In the garden of the Eco-house

Leicester has its very own Eco-house where folk can go and see how to live environmentally. It all seemed a bit stuffy to me. They recommended against buying windows that could open to save heat waste! However they seemed to have overlooked the great cooling qualities of a nice draft in the summer. The house was boiling, so much so that I ended up moving on to enjoy the garden slightly faster than I expected. I saw this Green Shield Bug (Palomena prisina) enjoying a cultivated ragwort like plant.

Another creature found in the garden was this Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima). It seemed to have climbed to the top of a flower stem and wanted to go further and so was reaching for a nearby flower.

On the buddleia I saw another wonderful Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui). It really has been a good year for them.

All in all a little wildlife haven. My garden is much smaller than this and so you would think much less able to attract wildlife?!?! Well check out these images from garden in recent days.

Take a look at this Rose Sawfly (Allantus cinctus) on my rose. This is a different species to the usual yellow bellied Rose Sawflies that I have been following in recent days.

Another visitor to my garden is this House Mouse (Mus musculus) who I found hiding behind our shed. I think he was eating the fallen fruit in the alleyway behind our house. That's enough for now, I'm off to explore somewhere else and see what I can find!

Animals that react to the bigascope

Most people that like watching wildlife generally do not want to disturb what they are looking at. Many nature seekers are filled with disgust when they come across some litter or witness an unchecked child being cruel to some small creature. A couple of years ago I saw this beautiful White Ermine moth (Spilosoma lubricipeda) down in Devon. I photographed it and looked at it closely for a little while. I marvelled at its beauty. It was astonishing, better than any work of art I had seen. Then a curiosity pushed me to give it a prod with my finger. I don't know why, but some primordial instinct drove me to touch the creature. Upon doing so the lovely little animal became startled and flew blindly into the dirty web of a house spider. Before I could do anything the large dark monster had engulfed its prey. I could see it injecting its liquefying poison into the creature that a couple of seconds before had been a priceless work of art. I felt bad. No, I felt awful. Nobody around me seemed to understand why I was so cut up about a spider eating a moth. But the point was, that I had caused it. Accidentally, yes, but it was me that made the moth fly. That horrible moment has stayed with me through the years.

Whilst out with the bigascope I always try to leave the creature I am studying undisturbed. Some creatures however seem to be aware of the great big lens from the sky that is now looking at them like some strange alien intelligence. The Speckled Bush-Cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) above didn't seem to like the bigascope. Every time I moved closer, the cricket moved further away. The only time I could sneak up on the cricket was in its blind spot, directly behind him. So I have lots of footage of the crickets bottom, but not much else. On the other hand this slightly disturbed Ground beetle (Carabidae) is trying to find somewhere dark. For a ground beetle dark places means safe places. Whilst being filmed by the bigascope, the darkest place is in the direction of the bigascope and so the beetle chased the camera around my conservatory.