SpringWatch Comment tempts a new shed for building a Hedgehog House in!!..

"WELL, YOU DON'T GET A GARDEN LIKE THIS BY HAVING A TIDY SHED MARTIN!!"

My now famous quote on BBC Springwatch has brought me a lot of stick since it was aired in front of a few million viewers!! Even this week someone recognised me and quoted my now famous statement!! LOL

All this talk of my untidy shed has got me thinking and I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I need a new shed to store my 'junk' in but would also like it to double as a 'hide' for watching and photographing the birds and wildlife that visit the garden.

The dilemma that I now find myself in is, do I get some reclaimed / recycled materials and build a 'shed' as I normally would or is this a step too far? As I'm wanting to actually spend time in the shed as well as using it for storage maybe buying a brand new 'fit for purpose' shed like the ones featured here... http://www.shedsandthings.co.uk/  would be a safer option? I have had a flick through the sheds on this site and there are quite a few sizes and designs to choose from. I will also have to decide where the windows need to be how many windows I want, if photographing birds then I will want plenty of light etc, Oh decisions decisions!...

The old shed was inherited with the house and even before we relocated it the roof was loose and it was home to a family of mice... 

 With the roof coming off during it's move and despite the lick of paint the old shed has just about had it's day....

Here's the new workshop when we first installed it and I'm thinking my new shed/hide which will sit beside it should look more like this with double windows to let in more light and offer good views of the bird feeders... 

So that's my current dilemma and of course yet another plan to take forward to next Spring when I hope the weather will be more suitable for this kind of job.

Whilst it's great to think about a new home for my junk and somewhere warm and comfortable for me to sit and photograph the birds, we must continue to remember the difficulties that our wildlife has over winter and what we can ALL do to help it out.

Last week I wrote about what you can do to ensure that your garden ponds overwinter successfully and so that all the wildlife within the pond stay safe through the winter months and potential freeze. Well this week I intend to show you how to make a simple hedgehog house that will give a needy hedgehog a warm and cosy home for the winter. As usual I intend to do this using pictures with and explanation of the construction above and so that you can follow along and build one yourself...

Firstly you will need to find some wood and cut it to the following sizes that I have shown on my plan here...

Here are my plans for building a hedgehog house of your own. The sizes are a guide but offer a good sized house for a hog....

When choosing your wood it's fine to use scrap pieces to make up the bigger pieces like the roof. The only consideration when using separate pieces is to ensure each piece is secured together or screwed down to the sides (although don't do this until you have sited the box!). The house in the picture below uses three pieces of timber for it's roof, as the house will be buried this will cause no problem. I prefer to use wood that is 3/4" - 1" thick. 

Once you've completed building it a suitable site needs to be found to place the house. I chose an area right in front of a hedge and next to tree roots. The reason for this is that we have a dog and the neighbours have a cat that are both interested in hedgehogs! By having the entrance in the hedge between the gardens prevents these and other predators from getting into the box. By siting it here among the entanglement of roots and trunks of the shrubs also negated the requirement for a tunnel in this instance. However if you don't have this natural defense at your chosen site I fully recommend using a tunnel to prevent cats from attacking the entrance. 

Once the site is chosen a hole is dug big enough for the house to be located below ground level. Once excavated place the house into the hole and put in some bedding such as old woodshavings and leaves. This is the reason why the roof isn't screwed into place until this is complete...

  

Screw the roof into place and ensure that you have the ventilation pipe in place so that air can circulate inside the house. In this particular example I drilled the hole and fitted the vent pipe after the house was sited as I wanted it to vent into the hedge. I was able to achieve this by fixing it to the side of the house and snaking it underground and up above ground level within the protection of the hedge. Doing this hides the pipe but more importantly in this instance I wanted to plant plants in the soil above the box so prevented the risk blocking the pipe with compost or mud.....

 with the roof firmly in place the house is buried, I also buried some rocks and logs to one side of the box where I felt is was vulnerable to stop potential predators from trying to dig it up...

Below the box is completely buried and with the vent pipe running from the side into the hedge you wouldn't know that it was there. You can just about make out where the entrance is under the branch that is providing valuable protection to the doorway...

And once completely buried I did a bit of landscaping and just need to add a few plants to complete the job and provide a secure and safe home for our hedgehogs out of the way under the hedge.... 

