The ducks are well and truly back, they arrived about a month ago, they are mating manically causing tidal waves in the pond, the once sparkling crystal clear water is now a dirty greenish brown colour. The fish which so delighted us a few weeks ago are now nowhere to be seen, having gone into hiding and the brief sighting of the newt with the beautiful orange underside is clearly not going to be repeated any time soon. The tadpoles that managed in their spawn state to survive the goldfish, will no doubt have been syphoned up by the ducks.
Mrs. Duck is now becoming increasingly hungry. Today at tea-time she ate a large handful of peanuts, two of mixed bird seed, a slice and a half of bread soaked in water and on her hurried way to the pond she rushed toward a squirrel at such a rate she caused him to start and drop the half a digestive biscuit he was eating, and then as if to add insult to injury she stopped, snatched it up in her beak and carried it with her to the pond!
It is with pleasure I note that a wren has made her home inside an ancient blue tit box, tied together with string and wedged into a fork in the pear tree. Nearby on a grass verge is growing a bee orchid, my delight in finding it was unbounded, fortunately I had my camera with me and could photograph it.
The garden has many delightful Orange Tip butterflies (Anthocharis Cardomines). Adults have wings that have white uppersides and green mottled undersides. It is the males that have the beautiful striking orange tip on their wing, while the females have a blackish grey tip. The caterpillars are found on cuckoo flowers, ladies smock, jack by the hedge and honesty, although for some reason survival on the honesty is limited.
I know some people catch and kill white butterflies thinking they are all 'cabbage whites' – this is not so, and these beautiful butterflies need to be enjoyed, as the females although white will do no harm to your cabbages, etc., but being female are vital for the breeding of the next generation. To witness male orange tips and their all white partners dancing daintily through the air is a sight to lift the spirits.
