Yesterday Julie and I took a lovely walk around the wooded border of Wythenshawe Park. While the park seems to consist of a huge open parkland area that was lacking in deer we stuck to the area of dense woodland around the edge, that despite being very close to heavy traffic, was absolutely full of birdsong. She showed me how to identify the song of a wren, that she had learned recently, and using a phone app we also identified a song thrush. Unfortunately the birds stayed well hidden amongst the tall canopy, flittering tantalisingly across the path from time to time.
This was the only wildlife we got a good sighting of:
Back at home I was reading Crafty Green Poet's blog and Juliet coincidentally had a post about scale insects, which I immediately realised was this strange substance that I had spotted on the dogwood. Apparently the white bit is an egg sac and the brown bit is the deceased insect that drops dead of exhaustion in situ having spent all their energy producing the eggs. I was worried that they were parasitic and a nuisance but when I checked the RHS website said not to worry and the plant would not be unduly affected.
In my enthusiasm for the bees I have been photographing anything with wings that visits the garden. Julie looked at my photo of this one and immediately said it was probably a hoverfly, my best guess is a migrant hoverfly. Tish and I found recycled plastic planters in B&M bargains this morning so I will be moving stuff around a bit and enjoying the not-rain.
Stay safe. Be kind. Don't jinx it by mentioning the big round glowing thing.
It was a lovely walk.
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