Rambling Russells

The month began with the sighting of a Red Admiral butterfly at Caerlaverock - not our garden I know but worth a mention! The gardening month began dry with many leaves still on the trees in all their glorious colours - the rich red of the acer, reds and golds on azalea bushes, green and yellow on fruit trees and dark reds and oranges on the berberis hedge. Those that have fallen are crisp and dry as they pile-up against gates, fences and other plants making colourful "litter"     Some plants have still been flowering - we have picked scented roses as they open and brought them indoors to have a spectacular late show! Wild orange poppies and calendulas have been abundant in the mild weather bringing a lovely burst of colour in the garden.     Himalayan honeysuckle and sedum have been looking spectacular and even the heads of the hydrangea are pretty as they fade. ...

We continue to see plenty of birds in the garden - breakfast and a cup of tea in the afternoon seem to take longer and longer as we sit and record the number of birds we see each day! Very welcome visitors this month were a brambling, a bird we have never seen before, and long-tailed tits, which are a favourite for me.   Photos from NE Wildlife     Our monthly max for Nov is therefore as follows:- Blackbird - 1 male, 3 female Blue tit - 4 Brambling - 1 Carrion crow - 1 Chaffinch - 5 male, 4 female Coal tit - 2 Collared dove - 3 Dunnock - 4 Goldfinch - 20 Goose - 500+ flying over Great tit - 3 House sparrow - 28 male, 20 female Jackdaw - 4 Long-tailed tit - 3 Pied wagtail - 1 Robin - 1 Starling - 40 Woodpigeon - 3 Wren - 2 Our last sighting of a butterfly was in November too! Although we saw it fly across the garden, we couldn't see which species it was!   We did manage to see DGERC species of the month for Nov too - admittedly not in our garden - but it is ...