Lots of interesting things to share!

I'm behind with my blogging - that's not due to lack of things to talk about or photos - more that when I was feeling grotty I couldn't find the energy or motivation, and as soon as I felt well, I was far more interested in being outdoors than sitting at a computer sorting and processing photos, and writing the stories to go with them! When you only get say three or four good days in a fortnight, you've got to get your priorities right. Especially when the weather is good! Health update at the end as usual, and it's more positive this time I'm happy to say.

I'll start with this Privet Hawkmoth that my OH found the other day at the base of the metal swings frame. We have actually seen it here before many moons ago but this is the first time I've got to photograph one. Afterwards I moved it to a shaded wall where it seemed happy to settle. We have no privet around here but their larvae feed on other plants including ash and lilac, which there are plenty of here.

Privet Hawkmoth (Sphinx ligustri).

Privet Hawkmoth (Sphinx ligustri), seemed happier to be in the shade on the house wall.

Then there's the story of my tadpoles. Well after we had an enormous amount of rain a few weeks back, they seemed to have disappeared! I did come across about 20 sheltering under an overhanging bramble, but last time I looked they were none there at all. I wonder if this is the culprit? I've no idea if they eat tadpoles, but the tads I last saw still only had hind legs and couldn't surely have become froglets in such a short space of time, could they? Also as sods law would have it, I was out with my DSLR and macro lens and no zoom just when I needed it.

Grass snake (Natrix natrix).

However as Keith (think I'm going to start calling him by his name now; all these years of calling the poor guy my OH seems a bit impersonal, specially as most of you know I'm Mandy rather than my nom de plume!) was mowing near the lake the other day he started noticing teeny things hopping about. Sure enough, they were tiny froglets! (Hope none got injured by the mower). So we had some fun watching them and trying to take photos, which wasn't easy as no sooner did I get focus lock but they'd hopped out of my viewfinder! I hope just a few survive - seems crazy considering the amount of tadpoles we started with but I guess tons get eaten by all sorts of things. I'm not very clued up about tadpoles and frogs to be honest. The amount of hours I've  been spending trying to ID Odonata (damsels and dragons) lately hasn't given me time to learn about tadpoles.

Teensy froglet, about 1cm long!

Back to the country lanes and Keith's cycle rides - here are some great photos he's taken. He also discovered several Melodious Warblers along the track where I went for a walk with him (I've been back twice, more about that later). We once saw M. Warblers the other side of France near the Doubs river about 13 years ago, although we were never sure if they could have been Icterine Warblers, both of which have yellowy underparts. It was rather exciting as we had no idea that eastern Brittany was within their range. They are quite easy to ID by their song, if you are away from reedbeds, as they sound a bit like a demented Reed Warbler! Wikipedia describes the sound as a pleasant babbling. Well, it's a bit of both. :-)

Melodious Warbler (Hippolais polyglotta).

And a couple more pics of Stonechats - I haven't been lucky enough to see one yet.

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), male.

Stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), male.

These pictures are the icing on the cake - I chuckle every time I look at the surprised expressions on both the fox cub and the unsuspecting rabbit's face! Bunny just appeared, then was off like speedy gonzales, and K was very lucky to be already in the process of taking photos of the young fox when it all happened.

One startled bunny and
one rather confused fox cub.

When I got the opportunity to get back to this track in the sunshine, I'd spotted my first Skipper before even getting out of the car! I was really happy to see both Large and Small Skippers here. The second time I was able to get some pics of the Small Skipper so could confirm that it was indeed that and not an Essex Skipper. Also saw something minute and blue grey which flew into a clump of Greater Birds-foot Trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus) and promptly disappeared from view. After searching in vain we touched the plant and it flew out and in between K's legs! By a process of elimination, I think it could have been a female Short-tailed Blue, which are often found around said plant it landed on as it's one of the host plants, and I know it was smaller than a Small Skipper as I'd just been looking at them. We don't have chalky soil here so I don't think it was a Small Blue. It may forever remain a mystery. Also saw my first Marbled Whites of the year. Back to my photos again.

Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus), male.

Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) - the tips of the antennae showing red differentiate
it from the Essex Skipper, whose undersides to the tips are black.

This lovely dragonfly was accomodating and happy to pose for a number of photos - how often does that happen? :-)

I think this is a Clubtail of the Gomphus genus,
but unsure as to which one just yet!

Yours truly Skipper spotting.

