ABtrees

Hi All Mick, I have to pick you up on that - we had a guy come round and he had done exactly that , (as described) last year. Took out an Asian hornet nest (at about 40-50 feet up) in a field on the outskirts of a local village with said paintball gun. We passed by a few days later - no activity at all. To be fair it wasn't your average gun, some higher powered version and surprisingly accurate. It does work. On a separate note, we have had Asians for (at least) the last 4 years - never had any trouble from them apart from grabbing my bees as they returned to the hive. I found letting some grass stalks grow tall in front of the hive seriously reduced their chances of catching one though, and must confess to an adrenaline fuelled 20 minutes with a badminton racquet !!!!!

Must have missed this post AJ. Here's my version of the same thing just about to depart !

I just thought it looked like an early version trail camera - put there by the council to see if they could spot any wrongdoing - you know dropping litter, in a traffic jam with your engine running, going over 20mph etc etc !!!!!

Morning - busy week ! I think they go as follows: Southern White Admiral Swallowtail Queen of Spain fritillary Map (these butterflies are really curious - i think these are 2nd or possibly 3rd generation but i have never seen so many together at once). Then: Black veined white Large skipper Sooty copper Map (underside - which gives them their name) - landed on my glove ! And yes, the elusive wood white Finally: Hummingbird hawk Common blue Weavers (AKA violet) fritillary Southern white admiral again - underside v. similar to Purple Emperor and Lesser Purple Emperor (which we also have !). I have (so) many more butterfly pics (of varying quality it has to be said) - maybe I'll dig out some of the rarer stuff and post it - if you'd like ? !!!!

I think i know what this is but feel free to have a guess - it was a first for me.

OK final final pic. Saw this very odd butterfly in flight (apparently upside down) - never seen anything like it before and had no idea what it was till it landed !

Final batch

Trying to go for things of interest

Haven't posted for ages - here is the first batch from the last few weeks - a few more to follow.

I had exactly that with a hornets nest down the other end of the fallen tree i was logging my way along - oh look a hornet ! Within 15 seconds maybe 60 - 70. Just started talking calmly to them and slowly backed off. They followed me at a distance of about 2 metres all the way to the tractor 20 metres away. Made sure i was no longer a threat and then got on with their day. Unlike wasps, made no attempt to sting me - but i'd have been in trouble if they had - out in the wood working on my own ! Just as an aside, i kept the saw running the noise/vibration seems to calm them (maybe ?).

Thanks you two. That was my initial take on it but the leaves are truly massive - that's a regular oak (Q. Robur) to the left for comparison. The only one that is even vaguely close is Northern Red (Q. Rubra) but I'm yet to be convinced.

Afternoon Can anyone help me out with an id on this one please ? The only thing i can think of is some sort of Paulownia - the leaves are big (25x16 cm) but don't quite look right to me. Ideas ?

Do you all see what i mean ? I'd be delighted with Pete's Whitethroat picture ! PW I do get what you mean though, but all modesty to one side, if the subject is in sharp focus, that's half the battle for me. Once I'm getting consistent results on that I can start thinking about composition. Not sure I'll ever get to worrying about light levels - don't think I've got 30 years left !!!!

As Difflock says an Emperor Moth - a male I believe with the fluffy antennae

Every spring seems to bring something new ............... never seen one of these before (and still haven't - I'm in the UK atm !). Mrs B's poor quality pic on her i-phone

..... unless you're @Pete W !!!! Loved the ducklings btw

Nothing to apologise for there - we're all still learning - and you definitely seem to have it sussed ! Love the last nuthatch one.

Only after I'd loaded it into the stove did I realise how sad I'd made this log !

It is something called Aflatoxin. It's not uncommon and there are generally fairly stringent tests for imports. You guys are absolutely right it is produced by a fungus developing if the peanuts get wet (usually whilst they are still in their shells). It pretty nasty stuff and once in the food chain can be passed on. Here's your wiki link : Aflatoxin - Wikipedia

We have far fewer squirrels where we are in the middle of France - but all of them are Red. (As far as I can make out, apart from a few very isolated colonies in the Paris suburbs, there are no greys in France.) The lack of squirrels in general is almost certainly down to there being a lot of 'Fouine' These are a top predatory omnivore - a cousin of the Pine Martin only a much heftier beast - officially up to 54cms and up to 2.3kg ! I'm not sure that I've seen them that size but Tufty is certainly always going to be the loser !!! Consequently tree/ sapling damage is much reduced, all of my bit of woodland is self regen and has been for the last 30+years - roe deer are the only real headache !

Spent the afternoon disentangling / pollarding (!) trees from the telephone line in 17 degrees, when sure enough along comes (my last sighting for the year) - a queen hornet buzzing past and a comma butterfly - it's New Year's Eve for God's sake - nuts ! Tomorrow is going to be 16+ over here so maybe my first hornet of the year sighting on Jan 1st whilst I'm clearing up ! Happy New Year everyone.

Yeah good alternative call

There's only several 100s (1000s) of wood boring beetle to choose from ! Did you manage to take some pics that you can post to narrow it down a bit? There's a number of extremely knowledgeable people on here who may be able to ID them. As a general guide the larvae won't change logs - they will just keep munching until they pupate - that's when your problems could start ! While the larval stage can last anything from 1 year to 7+years, there's only one thing on the beetle's mind when it emerges - procreation ! A lot of adults are happy to walk to find a suitable egg laying site, but most if not all are able to fly and happy to cover several hundred metres to do so. With one female able to lay 200+ eggs, that's when infestation follows - said from bitter experience - good old Deathwatch ! After all of that doom and gloom, they're really fascinating to study (but not while they eat your house !) - have a look on the old iggly thread for some pics !

Mick, I totally agree with you. 85% of what I burn is oak, 10% hornbeam the remaining 5% 'other' (alder, cherry acaica etc) but I think it's different over here. This summer was sooooo dry. I air-dried newly cut/split (fallen over) oak down to 10% on the ends and 12-14% in the centre and these are big logs (45+cms x 10-15 cms). 8-10 weeks of 34+ degrees, stacked in the sun with good air circulation makes all the difference Pic below. I take pride in lighting the stove (Jotul 6) on a bit of newspaper and a single match - it just goes. Having a Charnwood put in in the other fireplace next week so it will be interesting to compare the two.

I've got (quite) a few ! Quality is a bit dodgy tho - all my usual excuses apply !