Well that's about as much as I can show you as far as this goes at the moment although I do want to report that my neighbour told me only today that she had found a hedgehog in their garden. The best bit was that it ran under the hedge when disturbed exactly where our Hedgehog house is so I'm sure that our 'hog-house' is now inhabited!!

If you know that you have hedgehogs or you just want to put a house in the garden 'just in case' then you really must get on with this job straightaway, you never know you could also have hedgehogs in your garden very soon!!!...

That's about it for now folks but I will be writing again very soon although haven't yet decided what my next post will be about. Don't panic as I still have lots to catch up on from the summer and that's on top of current jobs and plans for next Spring!!

As always thank you so much for reading and following my mad ramblings and I'll see you all again very soon.

Best

Higgy

Preparing Garden Ponds for Winter and Spring Bulbs for Pollinators....

Hello All,

As promised my postings have increased and I hope that I can maintain some momentum throughout the colder months when we all spend a little more time inside!

Talking of the colder months makes us start to think about what we need to do now to get the wildlife through the winter. One crucial job that really needs doing now is making sure garden ponds and particularly wildlife ponds are kept safe for all the precious inhabitants that live in them.

I'll take you back to earlier this summer and the creation of the third pond in the garden. This was only a small pond built into the large expanse of rockery and sits next to the main seating and eating area at the top of the garden.

Only small but the new wildlife pond was built this summer and nestles into the rockery by the main seating area. Despite it's infancy it already homes frogs and Large Red Damselflies have been observed laying eggs on the plants! This means that we must protect this new habitat through the coming winter months...

So what needs doing to a small pond like this you may ask? 

Firstly I will clean out any old decaying weeds and leaves that have blown off of nearby trees and bushes. This is vitally important as if they are allowed to sink to the bottom of the pond they will slowly decompose and if the water freezes over there is a high chance of any wildlife under the ice being poisoned!

This does sound horrible but a few simple steps will help...

For most small garden wildlife ponds you can literally get down on your hands and knees and pull out the unwanted weeds and leaves. However in a bigger pond this may not be so easy and you may need the assistance of a long handled net, a long pole or even an old sweeping brush. If the liner is made of hard fiberglass material or similar then a garden rake is a very good tool for taking out these debris, but don't use sharp instruments if you have a flexible liner as the last thing you want is a puncture that will be difficult to fix!

If like me you also have a large and deep (10'x10'x5'deep!) Koi pond then you may need the use of a special pond vacuum similar to the one you can see here........      ALL POND SOLUTIONS    

You can see from the picture in this link that this really is a vacuum cleaner and you simply use it to dredge the muck out of the bottom of the pond. Most of these then allow you to return the filtered pond water back into the pond. This is an extremely useful bit of kit and worth investing in if you have a large pond with valuable fish.

Whatever method you use it is crucial that you leave the weed out on the side of the pond for a day or two so that any invertebrates that you have inadvertently removed can crawl back into the pond.

Now that you have a nice clean pond you need to protect it from any leaves that are still to fall and potentially end up in your pond starting the whole problem off again. There are several different coverings from plastic garden mesh to more elaborate custom made metal grilles that fit just under the water surface and bolt into place. All of these will protect from falling leaves and metal grilles will protect from Heron attacks also. My own choice is to use a rigid plastic plastic mesh on the two smaller ponds held in place by a few rocks but for my raised Koi pond I have opted to make my own removable covers made out of untreated wood and galvanized mesh as below...

Here are my custom fit homemade covers for the raised Koi pond. These protect the pond from leaf fall but are designed as three separate covers so that they can also be removed as required...

The beauty of these 'semi permanent' covers is they are sturdy enough to withstand Heron attacks also. This Heron landed on the side of the pond but couldn't fish out the fish....

The fish will also become really confident under this sort of protection and can still be enjoyed....

Also think about how you will prevent the water from freezing up and this is especially important on small, shallow wildlife ponds. You can buy low energy heaters that consist of an element surrounded by a buoyant material such as polystyrene that floats in the pond and keeps just small area of water clear from ice allowing room for the poisonous gases to escape. On my smaller ponds I literally cover half of the pond with thick marine plywood board, this prevents the water underneath from freezing and also adds protection to fish and amphibians that will have slowed down and become much easier for predators to catch in the cold weather. 

