First Insects etc of the Year

 The warm sunshine yesterday brought out quite a lot of flies, spiders and bees in the garden. Recovering from surgery is frustrating as I can manage the camera and macro lens but no fill-in flash and chasing bees is definitely out! Anyway here five invertebrates to start 2025 garden records

My Garden Birds

The birds were very busy feeding in the garden this morning with flocks of Goldfinches and Greenfinches visiting the garden feeders and pairs of Long-tailed Tits, Blue Tits, Great Tits, and Blackbirds all looking as if they are pairing and starting to set up territories. All three of the Dove family - Rock Doves, Wood Pigeon and Collared Dove, pair of Dunnocks, Robin, Chaffinch, Song Thrush and Wren (too fast to photograph!).. Also visiting in recent weeks Tree Creeper,  Starling, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Redwing, Fieldfare, Jay, Magpie and Pied Wagtail 

I came across my garden list for Jan - Feb  in 1968-71. It had all these except Collared Dove and Stock Dove and also included Bullfinch, Marsh Tit, Turtle Dove, Corn Bunting, Yellow Hammer (still in Hedgerows), Tree Sparrow - all declined or absence with a change in the arable farming techniques.

Toft Garden Mosses

A start on the mosses in the garden - very tentative IDs!!

Flowering Late or Early - Climate Change?

With the lack of frosts and the generally moist and relatively warm conditions, there are lots of wild flowers open in my Cambridgeshire garden that would normally be dormant such as the Red Campion, Dandelion, Primrose, Knapweed, Chicory (a new self-seeded species this year) and Chickweed plus some naturalised species - Linaria, Alkanet and Corydalis. Various garden perennials are still flowering or are starting early like the Jasmine and Erysium (wallflower) while some annuals such as Cosmos and Marigolds are from this year's seeds.

Wider Angle Macro

 As my 60mm macro stopped focusing suddenly and seems to be permanently, I tried my 18-45 mm lens with the Raynox close-up filter. Here a few examples of what is still active in my Cambridge garden. Most taken at the 45mm end but the Cricket and Flower spider were at the 18mm end.