Around the Garden Pond

A quick look at some of the wildlife in and around my garden pond:

Fly:


Wasp:


Pond Skater:


Not seen so far this year are any water boatmen.

Tadpole:


Pond Snail:


Stretch Spider:


Bathing Birds:

Robin:


Juvenile Goldfinch and Starling:



Miniature bullrush,  First of this year's male Blue-tailed Damselflies
  

I have spotted some newts but so far they have been too shy to photograph.

Friday at the Flicks - Feeding Time for Starlings and Great Tits

I thought that the brat pack (Adult and Juvenile Starlings) had largely moved on but they were back again yesterday. The two inch mesh round the bird table is just large enough for Starlings to get inside. Even though some of the youngsters can pick up their own food they still expect to be fed by the parent.



I have tried a few times to film the parent Great Tits arriving at the nest box. The female usually flies straight to the entrance but the male normally stops a couple of times which gave me a chance to capture a bit of video. The outside sections of the video are at half speed as things happen so fast.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you. Writing about observing wildlife reminds me that for UK residents there is an RSPB "Make Your Nature Count" week starting tomorrow.

As with the Big Garden Birdwatch the RSPB is requesting that we spend one hour any time in the next week counting the birds which land in our gardens. They also want to know about other wild creatures which visit our gardens, not the numbers of them, just the fact that they visit. Full details can be found HERE on the RSPB site.

Pond Snails (video)

I had spotted a newt in the garden pond and dashed inside to get the TZ7 to take a bit of video. By the time I got back to the pond it had disappeared but in its place was the largest Rams Horn pond snail I have seen. It was a good inch (25mm) in size. Not the best of video clips as it was beginning to get dark and the reflections on the surface of the water were hard to cut out. Next to the Rams Horn Snail were a couple of Great Pond Snails which ended up hitching a lift on the Rams Horn.



The Rams Horn was a rare sighting in my pond. This one must be a fair age by the size of it. All the pond snails are very welcome in the pond as they spend their lives munching away at the algae.

The Waiting Game and a Loud Snuffle

Yesterday was that day most motorists dread - MOT day! It was a question of dropping off the car at 8.30 a.m. for that and a full service and then staying within earshot of the phone, just in case..... I put the phone in the kitchen where I could hear it and spent some time in the garden. Another waiting game was by the pond waiting for anything interesting to appear as I had the camcorder on its tripod at the ready. Not a lot of activity all told but a few episodes made their way on to the DVD.

Three appearances of a Common Newt
A Giant Pond Snail
A Dunnock watching from a small tree just feet away from me
Some miniature bullrushes waving in the breeze
A bee visiting an Iris growing as a pond marginal.



A better view of the Iris which has opened so rapidly as it was just a bud two days before. This is the same Iris but different cameras record different shades of colour!



It was impossible to film a Waterboatman as they were darting about everywhere so I had to make do with a sill photo. You can clearly see the elongated legs it uses to scull across the water as it lives its life floating on its back.



For those who have been following the progress of the juvenile Blackbird - it continues to spend many hours in and around my garden. It has become my one ally in trying to keep the noisy Starlings at bay. This is especially so with the ground feeder. I have often seen this young bird chase adult Starlings away.



At long last I managed to get a sound recording of Henry doing his snuffling act. Last night both Hedgehogs appeared at the same time on the paved area. Honey spent a lot of her time moving backwards as Henry grabbed most of the mealworms and crushed peanuts I had scattered.

Later on when Bobby went out for his last tour of the gardens he had his usual careful listen round and then went over to the side fence near the conservatory. He had heard Henry who was the other side of the fence amongst the weeds. In fact both Hedgehogs were there and I could only see Honey but Henry could be heard quite clearly. Luckily I had the Sony mp3 recorder in my shirt pocket so I crouched down, with Bobby looking over my shoulder to see what I was up to, and managed to get the recording. I have added that sound to the bit of compilation video of them both last night.



