Author: David

Apples aren’t the only fruit grown in orchards. These plums and pears, along with a lot of old varieties of apples, were in the orchard at Anne Hathaway’s cottage, Shottery.

A tiny cherry bird ermine moth resting up in the daytime on purple loosestrife flowers.

Some fruits and berries have benefited from this year’s weather, with a wet spring and a long dry summer. The crops of sloes on the blackthorns for one.

A long dry summer means there have ben very few fungi this year. We noticed these few hare’s foot inkcap growing on a pile of wood chip mulch, a food source they favour.

The long dry summer must have led to southern fruits like grapes having more chances of ripening here in the midlands. These grapes were on vines along the wall of the garden at New Place, Stratford on Avon.

The Shakespeare properties in Stratford on Avon aren’t an obvious choice to go looking for wildlife. But the well-kept gardens at thye Birthplace and at New Place attract a range of insects.

Early last month there was a large gathering of hairy shield bugs in the garden at new Place.