Richard Bell's Wild West Yorkshire Nature Diary, Sunday, Ist August 2010
WE WERE concerned to see a wasp return repeatedly to visit
the patio table to work in a particular spot beneath. When I took a closer look,
I was relieved to see that it hadn't started building a nest there; it had been
scraping at the timber to make wood pulp to construct a nest elsewhere.
A
brownish moth was fluttering around the upstairs landing last
night. It looked camouflaged and rather nondescript when I caught it in a bug-box,
until it opened its wings, revealing an orange underwing. It was a little over
an inch long. Most male moths have feathery antennae; this must have been a
female.
I
was emptying a tray of vegetable peelings into the black plastic compost bin
when I saw a small toad move amongst the vegetation in the
bin. It must be an ideal habitat for a toad in there; dark, moist and with a
plentiful supply of invertebrate food.