My Wildlfe Garden April 28th 2026

Each year, I photograph the species in bloom in my Cambridgeshire garden several times during the spring and summer to compare with previous years. Today, I did a quick photoshoot in my garden which is a riot of colours and full of flora and fauna - not my best efforts photographically but demonstrate what I am sure others in this area are finding that the species in bloom are about a month earlier than previous years - Ann Miles Blog: My Wildlife Garden in May. The insects and spiders are also very active in the warm temperatures - I hadn't noticed the Cricket Bat Spider on the Spurge or the Collembolid on the buttercup till I looked at the photos.

Lackford Lakes More Portraits

A second set of insect and spider portraits from our sunny visit to Lackford Lakes on Thursday (ID sheets to follow)

Toft Garden Update

Butterflies are attracted to the patches of purple Honesty that are in bloom in my garden and I was pleased to get close to this Orange Tip, until I realised it was in the jaws of a Flower spider, There are several more Misuma spiders in the garden and good to see the Red Mason bees active around the bee Hotels.

 

Paxton March Survey - Meadow Trail

Yesterday was our first wildlife survey of the year at Paxton Pits. This is traditionally our 'Signs of Spring' session though we do try to record whatever plants, insects, birds etc that we see. Here is my selection on a very unspring-like day, starting with a most endearing Nettle Weevil which I thought was just a bit of detritus on a nettle leaf. Amazing number of insects etc found considering the air temperature only averaged 5 degrees though there were periods of sunshine that warmed the leaf surfaces. Tentative ID sheets at the end as usual.

CNHS Granchester Meadows

 The Cambridge Natural History Society surveyed the plants etc in Grantchester Meadows in 2006 and 2016 so this year is time to repeat the survey. We met on Sunday afternoon at the Cambridge end. The first two meadows are known as the Lamppost Meadows as each has a lamp-post at its centre from 1920-1940 when the meadows used to be flooded with water pumped from the Cam and used for skating. There is an attendant’s hut at the corner of the first field, where the fee of six pence for an evening’s skating was collected. It is managed in a traditional manner - once the meadow has dried out there may be a summer hay cut and it is grazed until the end of the year.  No fertilizer or herbicide has been used. The public path alongside these meadows emerges into open meadows stretching to Grantchester, owned by King’s College. The CNHS group were identifying and recording all the plants species including grasses and sedges while I concentrated on the invertebrates, lichens, galls etc. Here a few plus possible IDs sheet. I was intrigued by the spore cups of he nettle Rust, Puccinia urticata,