IMPORTANT: If your pond should freeze over never break the Ice by hitting it as the shock waves sent through the water could distress or even kill wildlife in the pond. Instead use a pan of boiling water sat on top of the ice to slowly melt a hole through. If you do nothing else float a small size football or similar in the pond that can be retrieved following a freeze to expose an area of open water.

Hiding places for amphibians and insects to hide in around the edge of the pond are also invaluable. Both of my wildlife ponds have loose rocks around the edges that provide perfect resting places for toads and newts to hide under...

The use of loose rocks when building both of my wildlife ponds has created great habitat for overwintering frogs, toads and newts to hide under. Many invertebrates will also take the opportunity to overwinter here...

Also consider what hiding places there are in the garden as many amphibians will leave the pond and it's immediate surroundings, like this juvenile newt found hiding several meters away from the pond. In this situation a well place log pile can help...

Please do try to keep water available to birds that will now visit your garden. A small water feature such as this old sink can be a great way to provide water for them to drink from and of course bathe in. Being small it is also easy to keep ice free and maintained throughout winter...

I think that this is about as much as I will say on this subject now and I do hope that it has given you a few tips of how to get your own ponds ready for winter.

Moving on and looking forward to next Spring, I recently spent a whole day planting bulbs that I'm hoping will burst into flower next Spring and provide lots of nectar for early bees and other pollinators. 

A selection of a few of the several hundred spring flowering bulbs...

As our garden sits on the edge of moorland which consists of extremely low lying marsh grazing land it remains extremely wet throughout the winter. This wetness makes planting bulbs extremely difficult as they have a tendency to rot and this is why our Spring garden has been poor so far.

Despite this problem there are things you can do to maximise your chances of success such as plant using plenty of grit in the planting holes for extra drainage. Since we moved in nearly four years ago I have been adding organic matter, grit and sharp sand to the soil to try and improve it generally. Anything else added at the time of planting can only enhance what we have started to achieve so far.

Crocus is one of the best early pollinating flowers and I have chosen several varieties purely for their 'pollinating' abilities. I have planted these under the lawn alongside Fritillaria meleagris (Snakes Head) and here's what you will need and how I do it....

Because the garden is situated on wet and heavy clay I use plenty of grit when planting bulbs to help drainage and prevent rotting...

Good quality compost will also be required....

I then mix the compost and grit together in a big trugg at a ratio of about 50/50. If you have better soil then you may be better with a 70/30 mix or similar...

 Chop a square in the lawn using a spade and peel back the sod. I the put a layer of my compost and grit mix in the bottom of the hole and place the bulbs randomly on this mix....

 Once all the bulbs are in place I sprinkle a bit more mix around them and then gently replace the soil and repeat until I have used all my 300+ bulbs.

As you can see from the above this is a simple way to add bulbs into the garden in a natural way. As we don't mow the lawn during spring these bulbs will come up and mix with the clover and add some much needed nectar for early pollinators.

 Fritillaria meleagris (Snakes Head) are superb for naturalising in a damp meadow or lawn...

Here is a list of other spring flowering bulbs that I have added this year and I recommend for pollinators...

• Crocus chry. Romance
• Crocus chry Gypsy Girl
• Crocus chry Advance
• Crocus chry Snow Bunting
• Crocus Sieberi Tricolor
• Crocus Tommasinianus Whitewell
• Crocus chry Cream Beauty
• Anemone Coronaria
• Anemone SR Mr Fokker
• Allium SR Cowanii
• Allium Sphaerocephalon
• Fritillaria meleagris
• Ornithogilum Umbellatum

Camassia is another interesting addition to a Spring garden and will naturalise easily in damp conditions. It will also tolerate dry ground in summer which makes it perfect for the garden here. I planted a few two years ago and last Spring they were visited by early Bumblebees so I have bought three different varieties to plant this year. This is a bit of an experiment as I want to see if any varieties are better than others at attracting pollinators! As well as the common variety I have added a white variety and another named Camassia Esculenta.

I've had some success with Common Camassia attracting Spring pollinators so have planted three varieties this year to see which is best for pollinators... 

 Well that really is about it for another post and I do hope that this has been of interest to you and given ideas of what you can plant planning forward to next Spring to ensure that we are all doing our bit for garden wildlife...

Please do continue to send me your comments and feedback as I am always pleased to receive them and will of course reply to all that are sent.

Best

Higgy

Garden Seating a Raised Bed and Patio Make-Over!

Hello All,

You are probably feeling confused at another post so soon after my last one about moth trapping and both of them following such a long gap!!