I'll finish off with a few woodpecker photos from home taken through the kitchen window. I have more garden photos to share and various damsels and dragons but I'll make that another post, because nearly two weeks of photos is quite a lot to whittle down to one blog post!

Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis).

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major).

Dad feeding juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major).

Health Update
Things are getting better - my non abscess is properly healing and the hole in my perineal scar has shrunk enormously and I have hardly any pain from there at all. After three months of that I'm breathing a sigh of relief, I can tell you! I'm now more bendy and can do some garden jobs which involve bending down low. The worst is getting down on one knee though as I've lost so much weight and muscle that it's hard work getting up again!

I saw my Oncologist on Weds after having an abdominal pelvic ultrasound where nothing out of the ordinary was found. I told him I was concerned about my weight and muscle loss and that I couldn't see myself coping with another six sessions of chemo without ending up being hospitalised as I was bound to lose a load more weight. I asked for a two week extra break between round 7 and 8. At first he wasn't happy to give me more than one week, but then when he checked my blood test results from the day before, he was happy with it and agreed to the two weeks. All my red blood cells and platelets are still going slowly up in the right direction since starting the jabs and meds for anaemia. And my cancer marker test was in the normal healthy zone. They don't check for this at every blood test so the last one was pre the start of chemo and it hasn't changed, so that's good. He's also prescribed some new stronger anti nausea meds to take for five days during/after chemo and so far so good, no nausea and whilst I'm not hugely hungry at least I am eating three meals a day, even if they are on the small side.

Hopefully with this two week 'holiday', I'll get a chance to pig out, do some gardening, help K with some housework, and better yet, maybe even get out for a meal (preferably up at the coast). And get in some walks and try to put on some weight and a bit of muscle. My brother is coming over during this time which will be a lot better than if he'd come later in the summer as planned whilst I was feeling tired and grotty from the chemo! :-)

Will catch up with your blog posts now - I'm behind with that as well, and I know you are all finding exciting things too so I'm looking forward to what you have to share. xx

Wildlife seen around the lanes, mostly my OH's photos this time

I mentioned in my last post that my OH has been making regular cycle rides around the lanes in the early evening, for both fitness and wildlife spotting reasons. Most of the photos in this post are his, although as I was getting a teeny weeny bit envious, I suggested that perhaps we could take the car out and go for a slow drive around to see what we could see. Luckily there are a few tracks where there is space to park and we can have a bit of a walk, so last Weds evening we went out together, despite it being overcast and not great for photography. 

I just enjoyed the magic of getting out for the first time in over three months and having a potter somewhere that's not my own garden. I did see a couple of Meadow Brown butterflies, but want to come back when the sun is shining and a bit earlier in the day when I hope there will be more butterflies about. I also got to see one bunny, who was lying flat in the grass in a cow field, amazingly camouflaged as a cow pat (no photo as it took off the moment I raised the camera), and a Roe Deer and her youngster in a field, who gambolled off as soon as they saw us. It was a great experience for me, and just goes to show there's plenty of wildlife still around, I'm just not seeing it so much in the fields around our property.

This first photo is nothing to do with wildlife, but it's been a year since the new septic tank was installed, and it was time to clean out the grease trap. Only it was clean! Very little pong so it seems to be working like it should. You can see how brown the grass was getting over the tank area, as there is only a few inches of soil over gravel, ditto the filter bed, which although has about eight inches of soil, seems to dry out rather quickly too. Thankfully we had about 50mm of rain over four days which got the stream running again, and all this grass has greened up again nicely.

He seems to be enjoying himself.......

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens),
male. OH's photo.

Dirk gets fruity with Rachel. OH's photo.

Meanwhile, out in the country lanes and fields.....

Looks better when the sun is shining!

He's seeing quite a few foxes. The one top right is a mangy one that he's seen in the field
next to the veg patch AND chicken run - lucky there is a 6 foot high fence in between!

I took the rubbish photo of the Goldfinch on the right, he got to see the Stonechat on the left.
I'm jealous!

Stonechat (Saxicola torquata). OH's photo, but shame about the bramble stem!

Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum), either a female or juvenile male. OH's photo.

A photo that I took! Wild Foxgloves growing on the field margin.

Himself wandering up a track.

Bunnies - OH's photos.

Roe Deer, including bambi, but very far away. OH's photos.

