Self Isolation Part 2 - Birds, bugs and orchids.

Only one comment about the blog - "What happened to Day 2 ?" Well unfortunately my plan went awry, nothing to do with me I hasten to add. I have a westerly facing back garden and the only time it is unpleasant to be out there is when there is a stiff easterly breeze with a touch of north in it.  Very little turned up throughout a very grey and cold day. Just a few hardy Blue Tits on the feeders and they didn't hang around.

Today the breeze was still present but it was tempered by some welcome sunshine and the birds and bugs came out to play. Blue Tits, Great Tits and Long-tailed Tits darted in and out. Twittering Goldfinches in a variable sized flock graced us with their presence. The long staying female Blackcap skulked around the feeders but declined to pose. Oddly enough one year we had seven Blackcaps regularly visiting the garden and none of them was shy.

Most of the Woodpigeons have gone but one resident had a shock as the pocket rocket Sparrowhawk paid another visit. Feathers flew but the pigeon escaped and the Sparrowhawk sat on the fence looking very annoyed. He really doesn't like the sound of my camera shutter - he just glares at the lens in disgust. Still, a few more nice pics. I haven't seen what I assume is his mate lately, she cruises around the district, flap - flap glide, flap - flap glide  putting in the occasional stoop into someones garden. Of course her presence always puts the resident Herring Gulls into alarm.

Sparrowhawk snack

Sparrowhawk

Angry Sparrowhawk

The Jays didn't turn up until mid afternoon but we did have what for us is a rarity - a single Jackdaw calling from a television aerial perch. A bit of a waste of time as I am sure he the only one of his kind in the area. We have a Starling that sits on our antenna and time and again he has had me searching the skies. It mimics perfectly the call of a Buzzard - will have to try and record it.

Nice to record a Peacock butterfly, our second garden tick of the year.

The warm sunshine brought of the bugs, several type of fly, bees and hoverflies - none of which I can identify at this time. One fly by Comma that didn't stop and I was expecting to see a Bee Fly as our garden primroses are in full bloom. If you wait long enough one will turn up.

Dark-edged Bee Fly

This Bumble Bee was fast asleep.

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Bumble of some description - time will tell.

Meanwhile in the cold greenhouse the mild winter means that my Lady's Slipper Orchids are on the move. This one has six stems coming up, I am hoping that four will flower which means I can hand pollinate two for lots of green seed pods.

I also spent some time potting up Southern Marsh Orchids, protocorms from seed that I sowed between August and December last year. This is a delicate time as they are being weaned from oat medium in petri dishes along with their symbiotic fungus. The fungus needs to be able to generate carbon from the organic matter within the compost which the orchid immediately "borrows."

Might just flower in three years - probably  four