One of the great joys of owning a garden is being able to manage it just the way you like. As a keen herpetologist, that presents a fantastic opportunity. We have lived at our Dunkirk address for nearly 10 years and some of the gardening work that has been undertaken over that time is really starting to pay dividends.
Although our garden pond is only small (for the moment!), it supports good numbers of common frog and smooth newts. Indeed, earlier this year the kids had a fantastic afternoon newting and pulled out 56 individual newts!
Last week I spotted something moving on the grass and ran in the house shouting for everybody to come and see...
An adult female stag beetle (
Lucanus cervus)! This is the first stag beetle we have seen in the garden. We have constructed several log piles, but I'm not sure whether they breed. It is likely that this one simply flew in. Stag beetles have apparently been recorded in Faversham and we live close to Blean Woods. More information on stag beetles is available from the
Stag Beetle Helpline (including a recording form of course).
The family weren't quite as excited as me, but I suspect Erin was secretly thrilled.
Another interesting find over the past weekend was a spotted longhorn beetle (Rutpela maculata). I found this one feeding on the flowers of an oxe-eye daisy.
The garden does of course support lots of slow-worms, but I'll write about them in a future post - stay tuned, the Dragon Gardens are coming!