Closer to home

Being grounded for a couple of weeks still presents opportunities. I used the time to judge the Mike Haywood Poetry Competition 2009. An interesting proposition since all the entrants had to live, work or study within a twenty mile radius of Rotherham. However, the geographical limitations did not compromise the imagination and skill of the entries and I was pleased to select some worthy winners and highly commend a couple more.

In an earlier blog I mentioned going for a walk and seeing a white satin moth - the whites of both the moth and pupae are easily spotted in the fields. Thanks to local moth recorder Peter Krischkiw for sending me a photo of one. It's amazing how many different moths he gets in his garden - hundreds. And maybe you have hundreds too. Why not make a simple moth trap and find out?

In the garden I've seen the green sheens of at least three new broods of great and blue tits emerge over the season, and also two broods of coal tits, a young nuthatch and a couple of young speckled robins.


In the shed a wood mouse is munching on the bird food before I put it in the bird feeders. It's nibbled through very substantial plastic tubs to steal!

Coal Tits by Mike Atkinson - see the link in the side bar to his wonderful site.