Welcome to our Garden Nature Webpage. We are four children who live in West Cork, Ireland. We live on an old farm very close to the sea. We are all interested in all the many animals and plants that live in our garden and we have made this website to record some of the things we find.

We are very lucky as we have a variety of habitats very close by. We have a shady orchard with elm, sycamore and apple trees. We also have a big field with lots of long grass. We have an old courtyard with a small bog and pond. We have a stream running through the garden down to the sea. We also have a more formal flower and vegetable garden all the land is organic. With so many different parts to the garden we have many types of wildlife living around us.

SEPTEMBER The weather is great at the moment and the butterflies are still hovering round the garden. We also have a lot of birds feeding in the garden there were a pair of Redstarts flying round this afternoon Redstart Redstarts are a group of small Old World birds. They were formerly classified in the thrush family (Turdidae), but are more often now treated as part of the Old World flycatcher family (Muscicapidae). The redstart feeds like a flycatcher, making aerial sallies after passing insects, and most of its food consists of winged insects. The call is chat-like and the alarm a plaintive single note, wheet

AUGUST It's now August and the buddlia bushes are in full flower so we have loads of butterflies in the garden everyone went out to try and take a really good photo of them and here are some we took Red Admiral This familiar and distinctive insect may be found anywhere in Britain and Ireland and in all habitat types. Starting each spring and continuing through the summer there are northward migrations, which are variable in extent and timing, from North Africa and continental Europe. The immigrant females lay eggs and consequently there is an emergence of fresh butterflies, from about July onwards. They continue flying into October or November and are typically seen nectaring on garden buddleias or flowering Ivy and on rotting fruit. There is an indication that numbers have increased in recent years and that overwintering has occurred in the far south of England.

It is the beginning of July and we have started our Summer holidays. There are a lot of birds, butterflies and flowers in our garden at the moment.


(June 29th) We went away for a couple of days and came home late at night. Dad called us into the kitchen where we found this amazing coloured moth on the window frame."


Garden Tiger Moth
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) The garden tiger moth (Arctia caja) is a moth of the Arctiidae family. It has a wingspan of 45 to 65 millimetres (1.8 to 2.6 in). The design of the wings varies: the front wings are brown with a white pattern (which can however be missing), the back wings orange with a pattern of black dots. The conspicuous patterns serve as a warning to predators, because the moth's body fluids are poisonous. Its effects are not yet fully known, but they contain quantities of choline esters which are neurotoxic by interfering with the acetylcholine receptor. The colours are also ideal for frightening predators such as small birds: the moth normally hides its hindwings under the cryptic forewings when resting. If a threat is perceived, the moth quickly shows its red colour and flies away. In this way, it successfully confuses and warns off the predator.

(July 2nd) Dad was raking up grass in the big field and out popped this frog. This was the first time Suki had seen a real frog in the garden. We hatched out some tadpoles this year and put them in the stream, I wonder if this was one of them? Rana temporaria the frog of Ireland Irish frogs may have survived the Ice Age by retreating to a tiny ice-free refuge in Ireland, while mainland Britain’s frogs died out to be re-populated by European frogs, new research suggests. Recent evidence has shown that Ireland's frogs differ from those of mainland Britain, shedding new light onto where frogs disappeared to when the Ice Age hit Europe over 10,000 years ago.

We see a cuckoo quite often in our garden and it is always being mobbed by small birds. Did you know that only the male cuckoo makes the distinctive call? My uncle has a great cuckoo clock and we all loved to watch it when in comes out Cuckoo The feathers of the cuckoos are generally soft, and often become waterlogged in heavy rain. Cuckoos will often sun themselves after rain, and the anis will hold their wings open in the manner of a vulture or cormorant while drying.

We get lots of Choughs around here. They often fly over in pairs soaring and diving tumbling over each other. Their feet and beaks are very bright red. Choughs (www.rspb.org.uk) While its black plumage identifies it as a crow, the chough (pronounced 'chuff') has a red bill and legs unlike any other member of the crow family. It has a restricted westerly distribution in the British Isles and because of its small population size and historically declining populations it is an Amber List species. It readily displays its mastery of flight with wonderful aerial displays of diving and swooping. Found in flocks in autumn and winter.

4th July: We have loads of these butterflies in the garden at the moment, some are flying around each other in pairs. It might be a Speckeld Wood Speckled Wood Found throughout Britain and Ireland. Dark brown with creamy white patches on wings. Occurs in woodland, gardens and hedgerows. Butterflies often perch in sunny spots, spiralling into the air to chase each other. * Latin name: Pararge aegeria

We all look forward to seeing the first Swallow as it is a sign that summer is on its way. We have some nesting in the old garage this year. I love watching them skimming over the garden like little fighter planes and they come all the way from Africa to our garden Barn Swallow The Barn Swallow is a bird of open country which normally uses man-made structures to breed and consequently has spread with human expansion. It builds a cup nest from mud pellets in barns or similar structures and feeds on insects caught in flight.[5] This species lives in close association with humans, and its insect-eating habits mean that it is tolerated by man; this acceptance was reinforced in the past by superstitions regarding the bird and its nest.