A lot has changed in the last few weeks. Although it is dark by 7pm I rarely see a fox in the evening but despite that all the food has been eaten by the next morning. I have only seen cubs recently and they are very much on edge. They are constantly on alert and run off at the slightest worry - usually another cub. In fact there is usually only one and I haven't seen more than two in a night so I expect the male cubs have been banished from the territory. This one was here before 9 pm yesterday and I think is a female.
The foxes aren't keen on the trail cameras but I put one out a few nights ago to get an idea of what goes on. Foxes were coming and going from 20.30 until 02.00 but it is impossible to say how many individuals there were. These two I think are different foxes - the second one has a dark mark on the left side of the face.
It also has a slightly narrower head and so may be female. The first one I think is male and could be the resident dog fox although I can't recognise the pale marks on his coat on the infrared picture. Here are the two.
They are both certainly very different from the little cubs that first appeared in the garden only three months ago. I'll keep putting the food out and use the trail camera occasionally to see who is about.
It has been a pretty unsettled week, so not very good weather for dragonflies. I didn't get to the pond until this afternoon and didn't expect to see much as there was a strong cool breeze. In fact there were a dozen or so male migrant hawkers making the most of a bit of sunshine after days of rain. They were either hunting or sunbathing low down out of the wind. I think most were staying away from the water because of the breeze, and the fact that they didn't expect many females to be there.
I found a couple of favoured sunbathing spots.
No damselflies this week and only a few common darters, also sheltering from the breeze..
And another change from all the blue, a red admiral.
Next week's weather forecast looks slightly better but definitely autumnal.
I sometimes come across some pretty unsavoury characters in the garden. This was especially true when I was watching the activity in and on the dead sycamores for just a few minutes. I have drilled lots of holes in the trees and many of the holes are occupied. From several I got the impression I was being watched.
These are the eyes of tachinid flies (males have the eyes close together, females eyes wide apart). They are protelean parasitoids, meaning that the larval stage is parasitic and consumes its host whereas the adult stage is not parasitic. Tachinid flies lay their eggs in or on the larvae of other insects so they were loitering with intent around the holes, hoping to find a suitable victim. There are nearly 10,000 known species in the world and around 275 in the British Isles. Viewed close up they look scary but also quite marvellous.
Several holes are occupied by ectemnius wasps, solitary wasps that catch flies and use them as a food source for their larvae.
Another insect on the trees was an earwig, an omnivore which is a target of tachinid flies.
I saw one spider but I expect there were lots of others on the prowl.
This bumblebee was just resting but was big enough to stick up for itself.
So it is dog eat dog in the insect world. Eat and don't get eaten seems to be the motto.
I have never seen anything like this before. Normally I have to go out and about to find dragonflies but this time they came to me. Last Thursday I was bringing in the washing when I noticed a dragonfly on the wall opposite the front door. It isn't something I often see here so I went in to get a camera.
When I came out I could see two, then three, then five. Every time I looked there seemed to be more dragonflies, all common darters.
Then I saw more on the dead sycamores behind the wall. I counted at least 11 common darters soaking up the late afternoon sunshine.
While I was watching a large blue hawker flew past, hunting round the trees. I was pretty sure it was a migrant hawker and I followed it round the garden hoping for a photo but eventually I lost sight of it. So I returned to the darters to find they had been joined by a male southern hawker!
In this view it looks as though it has eight wings.
After resting for several minutes the southern hawker flew across the garden and was buzzed by a migrant hawker that had been resting by the gate, so I waited for the migrant to settle again and got my photo.
This was the most amazing half an hour. Eleven common darters, one southern hawker and one migrant hawker, all within 10m of my front door. I saw more dragonflies in 30 minutes here than I have done in the past 30 years. On Friday the weather was equally good so I was ready and waiting with the camera but only two common darters showed up. Quite what attracted them all to this one spot the day before I don't know but I'll now be keeping a close look out every time I open the door.
The two swans returned this week and brought the family with them. They have four cygnets, all more or less full grown.
Migrant hawkers were the most numerous dragonflies this week, with many males on patrol while others were resting up and waiting their turn.
This one adopted a very strange posture. Darters sometimes stand like this to avoid overheating in very hot weather (it is called obelisking) but I haven't heard of hawkers doing it and it wasn't very hot.
These two have damaged wings, probably damaged in a fights with rivals, perhaps with each other.
Females are much harder to find, partly because they don't usually come near the water except to mate and also because they are well camouflaged. I was pleased to find these two in the hedge.
No black darters this week but some young ruddy darters so they will be around for a while yet.
And plenty of common darters - this is a mature female
Last week I saw no common blue damselflies and only a few emeralds. This week one common blue and no emeralds. Both are near the end of their season.
