I meant to post this the day I took it but am confined to bed with some lurgy or other.
This shows my hedge from the sheep field side (they do the cutting for me) and also should show rabbit proofing, i.e. 4ft chicken wire with 1ft buried under the turf on the side they dig in from.

If you problems are limited to a seed bed spread rose or bramble cuttings over it - the ones with the biggest thorns work best!

Here's one I prepared earlier. The photo is dated 2 June so it makes the hedge 4 1/2 years old. The copper beech was the only existing tree on the fence line. The tree in front of it is a Wild Service Tree and that's about 10ft, some of the sorbus must be 16ft. Yes some of the trees tend to suppress...

Have room for 3 more trees, so not sure which, can either get: Crab Apple, Guelder Rose, Rowan or Spindle. Why grow them as trees? and why not grow them and elder as a hedge? I have a 4 year old field hedge which includes just about anything I could get my hands on though I have allowed the Rowan a...

Lee Hurrell wrote: She loves blues and wondered why some butterflies have stripy antennae - does anyone know?
Lee

If you listen very carefully they are singing The Barber Shop Blues

Thank you for that confirmation. I keep hoping that one of my CBs will turn out to be something else, I suppose I should be content with what I have.

After having seen only 4 Common Blues all season in my field a new hatch appeared yesterday, but they all seemed smaller and lighter in colour than I remember them (but then a year is a long time ) This is a female CB??

MikeOxon wrote:pssst - it's at Rutland Water! Mike

So that will be through passport control at Watford, head north and hang a right? Used to be a nice place before they flooded it.

I read yesterday that there is to be a new Olympus with a 36x optical zoom, the SP-810UZ, with a 14MP sensor for a RRP of £230 in the autumn.

There seems to be no mention on its website as to where the fair is being held

I shall cut my wildflower field probably in late September to a heigh of about 4 inches (it rather depends on when the seeds ripen because I need them for somewhere else). It is important to cut again in early spring to about the same height, thus cutting back the grass which would like to swamp the...

The other two appear to be Small Skippers judging by the lack of black on the undersides of the antennae. Interestingly however they both look quite fresh. At this time of year Small Skippers are looking quite tatty and worn, while Essex Skippers, which emerge later, should be fresher. Vince. Went ...

Haven't wolves already been re-introduced onto a private estate in Sutherland? Please don't say that; I have enough trouble shooting wild boar that have escaped or been "released to be free to roam the countryside" without the though of meeting a wolf in the woods. And as for mink ...... ...

You are right that 8,000 years is very little in evolutionary time but it is plenty of time for isolated populations to die out! I suspect that lots of former colonists have gone - not to mention wolves, beavers, lynx, etc., etc!! Mike But the current colonists of this island have introduced beaver...

Probably just the yellow rattle I can't really do that with since its a hemiparasite of grass. Yellow Rattle needs to be treated as an annual. Now would be the time to mow some single strips in the grass, allow the grass to recover for a week and then apply glyphosphate (Round-up). Leave for about ...

You will be best planting plugs into existing grass land. You can either buy them from some of the wild-flower growers, or become a gardener and sow the seeds and pot them on for planting out next year. As an example I planted out some Greater Mullein seedlings in my wildflower patch last winter and...

Silver Washed a-courting

Has anyone any tips on identifying Whites on the wing? Round here there are about ten times the number of Whites than there were last year when I could stalk individuals until they settled. In flight I really can't tell them apart and I can't go leaping through the crops when they do land.

Lifetime firsts are always good and for me it was a Marbled White on the knapweed in my field at 6pm this evening. I have lived here for 17 years and never seen one; I shouldn't really be surprised to see one for they are in Oaken Wood but it somehow a bit special when one turns up to visit.

P.J.Underwood wrote:Here is what I think is a new one for Oaken Wood-a Dark Green fritillary seen today.
P.J.U.

I was wrong. Malcolm confirmed that the Dark Green is a first for Oaken Wood. The one shown on the distribution map was for elsewhere in the complex.