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It's been a wet and chilly day here. I did manage to go outside for a few minutes in between showers and disturbed Mr Woodie hanging on the back of his favourite chair. The Cuckoos are still calling and Phil the Peasant is making a right racket on the hillside. It's been a day for insects again which I don't mind but I wish I knew the names of them all a bit better. Ok I can't go wrong with this one, its a Bluebottle
and I think this is just a common house fly.
This one though, I don't know for sure.
I saw my first wasp of the season today and for those of you who followed the incredible wasp saga last year, guess where he was? Yep , back near the steps again. I thinks its a Field Digger Wasp but I'm not 100% sure.
Oh I have to show you this, I found it on the grass, its a Woodpecker feather.
How awesome is that. I'm going to put in in my display cabinet next to my blue Jay feather and meteorites. I have quite a collection of interesting trinkets like that but what I have always wanted is a red feather from a Woodpecker or a Kingfisher feather, now that would be awesome.
Back to the insects. This is a Silver Ground Carpet, a daytime flying moth.
Now I've not seen these very often in my garden but I remember when I was very young I used to squish them on my finger in the playground and pretend it was bleeding. How cruel we are when we're little. Counted over 39 Bee's on the Raspberry Canes today.
I spotted this shell at the very top of the garden. Unlike the one I photographed yesterday which had been smashed by the Thrush, this one has been nibbled away from the top of the spiral and then the body pulled out and eaten.
Could be several animals who do this but my money is on the Hedgehogs. They should be due out soon with their babies after I caught them 'at it' on April 24th. I think the parents bring them out to feed at 3 weeks old. So exciting. I've only ever seen one tiny baby here.
Finally, I've got to go away for a few days so I'm afraid there won't be any blog. My Cat sitter has already arrived. I call him my cat sitter but he spends more time feeding the birds and enjoying the garden as much as I do. If all goes well, switch on again on Friday.
It was a scorcher here in Snowdonia today which I think had something to do with the garden being so quiet. Very few birds visited the feeder but my mum did catch a glimpse of a Blue Tit feeding her chick. I wonder if it could be one from our box that survived? 
I cleaned the Nest Box out today and all that was in it was one perfectly formed egg. Incredible to think that came out of a Blue Tit! This evening, I ate some more home grown Strawberries they were gorgeous and picked handfuls of mange tout. 
The Beetroot and Carrots are not far behind. There are not many Butterflies around but I did spot this daytime flying moth hidden in the wild patch.
I didn't have much time in the garden today hence the short blog. Hopefully I'll be back on form tomorrow
Back to my garden, well it's definitely been dry since I went away as all my veggies had wilted. My strawberries have survived though, I will certainly be having a bowl full for dinner tonight.
The birds are keeping their distance today, I think the feeder has been left to run out. 
There were plenty of flies in the wild patch. This one was so tiny, it just looked like a black dot until I zoomed in.
Now I haven't a clue what this is! I found it wriggling along the decking. It's the grub of something, but what? My money is on a crane fly, i've never seen one before but I know they are called Leather Jackets and this seems to fit the description.
Hopefully tomorrow the blog will be back to normal.
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Can you see him? Amazingly well camouflaged.
I took lots of photo's of Buzzy things today as the garden was full of them. 
I think I saw 4 different types of Bee which is pretty good for one little garden. 
For a moment today I got all philosophical. It suddenly hit me that the more I learn about nature the more I realise I don't know. Take this flower for instance.
Fifteen years ago I would have sworn blind this was a Dandelion but know I know the leaves are all wrong and it could be one of twenty flowers which all look the same. I find the yellow ones like these and the tall tiny white flower umbrelica type, virtually impossible to name confidently. Even armed with all my books. I find birds so much easier to ID. 
I checked my Bumblebee house to see how we were getting on but the only thing I found was an Earwig. Ok its wildlife but I was hoping, if not for Bee's, at least a rodent or even snake. I decided the location wasn't right so I have moved the box it to somewhere where the sun can hit the roof and make it warm inside. I may even put a hose in the hole and make a tunnel from the wild patch into it.
I didn't take any bird photo's again today but I did find the remains of a Thrush's dinner, where he'd smashed the snail shell on the protruding stone. 
My mange Tout are almost ready to eat! 
