Posted in Fauna, Gardens on Sunday May 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Flora, Gardens on Wednesday April 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Despite the cool weather the bumblebees seem to be quite active. In my garden they are going for the lungworts (pulmonaria) and the perennial wallflowers (erysimum) rather than the spring bulbs. What are they making a bee line for in your garden?
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Wednesday April 6, 2016| 1 Comment »
Some frogs, one of them has found a patch of sun. John F-S
(Always good to get to use the ‘fauna’ category tag.)
Posted in Fauna, Ornithology on Monday February 1, 2016| 3 Comments »
Despite the weather not being the best this weekend we achieved a grand total of 35 different species spotted around the villages. My hopeful target was 40 so that’s not a bad effort. Thanks Lynn and Peter for your spotting.
See the Blog list here (more…)
Posted in Fauna on Saturday January 30, 2016| 4 Comments »
Join the fun, log your bird sightings around Alsop, Ballidon, Pikehall and Parwich this weekend by adding in a comment to this post.
Still time to register for the RSPB Big Garden Bird here
Posted in Farming, Fauna, Photography on Friday January 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Ornithology on Tuesday January 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Here’s something to get you all tweeting and twittering!
Over the weekend of 30-31 January the RSPB is running their annual Big Garden Birdwatch. ( See RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch for more details ). In conjunction with this we will once again run our own Alsop, Ballidon, Pikehall and Parwich Little Garden Birdwatch. Whilst the RSPB want to know numbers of different bird species seen during a one hour period we simply what to know what species have been seen over the weekend in and around the villages. There will be a post to log sightings available over the weekend. For anyone doubtful of their bird recognition skills the RSPB site is pretty good, where you can find an A-Z Guide and useful tools to help identify a specific bird sighting.
Our target for the weekend is a challenging 40 different species so the more taking part the better.
Listed below are some of the species we hope will be spotted (more…)
Posted in Fauna on Tuesday September 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Sunday August 30, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Can you name these giants recently spotted in the area?
(Click on the photos to enlarge)
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Sunday July 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Gardens, Photography on Saturday July 18, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Wednesday June 17, 2015| 2 Comments »
Posted in Fauna on Monday June 15, 2015| 2 Comments »
I have just spotted this year’s first Hummingbird Hawkmoth in my garden and, amazingly, on exactly the same day of the year as in 2014!
You can find some more information about this impressive day-flying moth on the http://butterfly-conservation.org/ website, as well as a map with the ‘Migrant Watch’ records of the yearly sightings. The photo is from this website as I have not managed to capture the moth on my own pocket camera.
Saskia T
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Tuesday May 5, 2015| 1 Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Wednesday April 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Wednesday March 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Gardens, Ornithology, Photography on Thursday January 1, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Reed bunting (left)
and bullfinch (below),
photos by John F-S
The weekend of 24/25th January sees the RSPB’s Big Garden Bird Watch; those wishing to take part can find out more and register by clicking here.
The RSPB say:
Bird populations are a great indicator of the health of the countryside. That’s why it’s so important to take part in surveys like Big Garden Birdwatch to keep an eye on the ups and downs of the wildlife where we live.
All you need to do is spend an hour over the weekend of 24-25 January counting the birds in your garden. It’s that simple!
However, we wondered if there was any interest in doing a Big Ballidon/Alsop/Parwich/Pikehall Bird Watch the same weekend? Let us know your thoughts by commenting on this post or emailing parwich@hotmail.co.uk .
There are a number of possibilities, including:
Posted in Fauna, Gardens, Photography on Monday September 29, 2014| 2 Comments »
Posted in Church, Fauna, Flora, Gardens, Photography on Saturday September 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Well there is not doubt of the common name of this shrub, a Butterfly bush.
Photos by Peter T
Posted in Fauna, Gardens, Photography on Sunday August 31, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Thursday August 28, 2014| 1 Comment »
Thank you John F-S for what I think is our first bat photo here at parwich.org. But why was it out and about on a Wednesday lunch time?