Well as I said in my last post I have lots for you to catch up with but at the same time it's that part of the year when you also start to plan forward and decide what projects need doing or certain areas that need a make over or complete overhaul.

Before we go back in time my plans to take forward into next year and from things experienced this season is to find some comfortable and good looking garden furniture. You may have noticed from past postings and pictures that our main seating and outside eating area contains a large oval shape white plastic table and chairs set. Although practical it looks downright UGLY!!!

As a reminder here is a picture of the nice secluded seating area that I worked hard to create...

Our main seating area is situated below the Koi pond and is tucked away behind the trellised raised bed that in the height of summer is full of tall and lush planting making a nice natural screen. A small wildlife pond here also adds extra interest but it's a shame the same can't be said for the white plastic 1980's patio set!!!....

So first plan for next year will be to get rid of the 1980's white plastic patio set and get something a little more attractive and in keeping with the garden. Initially I have been looking on line to see what is around and to get an idea of what would fit into the style of our garden. With wood featured throughout the garden initial thoughts are to go with a wooden picnic set with attached seats similar to the furniture supplied by the company here... 'The Garden Furniture Centre'
Please do take a look and let me know what you think would fit best?

Going back in time to August of this year and to a little project that I completed one weekend, not so much for wildlife but to tidy up a certain area of the garden and tie it into other recent landscaping jobs. As I have said on numerous occasions although the garden is for wildlife and we are extremely proud of what wildlife it has attracted so far, it has to be used as a family space and we like it to also be an attractive space. With this in mind I decided that it was time to tidy up the area by the raised beds on the old patio and will take you through this project step by step below...

I have been keen to tidy this area of old patio up for some time and have been slowly utilising this unused space with the addition of a raised vegetable bed and a cold frame to bring on plants in. However it still remains an unattractive and drab concrete space!!...

In true Higgy 'recycling' style I also managed to 'liberate' some old scaffold boards that had been sawn in half and were destined for the fire place! 'I've got just the job for them' I thought to myself before asking if the builder if I could have them!!.. 

   With a rough plan in my head and with a few old scaffold boards I set to work transforming this ugly concrete space into a much nicer 'softer' looking area and of course creating a little extra planting space at the same time! (well you still have to think about the wildlife a bit and add some pollinating plants wherever you can!!!)

The boards were simply stacked into place on top of the existing patio which provided a firm level base that I knew drained adequately...

In a many of my garden projects I use this galvanized building strap to fix together wood especially inside structures such as raised beds where it can be hidden out of sight. The beauty of this strap is that it's readily available from any builders merchant and you can easily cut it using tin shears and it comes pre-drilled!!

Once a piece of the builders strap is cut to the required length simply screw it into place using some good quality exterior wood screws. I generally use about four screws depending on the size of the pieces of wood being joined....

The inside of the raised bed is then lined using old compost bags, this protects the wood from rotting and also helps to retain moisture in the compost....

With the raised bed finished and lined with polythene I filled it with a mixture of compost and well rotted manure and planted it a few different plants. As it needs to be a big feature it has been planted with a nectar rich Hydrangea and some Japanese anemone for autumn pollen and colour. Also planted is some bamboo to help act as a bit of a screen and a Arum Lilly to help tie it in with slightly leafy jungly look in this part of the garden,

Despite the new raised bed this part of the garden was still an old concrete patio that looked drab and made for quite a boring floor surface that still didn't really tie into other works recently done here like the rockery and plum slate detailing in the seating area below.

Despite the new bed and planting this area still looked drab and boring...

It was now that I decided to go the whole hog and sort this 'boring flooring' problem out also...

Due to the problem we have with horsetail weed I decided to keep the firm level base of paving slabs as they provided a good solid base to work from and also offered a strong barrier and good resistance to these dreaded weeds.

The first stage of my new slate path was to fix 'runners' to the concrete slabs... 

  This was done by drilling through the wooden runners and then drilling and 'raw plugging' the concrete pavers which were in turn screwed down onto the floor....

The wooden runners were spaced evenly to look attractive but to also help to keep the slate aggregate in place.

Once all the runners were screwed securely in place plum slate was spread out between them.... 

The combination and contrast of the wooden runners and plum slate really make this whole area much brighter and add much needed interest....

 In this last picture you can really see how this simple make over ties this area into the rockery and  seating area below. By using the same materials it creates real flow through the two areas and links them up in a smart and modern way....  

