Monday 2nd February 2026 - Longer, Bird Song and Hosting a Queen

I couldn’t resist the blue skies and sun, on Saturday morning. It wasn’t long before I was out in the garden.  Initially, I thought it would be, despite the sun, too cold to stay more than about a half an hour but I ended up spending the entire morning in the back garden, tidying and manuring borders along with the soft fruit bushes and trimming shrubs. Yes, the soil was wet but considering the amount of rain we’ve had over the past month, not stodgy.  When I’d finished, my trowel, hand fork and secateurs needed cleaning, my kneeler was quite damp and the cuffs of my garden jacket a little muddy but I went indoors with a feeling of satisfaction; I had achieved a lot more than intended.

Sunday, we extended our morning litter pick and took a stroll up Madams Lane, along field edges and through the allotments.  As we walked, it was good to hear a variety of birds song, even though I was unable to identify all the tunes to a specific type of bird.  With no wind, a muntjac grazing up the hill was oblivious to our presence.  A little further on, and closer to us, another saw us, immediately disappearing into the undergrowth. On the subject of birds, recently there has been a couple of buzzards flying above the west end of the village.  I’m assuming, because there is a good population of buzzards in Northrepps, these two have been looking for fresh territory.  However, the gulls are less than happy having them around, making their feelings known by mobbing them.

Cooking dinner, yesterday evening, a queen wasp appeared from out of nowhere.  She flew around our kitchen before disappearing down the back of the boiler only to reappear, resting on the floor.  Some time ago Peter made a couple of ‘bug catchers’ so that we can capture bees, butterflies and dragonflies etc. that accidentally fly into our conservatory or storm porch, enabling us to free them safely back into the garden.  It’s also useful for removing unwanted spiders too!  I used one of these to trap the wasp and once in the dark and cool of the storm porch she soon settled.  It has been too cold today to release her in the garden and she has quietly remained in the cool of the storm porch.  Once it warms or she shows any desire to be out flying about, we will release her but until then she is safer inside.  Here I will provide some sugar water solution, should she wish to top up on fluids and nourishment.  You may wonder why we are keen to be hosts to a queen wasp and not destroy her.  The answer is simple; amongst other things, they eat the caterpillars of the cabbage white butterflies.  These caterpillars can and do destroy brassica plants and wasps are a natural pest controller; they are therefore, a gardener’s friend.