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Tuesday August 26, 2014| 3 Comments »
Here is a video clip and some stills from John F-S to follow on with the dragonfly interest. Can you identify these three species?
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Sunday August 24, 2014| 3 Comments »
Photos by David G. Can anyone identify it?
Posted in Fauna, Gardens, Ornithology on Saturday July 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »
This afternoon I witnessed a female blackbird stalk, catch, kill and eat a shrew. In Church Farm garden, a small shrew was having a feast of insects and grubs amongst leaf litter and well rotted manure, when it was seized from behind by the female blackbird, who killed it by repeatedly picking it up and dashing it on a hard surface. She then avidly consumed it.
Does anyone know if this is usual?
Peter T
Posted in British Legion, Farming, Fauna, Sport, Wakes on Thursday July 3, 2014| 1 Comment »
| What’s on Wakes Friday | |||
| Day | Time | Event | Location |
| Fri 4th | 6.30pm | ‘Ball Race’ | Pump Hill |
| 8pm | Traditional Race Night | Legion | |
To see the full Wakes Week programme click here.
Click here to see the full Diary page; please email any event information to parwich@hotmail.co.uk
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Wednesday June 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Flora, Gardens on Tuesday June 24, 2014| 5 Comments »
Open Gardens
Seen today in Parwich feeding on valerian (Valeriana officinalis) growing in my drive, a hummingbird hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum). Has anyone else in Parwich seen this remarkable insect? It hovers motionless over a flower while it inserts its long proboscis into the flower to extract nectar, just like a humming bird. My brother and I watched this for about 2 minutes, entranced by what we were watching as it moved from flower to flower. If I had had a camera to hand we could have had a good picture but it suddenly flew away. When I explained to an Open Gardens visitor what we had seen he identified it for us. An image of this moth can be seen on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird_Hawk-moth#mediaviewer/File:Macrogl_Stellat.jpg
What a great day it has been, so many visitors, such glorious weather and all our visitors so appreciative,
Mike R
Posted in Fauna, Flora, Gardens, Photography on Sunday April 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Tuesday March 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »
A play in five acts
Dramatis Personae
Photography by John F-S
Posted in Fauna, Gardens, Photography on Thursday March 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Quiz on Monday February 24, 2014| 2 Comments »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Thursday January 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Posted in 2013, Farming, Fauna, Ornithology, Photography, Pikehall, Posts of Note on Monday December 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »
“Our house is a very, very old house”
“Santa’s reindeer resting up, in disguise, after the Christmas rush”
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Friday November 22, 2013| 1 Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Flora, Gardens, Photography on Sunday November 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Monday November 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Posted in 2013, Fauna, Gardens, Photography, Posts of Note on Monday September 23, 2013| 1 Comment »
Thank you David G for this very prompt addition to Saskia’s butterfly photo library:
Now we just need to match names to butterflies (and moths).
Posted in Fauna, Ornithology on Monday September 23, 2013| 1 Comment »
Those pesky butterflies seem to be getting everywhere.
I took the liberty of trying to enhance John F-S’s midair photo, but you can see the original below:
Posted in 2013, Fauna, Gardens, Photography, Posts of Note on Monday September 23, 2013| 1 Comment »
Thank you Saskia for these photos and the following:
Hasn’t it been a fantastic year for butterflies? I still have tens of Small Tortoiseshells, some Peacocks, a Red Admiral, a Brimstone and a Painted Lady (I hope I’ve got their names correct!) feeding on the Valerian and Buddleia , whilst others are sunning themselves in the late Autumn sun. The only one that I haven’t seen this year is the spectacular Humming-bird Hawkmoth.
What visiting butterflies have you seen in your garden recently? (I’m a complete novice so only recognise the very colourful species!)
Saskia T
More photos of any other species taken locally are most welcome. (Fiona, if your verbena is still so busy, that might make a great shot.)
Posted in Fauna, Photography on Thursday September 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »
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