Does anything eat wasps ?

A victim of the recent high winds has been this wasp's nest. Originally at the top of a Field Maple, before being violently removed and repositioned closer to the ground. Interestingly the nest had been broken into whilst still at the top of the tree, no doubt by a Great spotted Woodpecker and not a Honey Buzzard on it's way south !



During the time the nest had been brought indoors to show the children, a mystery leafhopper appeared on the inside of a window. Anyone who has looked at 'hoppers' closely will know how difficult they can be to identify, often requiring examination of the genitalia to be certain, a fiddly and time consuming operation.

Fortunately this was a fairly distinctive looking specimen being narrowed down to one of three species found on Acer. As Field Maple belongs to this genus it was a  good bet that the 'hopper' came in with the nest.

A close look at the face pattern revealed it to be a female Acericerus heydenii a species first identified in the UK on the south coast in 2010, though there is always the possibility that it has been overlooked before.

Not Jim Reeves

Adding a new bird to the garden list has never been easy, so far this year i have managed to include Rough legged Buzzard, Tree Pipit and Pallid Harrier, the latter perhaps not the most expected of species. Nothing could have prepared me recently for the sight as i pulled into the garden, a cracking male Reeve's Pheasant strutting beside the hedgerow. Though strickly not a "British" bird, having originally been introduced to large estates from northern China, still a gem to brighten any ones day ! 

Although the temperatures have now dropped significantly, the recent mild spell produced some impressive fungi, this first one was attached to the side of a dead Elm. It resembles the Honey Fungus (Armillaria mellea), although the jurys still out on that one ! Honey Fungus is well known for its destructive capabilities, destroying large numbers of trees every year, covering the stumps with an obvious white mould.

The lawn did not escape the attention of fungi, the curious candy floss like Pink Patch (Limonomyces roseipellis) appeared and covered a large area. This belongs to a group of fungi often referred to as Snow Mould, because of their appearance after snow has melted.