Favourite flower

Today I saw that the Yellow Flag was in bloom - definitely my favourite wildflower on the site.

New species - wood mouse

A fresh carcass in the woods gives another chance to make a positive small mammal ID - this time it is wood mouse. They are larger than the house mouse and with a longer tail and there are colouring differences as well.

New species - water shrew

I suppose it was always inevitable that there would be water shrews on site but I hadn't actually identified one until today. I found a corpse outside and measurements and colouring show it to be a water shrew rather than a common shrew. They are larger and blacker than common shrews and also have white hairs around the ears and under the tail. It seems that they don't taste very good (to cats) so it is probably a cat's victim that was left in disgust.

Green Dock Beetle - back again

I am pleased to say that my biological dock control mechanism is back. I have seen eggs and adults (pictured) and we should shortly have voracious larvae (pictured last year). It seems that they manage three cycles in a year so I am looking forward to some serious dock destruction......