Speckled bush crickets are pretty strange little beasts even as adults, but the nymphs are so bizarre I find it hard to believe they’re real, even when I’ve got one cowering in front of me, wondering if I’m about to … Continued
This is the cuckoo in my shieldbug nursery – an analogy that promptly falls to the ground, I confess, because although it’s not yet fully grown it’s entirely independent. But anyway. I still have several dozen Woundwort Shieldbugs on the … Continued
R and I are currently suffering acutely from Baby B’s cold. In fact we were both so ill by yesterday evening that we started to wonder if we might actually have Covid, so we took lateral flow tests (please don’t … Continued
The third day of the Alternative Olympic Games came to a thrilling climax this afternoon, with the finals of the 1m Speed Feed (Bees, solitary) competition. As had been predicted by most pundits, this came down to a head-to-head between … Continued
It’s been quite stormy over the past couple of days, and by this morning the wildlife pond was pretty full of leaves, so I took a net and went to skim them. Almost immediately I realised that most of them … Continued
This is a final instar Hawthorn Shieldbug nymph – a rather unexpected find in the garden today, given the date. I was a little worried when I spotted him, because he doesn’t have much time to complete his transformation to … Continued
