Ladybirds Ladybirds....

This Summer I was surprised that we did not see more ladybirds then in mid October as we cut and raked the wildflower strip we saw a few more. Over the last two weeks we have spent quite a lot of time working in the woodland taking out tree stakes and tubes where they are no longer needed. The good stakes can then be reused in the hedge laying. To our surprise there were clusters if ladybirds on nearly every tree we came to. There were hundreds of them some single ones tucked on the underside of branches but most of them were in tightly packed groups. Lots of them were down the tree tubes but some were quite high up out in the open on branches or huddled in lichen.