2022 saw our earliest frog spawning to date here in Perthshire, Scotland. It arrived unexpectedly on 15th March just as the opportunity of bright, warmer days made for a bit of a garden tidy. Clearing leaves and thinning out pond plants was top of the list but the job was half done when the spawn… Read More Fascinating frogs, spawn and newts
October 2020 has been a gardenwatch month like no other, without a single blog post. Later this month this blog heads into its 15th year and I could never have imagined it would have taken me back to my creative roots and drawing with gardenwatching as the inspiration. 31 days of daily drawings on subjects… Read More Gardenwatch #inktober2020
The camera overlooking the wildlife pond has been doing a great job in adding a new perspective to gardenwatching. I love it. Image captures have been varied from birds and hedgehogs drinking, cats trying to catch the resident frogs to blackbirds eating the tadpoles and taking away nesting material from the edges. A huge variety… Read More Big feet of heron walk into pond
Clearly an expert in this field I am not. Truth be told, yesterday evening I felt a proper numpty (common Scottish word for feeling foolish). Photo uploads revealed that I had been sitting with binoculars watching empty damselfly larval skins – waiting for something to happen. Fortunately I took enough photos to share my new… Read More Spotting emerging damselflies
As per much gardenwatching over the years, unexpected sightings often happen when the focus is on something else. Last Sunday, a morning check on the wildlife pond frogspawn didn’t just reveal a thin layer of ice (which was a worry). Here’s the real wildlife drama in pictures… Watching the new wildlife environment that can be… Read More The boatman and the ladybird
A wildlife pond highlight, for sure, was the discovery of a clump of frog spawn in the shallow, sunlit pond edge last weekend. It was a quick snapshot on my phone to record the moment, after stepping near the edge to avoid garden works chaos created with new wiring work for the hedgehog feeding station.… Read More First frogspawn 23/3/19, no hedgehogs yet
My recommendation for building a garden pond can’t be said enough times. It really is a magnet for both wildlife and humans alike. Returning home at lunchtime to blue skies and sunshine, once again, my pond drew me outdoors to see if there were any large red damselflies around – they have been spotted recently.… Read More #30DaysWild Day 5 – 15 mins by the pond
Tomorrow sees the start of the UK Wildlife Trust’s month-long nature challenge and I absolutely recommend it! I had great fun back in June 2016 when I took part for the first time. Wedding prep kept me preoccupied in 2017 but 2018 is now free to join in again and a great opportunity to re-connect… Read More Re-connect with nature for 30 Days Wild
Could it be mosquito larvae? Can you help ID the larvae in this screen grab of the video below? They were absolutely tiny and were seen floating and wriggling just under the pond’s surface last night. They also appeared to be almost snorkelling which might suggest they were mosquito larvae. It was suggested to me… Read More What’s wriggling in my pond?
The cold snap that we are having here is sending gardener’s into action to protect plants for the winter – especially ones new to the garden. Recently I’ve had comments on my posting from last year on what I do with my Gunnera. However, one comment has sparked this extra posting: “…..it’s stopped raining but… Read More Cold nights for plants, ponds and hedgehogs