Friday, March 29, 2019

Spring Wildlife

Spring has passed the point where it's unusual to see a butterfly: now we have at least three species on the flutter, peacocks, tortoiseshells and one of the whites. The peacocks are regularly in our garden and seem to particularly enjoy the aubretia.

We have an unusual problem with our resident mice - I think they're wood mice - which are intent on committing suicide in our little pond. This is the second in a few days, despite the carefully constructed ramp which is supposed to allow them to climb out. Maybe these mice are just being good-hearted, having seen....

....that our tadpoles are beginning to appear and will need feeding. These days writers on the internet favour raising tadpoles as vegetarians, so cucumber and boiled lettuce are recommended, but in the good old days they seemed to thrive on bits of bacon.

With blue skies forecast all day today, we walked across miles of Suffolk countryside. During the two and a half hours we were out we met one man on a bicycle and two couples walking but, as we crossed this little footbridge over the King's Fleet, we also met....

....a strange creature which was sitting on the mass of dead vegetation which has become caught up under the footbridge. It's about 80mm long and very much resembles an aquatic stick insect. Having spent a good hour trying to find something resembling it on the internet I gave up and, in the hope that it might be a dragonfly nymph, sent this picture to the British Dragonfly Society to see if they could help.

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