A Damsel in the Garden

First male Common Blue Damselfly I've seen around the garden pond this year:







To me they always look as though they have some blue insulation tape wrapped round their tail end.

First Damsel of the Season

The first of the Blue Tailed Damselflies to emerge from the garden pond:

Friday at the Flicks - Damselflies - Cartoon Style Pheasant

Several Damselflies have emerged from the garden pond. This mating pair of Blue-tailed Damselflies spent the best part of an hour mating which, fortunately, gave plenty of time to get a bit of video. Male at the top, female below:



Another old video clip given the cartoon style treatment in Celling Video. This time a Pheasant which used to make daily visits for some peanuts:




Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Return of the Blues

Yesterday spotted the first damsel flies of the season around the garden pond. I usually see quite a few blue tailed and the odd common blue. This time there were three Common Blue Damsels chasing each other about:

  

I also saw a lone tadpole swimming about. It was quite small so not very old. The puzzle is, what type was it? It is ages since the frog spawn developed so we are left with toad or newt. I haven't seen any toad spawn. The newts lay single eggs under the leaves of aquatic plants so I wouldn't notice those.

Seeing Me, Seeing You

Quite a few male Blue-tailed Damselflies around the garden pond recently:



Unfortunately I couldn't see any females.
Just look at the size of those eyes.

Basking in the Sunshine

First - Tricia Ryder's comment yesterday got me thinking about the mystery bird table visitor. She thought it looked like a Dunnock. Well it certainly isn't a mature one. I have several as daily visitors but a Google search for some Dunnock Juvenile photos showed several which almost matched my visitor - pale belly with bold black streaks. In fact when I search I find I had photographed a juvenile Dunnock a couple of years ago.  So it looks as though that is favourite. Whatever it is it has visited several times every day so far. Also visiting the bird table have been two juvenile Robins.

Today has been a scorcher. Cool with heavy rain and hail yesterday morning.
Many creatures have taken advantage of blue skies and temperatures up to 25C:

The Damsel flies have started emerging from my garden pond.
Here a male Blue Tailed Damselfly sunning itself on a rose bush:



and a female on a pond plant:



A Red Admiral taking a short rest:



A Dunnock looking quite bedraggled but actually having a quick sunning session:



On the cricket field a Crow which didn't really want to move out of the way, until we got too close for comfort.:



I say sunning themselves but maybe the birds were actually trying to cool down.

Wings for Wednesday

Two days of wall to wall sunshine has brought out the Blue-tailed Damselflies at the garden pond. I saw several males and females and there has been plenty of activity. I was beginning to think they had all perished in one of the recent heavy rainfalls but these must have been sheltering somewhere or were late emerging from the pond.




I was amused watching a juvenile Great Tit. It was searching the top of the post which holds up my clothes line. There are always spiders webs there so I guess it was on a spider hunt.

I think I saw one down there:


No. Maybe it was this side:


Down there then?


All right. Who said I should have gone to Specsavers?


In the end it gave up and went back to the seed feeder.

Wings on Wednesday - Jackdaw, Starling, Blue-tailed Damselfly

It was nice to have a Jackdaw come close enough to get a decent head crop. They usually disappear as soon as I raise the camera.



Lots of Starlings visiting at the moment. The small birds usually wait patiently until there is a free space on the feeders but the Starlings just barge in and push all the other birds out of the way. This one was soaking up the Sunshine and looking very haughty.



Joining the Common Blue Damselflies was this, the first of the Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Blue Damsels

No, not bathing beauties in a frozen lake. The first two Common Blue Damselflies to appear at the garden pond. Glorious sunshine is bringing them out and making it easier to take a few decent photos.

 

 


All the time Penny was thinking, "Are we going walkies or are you going to mess around with that camera all day?"

First Damsel

Earlier today I spotted the first damselfly to emerge from the garden pond. I assume it will be a blue tail once it gets its colour as they have been breeding there for several years. This one appeared to be fairly new and kept shuffling round the plant stem, usually just as I had it in focus.



This morning the final two baby Great Tits left the nestbox so that makes a total of five from the seven eggs which were laid. I haven't seen any babies or the adults today but I didn't last year for a few days after the last one fledged.

Wings for Wednesday

Lots of winged insects about the garden and house at the moment.

A small Cranefly on the kitchen window.



One sunny day there were three Common Darter Dragonflies around the garden pond. All were males. One stayed for several hours and chased away any others which dared to make an appearance.





There continue to be Blue-tailed Damsel Flies from time to time which are still breeding.