So that really is a quick fix on a drab and boring and under used area of the garden. We included some salvage and recycling with the scaffold boards and ended up making I think an interesting and much smarter area than now blends seamlessly into the next part of the garden. One thing that I really wanted to achieve in the garden was completely different spaces and areas that did their own thing yet still linked effortlessly to their neighbouring areas. I think in this case we have managed this as there is a lot going on in these spaces including, Koi pond, Vegetable bed, Flower beds, Wildlife pond, Rockeries and of course the garden's main seating and entertaining area! Yet somehow all these different aspects and features work wonderfully with each other now!

This probably concludes my mad ramblings for this time but I do hope that this has given you a few ideas about what you could also achieve in your own garden, with not a great amount of work, on a small budget and in just a space of a weekend!!

Next time I will report on a few more of the summers past tasks in the garden and of course some more wildlife visitors. Planning forward will include some spring bulbs I've chosen for early pollinators also.

My leaving picture is a view of the large perennial pollinating border taken in October. Even now it still holds a lot of colour and flowers providing nectar for late bees, butterflies and other pollinators....

As always thanks for reading I hope that you have enjoyed it and found some interest in this latest project. Please do mail me with your thoughts and comments as I always love to read them and will of course answer all messages that receive.

Best

Higgy

Garden Moth Traps and a Family Friendly Wildlife Garden...

Hello again,

I really can't believe that my last post on here was actually back in July! With the fantastic hot summer that we enjoyed this year every spare minute has been taken up in the garden either on projects, basic maintenance or to be completely honest just thoroughly enjoying it!!

As I touched upon on my last post I have spent hours photographing and recording new species that have turned up in the garden this year also. Anyone who has done this themselves will understand the massive amount of time that trying to identify many of the 'unknown' insects takes!

On top of this the garden has just been the most fantastic place to spend hot summer days with the family whilst having lots of fun! The play area and play equipment suddenly came into it's own with lots of use on sunny days and typifies the whole ethos of this wildlife garden doubling as a completely usable family space also....

It's also a family garden enjoyed as much by children and adults as well as the wildlife that lives in it and visits it....

At one point during the 'heatwave' we rushed out to try and buy a slightly bigger paddling pool for my six year old daughter only to find everywhere in North Somerset sold out! Having spent a whole day looking we eventually thought on the way home to drop into on of the large 'garden/leisure' centers situated just down the road and bingo! The only problem was that the smallest one left was BIG!!....

At 6 feet in circumference the new paddling pool fitted in well and gave hours of fun for the whole family!.... 

The picture above shows how the garden has developed over the last three years and you can clearly see lots of colour from the nectar rich planting. I think that this also demonstrates how you can incorporate play equipment yet still provide a real haven for wildlife. Amazingly in the part of the garden on display here there is an 8 feet Trampoline, climbing frame, slide, swing and of course the large paddling pool. Despite all this play equipment and a 6x6 greenhouse we still have masses of wildlife features and other interest. This part of the garden would be approximately 70'x40' so a similar size to many 'average' gardens.

So having lazed about and generally enjoyed the garden what else has it been used for this year?

Well despite the obvious BBQs and gatherings for friends and family I have focused quite a lot of my time on moths! In fact I promised myself last year that we would try and look at moths in more detail this year now that the garden has matured.

Our first event was to borrow a moth trap off of our local wildlife group and set it up one Saturday evening to see what comes along. Well what a result we had and certainly it felt good for our fist attempt. With the help of a couple of friends from the group we identified about thirty species or so. If you haven't done a moth trap before I thoroughly recommend it and especially if you have young children as despite initial reservations my daughter loved it and was thrilled at the job of letting the moths go after they had been identified. This of course is also an extremely educational experience for both children and adults alike!

The HERALD was one of the more colourful moths on the day and proved a real hit with my daughter because of it's orange colour...

 With such a positive result with just one small trap and my appetite now wet, it was decided along with my local wildlife group to host an event involving several traps that would be set up and located around the garden and left over night. The next morning we would invite a number of members to come along and help identify the moths! This would of course help me to see what we were getting in the garden but also help the group by encouraging other members to get interested in moths....

So the evening arrived and with the help of my friends Tony and Faith a total of four traps were situated around the garden in different locations and left to do their work overnight....

