Richard Bell's nature sketchbook since 1998
It looks as if it’s going to be our best year yet for our cordon apples, especially the Howgate Wonder which I recently had to tie in because of the weight of fruit and leafy growth. Summer pruning seems to suit them best, encouraging fruiting spurs to form.
The weight of apples and leafy summer growth proved too much of our Howgate Wonder double cordon and one of the main branches collapsed forwards on the patio. It wasn’t broken so we tied it back in, pruned back the majority of this year’s leafy growth and picked up the eight or so apples that fell off during the process. They’re not ripe but we can stew them with a bit of brown sugar and water.
There’s just time for one last sowing for late summer vegetables. Going through the packets of seeds that we’ve already got in, there are eight that I can try but there’s only a 4 by almost 8 foot section of raised bed that I can fit them into, so I’ve gone for 2 foot squares instead of rows to get more in.
| Calendula | Carrot | Kohl Rabi | Spring Onion |
| Salad leaves | French bean | Perpetual Spinach | Pea |
Some of the crops, such as salad leaves, will stay where I’ve sown them but as we clear the potatoes and other crops over the next few weeks I’ll be able to plant some on, such as the French beans and perpetual spinach.
Our first attempt at the Great Yorkshire Creature Count got off to a good start with four elephant hawkmoths in the moth trap this morning, along with peppered moth, flame and heart and dart. I left the box wedged right up against the hedge under the crab apple so that they don’t get picked off by the birds.
I set up the trail cam on the bird table this morning but caught only the regular visitors.
Smooth newts are on the list of creatures that the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust would like us to count, so I did a bit of pond dipping. While I was at it, I skimmed off the duckweed and started taking out the slimy algae that has built up and sunk down into the pond, but this was where most of the newts were hunkered down, so I’ll leave that for another day.
Woodpigeon, dunnock, starling, bullfinch, chaffinch, magpie, greenfinch
Butterfly: Large skipper
Moths (UV trap): peppered moth, common swift, elephant hawkmoth, the flame, heart and dart
I know a lot of the species that the YWT Creature Count is asking use monitor are present but they didn’t show up on the day and I didn’t go digging about to find them.
I tried an overnight trail cam but whatever triggered it once in the middle of the night didn’t show up in the video clip.
A swarm of several hundred honey bees arrived late afternoon yesterday and found a cavity by the bathroom sink waste pipe. A few found their way into the bathroom.
We phoned a beekeeper who offered to come and remove them, using a one-way trap that would lead them out into a hive where eventually the queen would follow them, always the last one out. If we covered every bee-sized hole in the bathroom, we’d be safe using it. As honey bees can squeeze through a 6mm hole that involved a lot of masking tapes, scrunched up newspaper and one strip of cardboard under the sink.
Today though they’ve moved on. There was a bit of activity at breakfast time but nothing like when they arrived and we saw nothing all day. In the afternoon I kept watch for a full fifteen minutes, just to check we hadn’t missed them.
The beekeeper advised us to fill the cavity as soon as possible, using steel wool or aluminium foil and also to block any alternative holes they might use. Our group might have been the scouts and the main swarm might arrive later. It’s amazing how many drilled holes for aerial cables and former pipe fittings we spotted.
Yorkshire fog and cat’s ear growing around the pond.
Barbara spotted the remains of a kill by the hedge amongst the border plants: the remains of a juvenile goldfinch, only the wings and legs and a scattering of breast feathers remained. A brown long-haired cat that visits our garden and sits in wait by the bird table is the number one suspect as we haven’t spotted sparrowhawks swooping into the garden for a few months.
When I’m gardening I keep my Olympus Tough in my pocket, with LED macro diffuser fitted. These were drawn from some recent photographs.
Three approaches to foraging on the herb bed this afternoon: the small double ochre-striped ones tackle the thyme on fast forward, the larger all-ochre thorax bumblebee makes a more thorough job of the chives flowers while the small red-tailed bumblebee – possibly a drone – seems to be settling down for the night on its chive flower.
Prominent moths have tufts emerging from between the wings and there’s also a tail tuft, just visible in my drawing. This moth, caught in the moth trap a couple of nights ago (and released the next day) didn’t have feathery antennae so it’s most likely to be a female.
So far I haven’t narrowed it down to a particular species. To me it’s closest to the iron prominent.
It’s about 1.5 cm long.
Bee orchid, date palm and the laburnum arch at Brodsworth Hall this morning.
Thanks to the English Heritage garden staff for pointing out the bee orchid which were growing on a south-facing grassy bank, left un-mown, alongside the formal beds and lawns.
The date palm grows in the shelter of the sunken gardens, at the sunnier end.