I have a wasp nest under my front hedge so I don't hang about there. Occasionally one strays indoors where my rule is 'The only good wasp is a dead one'.




Also found dead in the kitchen was this which was about 6mm long.
Probably an ichneumon wasp though no idea which.



Back outdoors found several Greenbottles



and this black bee.



Not sure what type it is - a miner bee maybe.

Finally there were plenty of hoverflies doing their best to thwart me snapping one in flight.

Wings for Wednesday

Last Monday Bobby visited the Vet for his six monthly check up. Mike, the vet, said that his vision is now probably limited to seeing light and dark with very little detail as his cataracts have grown thicker. He continues to have a heart murmur but that doesn't stop him from thinking he is 13 months old as against his 13 years.

On our journey there I spotted a tree carving I hadn't seen before so I made a quick stop on the way back. Why are these things near blind bends in the road? A few shots through the windscreen. The trunk has four carvings:

  

At the bottom are a badger and a bird which may be a Curlew. Near the top is a squirrel and pride of place goes to an owl:



 There have been quite a few Blue-tailed Damselflies around my pond. Mainly males but this female allowed me to thrust the TZ7 within a few inches of her face.



Yesterday when I checked my pond for any visitors I spotted what at first I thought was a Harlequin Ladybird. Much relief when I checked on the net and found out it was my first sighting of a 14 Spot Ladybird. It was very small, about 4mm, too small to be a Harlequin.



Most of this year's fledglings have grown up but it is still possible to see the occasional young Goldfinch.



Finally - weekends usually see the occasional private aeroplane on its way between various local small airstrips.



This Thruster Sprint T600N was spotted last weekend as it flew over the village. No, I'm not clued up on the myriad makes of planes. As long as you can get the ID (G-CDGI in this case) a quick Google usually finds all the information. It seems to have quite an unusual shape and engine layout. A good view can be seen on airport-data.com.

A Wednesday of Wings

It's that time of year when the air is busy with insects. Some times too many for comfort. Sunday was a good day for lazing in the garden but that idea didn't last very long as everything was soon covered by an invasion of greenfly and those tiny thunder flies. At least one spider must have been happy when its web filled up with breakfast, lunch and dinner for days ahead.



There is a bush growing just over the fence though most of it seems to be my side. Over the past week it has been a constant attraction for scores of bumble bees.



It is also the start of the Crane Fly season here. They often stay in the same place on a window for hours on end. (That is not a sting but a back leg in line with its body)



Finally it is also the damselfly season on my garden pond. There have been several males and a few female Bluetailed Damselflies.

On a Lily Pad

There were quite a few of the pond skaters resting on the lily pads in the pond. Here one is resting near a female damselfly both making the most of the sunshine after the previous nights tropical downpour.



Although the damselfly occasionally flew to different leaves at one stage it stayed still and allowed me to get the TZ7 within three inches of it for a close up shot.



I wondered how the damselflies had managed to find enough shelter as, at one stage, the rain was hitting the roof of the shed and greenhouse so hard it was bouncing up about eighteen inches and looked like steam rising. We both had our waterproofs on for early morning walkies but at the moment it is not too bad

Friday at the Flicks (Wings over the Garden Pond)

First the Blue-tailed Damselflies. One thing I learned here - don't have the Sun behind you when filming as they reflect so much light back. First a male with its lunch then several views of a female egg laying.



 Next the Common Darter Dragonfly which seems to visit for a short while each day. Here it is resting on a planter. Twice it seems to be about to take off and changes its mind. Fascinating the way its body is pulsating all the time. As always it is constantly on the lookout for danger and food.



Finally the Empid Fly hoovering the lily pad. It seems to use its front legs to feel for and sweep anything edible under that flexible proboscis.



 Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around your patch.

Wings Over the Garden Pond

I don't know why but I am surprised every time I see a bee visit the flowers on the water lilies. So far I haven't managed a good photo of one but there are also plenty of hover flies visiting:



A daily visitor at the moment is a Common Darter Dragonfly, at least I assume it is the same one which comes looking for a meal.



Yesterday I thought I was going to manage a photo and possibly some video of the Blue-tailed Damselflies mating. There were a couple which spent a good quarter of an hour gradually getting closer to each other, finally ending up on the same perch. (not the best of photos, sorry)



When they got round to arching their bodies and looked as though the event was about to happen up turns a second female which tried to join in on the act. Unfortunately that was the end of that - for a while anyway.



All three flew off in different directions and as I had visitors arrive I didn't see the damselflies again.