This is a picture of a hole in my garden.
And why should this interest you? Well in fact, it probably doesn’t interest most people.
For my sins, I found it very exciting. To me it seemed an extremely interesting hole. My immediate thought was that I had stumbled upon the entrance of a solitary bee’s nest. I was delighted!
Well, just long enough to take a closer look and see how big it was. Definitely not the entrance to a bee’s nest. But it did have a well-travelled looking little path leading to the entrance. Something was definitely going in and out and it was bigger than a bee. I had no ideas about what it might be but I was desperate to find out. So it was a matter of patience.
I settled down to out-stare the hole.
I was rewarded by some movement. I got the camera at the ready and out popped a head. A quick photograph, and I was still none the wiser.
A bit of movement and he was gone back down his hole, only re-appearing if I remained still and quiet.
This thing with the big bulbous head was not a beetle. After some head scratching and some research on the Internet, I believe it is a field cricket. It was the first time I had seen one.
Strangely the same night he (or a friend) came to sing in the front garden so I nipped out to take another photo.
And I had thought it was cicadas that had been serenading us all this time! Now I know who sings to us in the summer.
Maybe next time I’ll find a solitary bee’s nest.
a french garden 
That is a good bit of research. We have some holes in the garden but I am slightly wary as to what might come out so I have not been as diligent as you. We have badgers. What amazing powers they have in those front legs. We also have rabbits, foxes and much more in the area. Our worst pests are glis glis (edible dormice) and even though they are not a native species they seem to be protected. However, they get in roofs rather than holes in the ground I haven’t heard any for a couple of years so I hope they have gone for good.
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I did not realise the edible dormice were pests. I’ve always been seduced by their big innocent eyes that I have seen in photographs.
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The glis glis look absolutely gorgeous. As you say, their eyes are lovely. Their ears are cute, too. They are nocturnal (and possibly acrobatic or over romantic) so when you and your visitors are trying to get to sleep, the evidence of their activity over head sounds unbelievably loud. They have also been known to chew through electric cables in the loft and drown in the water tank. I think it was Lord Rothschild who let them escape round Tring, Hertfordshire and at one time they were confined to quite a small area close to Tring. However, they seem to be spreading. They adore bits of apple. Because they were protected and we weren’t supposed to trap them, kill them, let them loose I have heard of numerous pyjama clad husbands whose wives have sent them out into the dark night with instructions to leave the things somewhere they can’t find their way back so I feel sure that was why they have spread.
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I got to admit I like my wild life in the wild and not in my roof.
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I don’t think I’d find it possible to consider a dormouse as a pest, but perhaps that’s because I’ve never had any in my roof. Love the hole in the ground story. Great perseverance.
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And, by the way, have you seen this? http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/16/tweeting-bees
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Thank you so much for this link. It is absolutely fascinating. It is a great example of different branches of science pooling their resources. Bringing up to date technology into studies like this is the only way to monitor the complexities encountered in the natural world.
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Just so (smile)
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Gorgeous pics! I spotted a field cricket’s burrow in our lawn a few weeks ago and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen either the burrow or the cricket before too! It makes you wonder what other amazing wildlife we have in our gardens doesn’t it?
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It never ceases to amaze me what you can see if you look in the country. Every time we take a walk we see something different.
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I have holes in the grass too……. where the voles live…… the ones that ate the bark off my apple trees at the beginning of the year
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Lovely cricket, what a great friend to have in the garden. I did think the (very interesting to me too) hole looked too big for a solitary bee, they tend to use tiny little holes not even a centimetre wide.
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Hmmmm. . . really like you approach to this hole. At this time of year I frequently find several similar holes – I always assumed they were bees and/or a skunk trying to dig something out. Never thought about crickets and never had the initiative to sit and wait. Nice post!
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Glad you liked the post. Maybe you could take a mug of coffee over to one of your holes and see what pops out? If it looks used and has a little, sort of tiny gravel path in front, it could be an insect. There are holes in our limestone house wall with this same path where solitary bees go in and out. If it is a bigger hole and belongs to some nocturnal creature you’re in for a long wait and I’ll deny ever having suggested you should watch the hole.
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