It's been weeks since I've seen a Robin or any of the Black Birds, I hope they are all ok and are just busy elsewhere raising young. I can't wait to see all the babies.
I don't think I can top photographing GlowWorms but I do love this photo of a Bee about to land on the Buttercups. Needs a caption like 'let me at em' or 'here I come, ready or not'. 
Unusually I only took one photo of a bird today at it was this one of a Swallow. They used to nest on our house until we had a new roof a few years back. Now I only get brief glances as they fly around catching insects. Can't wait for their babies to fledge and I get great views of them lining up on the wire. 
My most interesting spot today was these mating Beetles. The poor things had me photographing them and then if that wasn't enough intrusion, another Beetle came along and wanted a bit of the action. 
My mum spotted this 'Ground Hopper' on the track today.
I find it difficult to distinguish between Ground Hoppers, Grasshoppers and Crickets but my money's on Ground Hopper today.
A mysterious hole has appeared in the soil just behind the Strawberry plant in a plastic tub. Finally I saw this tiny spider hiding on the last remaining Pak Choi. 
So what to do tonight? The only way to beat going GlowWorm watching at this time of year would be to hear the NightJars. It maybe too early in the year but I'll give it a go, wish me luck
But then we went to another site a few miles away and to our delight aftre only minutes of looking we found 18 of them glowing bright. I can't think of a better way to spend a birthday. Sadly a couple of years later, Llandudno witnessed dreadful floods and the hillside where the GlowWorms habitated, collapsed into the sea. It was a long wait the following year to see if any had survived and thankfully there were 2 females. The following year we had 4 females and last time I checked there were over 100. A few years later I moved into this village the first thing I did was go GlowWorm Spotting and I was so lucky to find another colony. Not officially in my garden but I can get to them quicker than a kettle boils. 
Now even this colony hasn't had it easy and probably all my own fault. They are situated in the grounds of an old building which had been left alone for many years, but recently a group of people got together to try and save the building. They had all good intentions but sadly they started mowing the grounds just as the GlowWorms were breeding. I have always been secretive about exact locations so people don't just turn up with a jam jar and destroy everything, but their mowing was decimating the colony so I took the chance and had a word with a few people on the committee.
The following year, sadly my worst fears were realised and word got out of their existance. I searched for weeks but not a single one was found and again the following year, nothing. It only took one stupid selfish person with a jar, collecting the females for their own garden and not realising the males wouldn't know were to find them. After not seeing any for such a long time here I had totally given up until I saw the thread on the BBC Message Board and felt the urge to have one last look. You couldn't imagine my delight when I saw in the long grass that wonderful unmistakable green glow. OK I did only see one but as the males don't glow, they could be there and all you need is a pair to get the colony back again. I do feel protective about them and I don't know how best to save them from sticky fingers this year. My only hope is the person responsible doesn't remember what month to look. Wow that was an essay but I needed to get it off my chest. :-) 
The stars are wonderful again tonight.
No wonder it tasted so foul raw. I did try to steam some today to give it another go but I still didn't like. I think I'll dig them all up and plant them in my wild bit for the wildlife to enjoy. It will give me some more space to plant some more veggie's too in their place. 
A Heron braved the rain as he flew above the garden to get to the river. The garden has been quite quiet so I had a gentle walk up the hillside, where I spotted this poor sheep with a length of barbed wire stuck to him. 
I did try and get it off but I couldn't keep up with her. Hopefully the farmer can use his dogs tomorrow and get it off her. On my walk I spotted this unusual thing, a slug on a thistle? 
Why was he there? The leaves looked in tact, but I suppose he could have been feeding, safe from the birds. 
There were lots of insects about especially Midges, gosh they were bad today. 
I saw some Rabbits on my walk but wasn't quick enough with my camera. I'll have to wait for the babies to come to the garden, which they usually do in the summer. The Thistles are just about to flower. 
I was sat in my Dr's waiting room today and was browsing through the magazines when I found a fantastic article on Swifts. Did you know, apart from when they are nesting, they never stop flying. In order to sleep, they fly 10,000 feet up and have mini power naps as the glide back down to earth asleep. They can wake up 50 miles away from were they fell asleep. Amazing. Just watched Springwatch, maybe the Woodpeckers got my Blue Tit chicks!
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