Our Helpston Garden & adjoining paddock

I never fail to be amazed by the amount of wild life to be found in the garden. This week i have seen a privet hawkmoth on the garage wall.The second year running that this moth has put in an appearance in our garden. A 5 spot Burnet moth by the back hedge and a Roesel's bush cricket on the lavender near the front door. Funnily enough this came a day after reading Stuart Irons interesting article in the Langdyke annual report on the uk expansion of this grasshopper. I never heard the high pitched buzzing sound though. He or she remained silent.

A muntjac deer has visited on two seperate mornings. He seems to have been attracted to our small ponds for a drink and then gone back into the long grass in the paddock.

I can confirm that the turtle doves have nested in the paddock and successfully fledged 2 young. They didn't appear last year but had 3 young in 2008. From observing them over these 2 years it is very odvious that they require dense untidy hedges to set up home. In particular they seem to favour thick brambles growing over existing hedges and mature elderberry trees unmanicured by annual cuts. If there is telegraph wires close or above the hedge for them to purr from, all the better.