Below is an example of one of the smaller traps, which basically consists of a metal box with a hole in the lid. Sitting in this lid is a plastic funnel that seals the hole in the lid leaving only a small access point for moths attracted to the light situated on top to flutter down into. Once in the box the moth will settle among the 8 or so cardboard egg boxes inside and rest up nice an quietly. It's also important to mention that below this funnel is a smaller funnel that drains out of the bottom of the box in case it rains....  

 Although not a very good picture this shows the traps located around the garden on the night of the 'big trap!'

 The following morning I was up at about 5am to ensure that firstly the traps (now hopefully full of moths!?) weren't situated in the sun as it rose and also to clear away any extension leads and other bits of kit prior to the 'guests' arriving. When organising an event where people are visiting your garden it pays to spend the extra time to ensure there are no tripping hazards and all runs as smoothly as is possible. The welfare of anything caught is always your number one priority to ensure it stays calm and stress free and is kept in the trap for as little amount of time as is possible.

So on arrival of our guests everyone is briefed as to what we want to achieve and how we intend to do it to ensure the safety of any moths caught. Also it's important to point out that at no time are any moths handled and they will be extracted out of the traps by use of small plastic specimen tubes and by experienced trappers only. This way they can be examined identified, photographed and released nice a swiftly and without harm. By having these rules in place everyone is clear and you can then focus a little more time on peoples learning and enjoyment

I also like to work from a large table where there is plenty of room to lay things out such as your reference books, cameras etc so that everything is to hand and you don't end up wasting time searching for items. The table that we use is also situated right next to our release site and someone will have the job of swift and safe release of moths. This makes sure the moths are dealt with quickly and also frees up and keeps a flow of specimen jars readily available.

It is really important to consider your release site for any moths captured and examined. I release them into this area which is an old tree covered by thick clematis. The moths fly up into the dark entanglement of branches away from predators and out of the scorching sun...

Now that we have considered and informed everyone of how the event will run it was time to start emptying the traps and recording what we had caught. This is an extremely exciting experience and you never know what might just crop up unexpectedly!

I have to say that we were extremely fortunate with this event and despite not perfect weather conditions during the night we actually caught and recorded over 50 species of moth! This in itself was apparently very good but a friend who is a renowned local moth expert actually went on to say that it was the best haul he had seen locally within the last ten years! This wasn't only for number of species but more importantly numbers of single species, as an example we recorded well in excess of 50 moths for some single species! I can't begin to tell you how this sort of statement makes you feel especially when you have been trying to develop your garden for this very thing!

So here's a quick round up of just a few of the moths that we recorded and have now helped to take our garden tally up to about 100 species so far this year!...

Angle Shades - Philogophora meticulosa

Burnished Brass - Diachrysia chrysitis

Blood-Vein - Timandra camai

Centre-barred Sallow - Atethia centrago

Gold Spot - Plusia festucae

Grey Dagger - Acronicta psi

Large Yellow Underwing - Noctua pronuba

Lesser Yellow Underwing - Noctua comes

Lime-speck Pug - Eupithecia centaureata

Purple Bar - Cosmorhoe ocellata

This Red Underwing - Catocala nupta became the real star of the show as according to our moth expert this have been in real decline in this area and he hadn't seen one for quite some time!

I really would love to list and display all of the moths that we recorded on the night but time and space just won't allow unfortunately. Regular readers may have noticed that I have now started to list the names of species seen so far in the garden on the right hand side of this blogg. This is still very much a work in progress but I will continue to do this as time allows and will include a list of our moths also.

Two last things whilst on the subject of moths is firstly the amazing amount of 'Mother of Pearl' moths that have been visiting the garden this summer and on some nights virtually every flower on some plants has had a moth on it! They seem to particularly like Purple Loosestrife and Varonicastrum which has proved a superb moth plant, as you can see in the below picture... 

Mother of Pearl - Pleuroptya ruralis (below) and above on Varonicastrum

Finally I have always dreamed of finding one of the large Hawk Moths in the garden and this summer on two separate occasions I was fortunate to not only see but photograph a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in the garden. Absolutely AMAZING!!!...

A dream come true!!..... Hummingbird Hawk Moth - Macroglossum stellatarum

Well that's about it for now but as the nights are getting darker from here on in, I will be posting more on my bloggs and have lots for you all to catch up on from the summer, so watch this space for the next post that will be coming very soon!....

Thanks for reading

Best

Higgy