The last of these project quick annual reviews, our homebased wildlife gardening project at the Old Vicarage. This is basically the pilot to what we are working towards (our own eco-farm/nature reserve) so the one acre plot here gives us a good area to practise and experiment on. We've basically got our own eco-farm/nature reserve already here but the ambition is to scale this up one day and move the effort to the coast/migration flyway. In the meantime will keep practising and learning in this beautiful place.
Here's a few photo highlights. A mini-moth report on the local moth blog HERE.
The first moth lifer of the year was this Yellow horned.
In the first wave of spring planting the early potatoes went in, we've extended this area for next Spring and also grow a few tubs of potatoes too
A couple of good moths in the summer included this Fen Wainscot (above) and Olive (below)
Summer at the mini-farm.
Mere Wainscot- another summer moth highlight. We found this in the first of our summer Bioblitzes. See HERE
Italian Tubic
Lilac Beauty
Beautiful China Mark
Dark Spruce Knot-horn
Harvest time in early autumn
This female Gem was a very welcomed migrant
Feathered Gothic was our 1000th species for the garden HERE
Moth of the year has to be this Vagrant Piercer, a local mega migrant (less than 10 records for Bucks)
After waiting for our first Clifden Nonpariel we had six this year
Prepping, preserving and soup making - we managed to fill up the freezer with winter supplies
Jacob ready for a garden bug hunt
A large flock of mixed tits and warblers were present in the garden during the autumn containing a few Willow Warblers . Other garden birding highlights through the year including the summering Spotted Flycatchers, a flyover Hawfinch in late autumn and wintering Siskins.
An autumn storm resulted in the loss of a few trees in the garden and a near miss for the campervan
The last big harvest was the pumpkins
The Old Vicarage after a snow fall in November
This Buzzard was a garden resident for a few months
The mini-farm in late autumn. Isabella moved into the coach house recently.
Meanwhile back in the house we renovated the loft into a new office for Little Oak Group/World of Twigg. We also started to build our pet army with a new aquarium to add to the hamster, pony and dogs and today we are off to buy a Leopard Gecko. This domesticated animal/ pet/ zoo biodiversity element to natural history is literally a bit of an elephant in the room. If we include all the domesticated and pet animals and plants species that humans bring with them into the built and garden environments and into parks and zoos/wildlife parks/collections, things actually start looking (with a slight perspective shift) a lot less bleak. Hopefully we will get chickens here soon too.
The new bird feeders have taken off now and are often crowded . Interestingly no House Sparrows in our garden this time of year
This was a nice surprise in December, a retrospective identification by the CMR from 19th July- a lifer in the form of a Minor-shoulder Knot
The big addition to the Old Vicarage this year was little Isaac, the seventh human member of the Old Vicarage community in addition to the pets and the 1020 wild and naturalised species that we have recorded on site. An ambition for next year is to pass the 500 moth species milestone (currently on 484)
No comments:
Post a Comment