bob, they are huge as the name suggests and lovely to come across one like that. Thanks for sharing your stories.