Caldecote Open Garden

The weather was sunny with a gentle breeze yesterday for the first of two Open Garden days at Caldecote Old Rectory - a bit bright for photography but great to enjoy the wildflower and more formal parts of these wonderful garden.

Marsh Harriers and Cuckoo at Lackford

Ellie chose to visit Lackford with me today on her day off, hoping to see a Kingfisher - no luck with that wish but we did have great views of Marsh Harriers, Heron, Egret, Lapwing in the Irises etc and, best of all, a really good view of a male Cuckoo, who conveniently then landed in a tree and proceeded to call just to confirm the ID. A lot of Common Blue Damselflies and a quite late Orange-tailed Mining bee

New and Returning Garden Species

The cooler but still sunny weather yesterday was ideal for insect spotting in the garden. Here are photos of some of the more interesting species (plus ID sheets with rest). The Figwort Weevil is about 4mm and just looked like an insect dropping. Good to ID another bee species that is using the Hotels - the Orange-vented Mason Bee, and always happy when the first Speckled Bush Crickets appear with their striped socks. The spider has a very metallic sheen which appeared green or bluish depending on its position. Only small patches of Spindle Ermine caterpillar webs at the moment.

Caldecote Old Rectory Garden

The Old Rectory garden in Caldecote is open this weekend for Coffees and Teas (10.30-17.30 17th and 18th May 2025). It was looking very good yesterday when I took a few photos of the wilder areas - plenty more to see including formal areas and a pond with water features etc.We walked across from Toft through the wonderful Buttercup meadows - the Yellow Rattle is already in bloom.

Cribbs Meadow Flowers and Weevil

Previous years, Cribbs Meadows have been full of Green-winged Orchids but this year, with the dry spring, there were very few to be seen and the previous swamp areas are dry and cracked. We did find a lot of Adders Tongue and the Water Avens appears not to have suffered. The insects were enjoying the warm conditions and most of the flowers seemed to have visitors including this great little Weevil.