New garden bird arrives.

 

 

Jay joins Wood Pigeon.   Photo: John Elliott.

 While eating breakfast this morning I was very surprised to see a Jay happily feeding alongside one of my regular Wood Pigeons. This is the first time in my 47 years here that a Jay has appeared.in the garden. This is normally considered to be a woodland bird, and is described in the book as 'vigilant and shy, difficult to approach', so why is it coming into the village? The usual reason for such behaviour is that its normal food supply is scarce and the bird is forced to overcome its shyness and seek the food we provide.Has this year's crop of acorns, which form most of its winter food, failed? Certainly the Horse Chestnut tree outside my bedroom window has produced very few conkers this year, perhaps a dozen in all. Perhaps the Oaks are the same.

My Cuckoo.

 

 

 The latest report from my cuckoo, JAC.

 Over the border in Republic of Congo is Llangollen Cuckoo JAC. JAC arrived here from Cameroon over the last few days and is in dense rainforest close to the Likouala River, a tributary of the Congo.

Autumn visitors to Ivy.

 One of the most successful butterflies in this very odd year weather-wise has been the Red Admiral, which has continued to fly well into October. No less than six were nectaring on the Church Cottage Ivy when I passed this morning.

Red Admiral.   Photo. John Elliott Click to enlarge

Honey bees from the Weymouth Road apiary were numerous, as were flies of several species but most exciting was a single insect that at first sight I mistook for a hornet.

Volucella zonaria.   Photo. John Elliott Click to enlarge

 

It was indeed a hornet mimic, copying the European hornet Vespa crabro, It is completely harmless but hopes to protect itself from predators by looking like a far from harmless hornet. 

A Mediterranean species, only two had been recorded in Britain prior to 1940 and it was considered rare,, but it has since spread over the south of the country, and this is the second one I have seen in Martinstown this year. The females lay their eggs in the nests of hornets or wasps and the larvae then live as commensals  (that is both species benefit from the relationship). After the larval stage the pupae overwinter in the soil and emerge the following spring.

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