I'll leave you with the little tinker, aka Bertie, who just loves to sneak onto, and into, my round cushions and make a nest for himself, the moment I stand up. He's so skinny he fits in the hole whereas his rather chunky brother wouldn't!

Health update

Since I got these photos prepared my OH has come back with more interesting photos, but they can wait until the next post. I haven't even been in my garden for five days, due either to rain or (mostly) a rough time after my last chemo which left me feeling pretty wrecked. I even threw up this time, which actually is pretty good going seeing as it was my sixth round, so I'm now half way through! I had managed to get some energy and appetite back in the few days before the chemo sessions and did some cooking for the first time in months. Suffice to say after the chemo it's a different story, and hard to eat anything at all for a while. Hopefully it will pass soon and I'll feel a bit more hunger and energy.  Things are still looking better in the perineal wound department, although it does still flare up every now and again, but it's a lower level flare up, and in general it seems to be healing. My latest blood test shows a slight improvement with four things related to blood so hopefully these weekly jabs for anaemia and the iron tabs are starting to take effect.

I haven't been keeping up with other blogs as some of you post practically every day so no way can I read and comment on all these posts, especially when I'm feeling like carp. I'll leave the carp in as my Kindle's predictive text just changed that. :-)

Edit: Since I wrote the above I did get out in the garden this morning, and can't believe how much things have grown - mostly the weeds/wildflowers in the veg patch but also the lettuce - this cooler weather has been good for it so my Cos has not bolted before hearting up. There are flowers on the courgettes now too! Not many butterflies about and they are nearly all Meadow Browns. I'm going to have another wander outside now but it's rather breezy so carp for photography ;-)

Cruel nature

A little while ago I found a dead baby hedgehog in the garden. There are hedgehogs living here within the confines of the perimeter fence so presumably there is enough habitat here for them to survive. They are nocturnal but I know they are around by the poo on the lawn! So one dead one is sad but I didn't think that much of it, as these things happen, I guess.

But then a few days later my OH found a young one during the day under a conifer tree, which didn't appear very well. We decided to put out some wet cat food mixed with a bit of water in the hope that would help a bit. In fact my dear OH decided to help the little creature even further, as it was covered in flies, so he put it into a box with some sawdust, the food and a mesh over the top to keep out flies. We then observed it regularly (by this time he - or she - was called Herbie) and refreshed the food. It really didn't seem very active or much interested in eating so after a couple of days we decided to release it into a wild bit of the garden in the evening, as short of feeding it with a syringe we didn't see there was anything more we could do. Unfortunately the poor little thing died overnight. 

Now this is a bit more puzzling having two little hedgehogs die over the course of the last few weeks. It's certainly not been lack of moisture or lack of food as with all the rain this spring and summer so far there must be plenty of food for them in the wilds of the garden. I just hope it's not some disease that got them.

Herbie Hedgehog in his little box

Just prior to release.
A healthy hedgehog would have curled up into a protective ball.

Around the same time I noticed this out of the loo window one morning and rushed to get my camera! We don't see rabbits around this area ever and hares are rare. (I have posted these photos on both facebook and Google+ and the jury is out - it's 50/50 as to whether it is a rabbit or a leveret (young hare)). 

Bunny or Leveret?

To see one inside the garden was both a delight and a worry, from a gardening point of view! After having a sniff around the septic tank area it lolloped off out of view and seemed to disappear into the hedge.

Wonder if the violas taste good?

It does look more hare-y in this photo

So that was it for a few days until my OH went over the road to mow the orchard and discovered it dead and decomposing with its throat ripped out! Poor bunny/hare - on the one hand I am pleased if that means we won't be having a bunny problem in the garden, on the other of course it's a horrible way to go..... One also wonders what actually killed it yet didn't take its body away, which is a bit more surprising. 

Too many puzzles sometimes and nature can be quite cruel.

I don't like to end on a sad note so here's a couple of butterflies I have come across recently which are still managing to live and fly even though something has taken a good chunk out of the wings of one of them (bird maybe?) and the other had lost a fair amount of its wings somehow or other. Always sad seeing a tatty looking butterfly but they do manage to continue to fly and feed like this.

Peacock butterfly with interesting shaped missing chunks of wing,
which presumably happened whilst they were closed

Meadow Brown - it should have a fair bit more wing than this

I do have plenty of photos of intact butterflies which I'll be posting at some point as more and more are appearing in the garden now - and I get less and less gardening done because of it!