More photos and video of hedgehogs can also be found on Shirl's Gardenwatch. Some lovely colour footage has just been added along with video of various young birds.

Oh, yes, the car did pass its MOT so that is over for another twelve months. I had thought briefly of trading in my eleven year old Mitsubishi Carisma for a new car but from what I have seen on various consumer programmes and what the garage owner was telling me about some of the new cars he looks after I am better off with my reliable, well built oldie. After all, it is only just broken in as it hasn't done 60,000 miles yet!

In The Garden

Yesterday was absolutely glorious. We both spent hours lazing in the garden, enjoying the warmth from the Sun which was nicely moderated by a cooling breeze coming from the North Sea. My idea was to sit under the parasol with the cameras and see what turned up. It didn't take long for someone to decide that there was really only room for one in the shade from the large parasol:

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

So muggins here had to get out the old one and set it up elsewhere in the garden. This I duly did and chose a spot where I could watch the birds feeding ...



Ooo look I can see right down to your tail


... and any which came to bathe in the waterfall.



I could admire the various shapes which were being made by the few cloud formations. The first one looked to me like an enormous white feather in the sky.



From time to time I just pottered about seeing how the various plants were coming on and checked which of the potted plants needed watering.



I found the shell of a Giant Pond Snail on the lawn and after a quick photo put it back in the pond as it seemed to be alive. How it got where it had was a mystery.



I had bought a ground feeder and it was quite a while before any bird gathered enough courage to see what that was. In the end it was a Blackbird who made the first investigation.



There were not many different birds bathing which was disappointing as I had set the camcorder on a tripod next to me. I got a few bits of video but will try to add some more before I upload any.

As the afternoon wore on the breeze got steadily stronger and colder so I called it a day, bought some chunks of Halibut from the visiting Fresh Grimsby Fish van and ended a glorious day with a lovely meal which we both enjoyed.

Mixed Bag and a Puzzle

Just had to take this rather uninspiring photo of the Sun first thing this morning as it was the first I had seen of it for over two days.



Once the Sun had burned off the low cloud which had blocked it out since Wednesday then things began to look a lot brighter like the patterns on the head of this Great Pond Snail.



Even last years left over seed heads on the Buddleia made an interesting composition.


The Magnolia bud I had photographed a few days ago is now fully open.



On our afternoon perambulations I spotted a Crow flying around with what looked like a beak full of sheeps wool. Finally it settled near another Crow. I assume this was intended as nesting material but there was no sign of a nest anywhere nearby and eventually they took off and disappeared into the distance.



For a while now I have been trying to get a half decent photo of these ducks. Haven't the foggiest what breed they are. They are bred locally and live on a large pond on the edge of the property. Their dark colouring has been difficult to capture. At first I thought they were all black but sunlight shows subtle blue and purple with some dark green on the side of the head.



In another part of the village is this magnificent 'tree house'. Well not really a tree house but it would make a lovely hide to spot the birds visiting the field which backs right up to it.



On a limb of one of the Ash Trees we pass I saw what to the naked eye looks just like a black lump stuck on the side of the branch. I couldn't see any detail until I tweaked the photo a bit. I assume it is a fungus of some sort but have no knowledge in that direction at all.



Now the puzzle:
As usual Squirrel Nutkins was grabbing as much as s/he could from the peanut feeder. When it spotted me it leapt on the fence top and started to race down the garden as usual. This time it stopped half way, came back, went down on the ground and then in a flower container. There it picked up one of the pebbles and made off with it. Now why would it take a pebble?
a) to smash open acorns
b) to sharpen its teeth
c) to throw at Bobby when he gets too close
:>)
or some other sensible reason?

I tried Google and Yahoo searches and the only mention I could find of Squirrels taking pebbles was on SQUIRRELWEB.



New one for me: 6.30 pm and on the lawn was a male Yellowhammer - such brilliant colours. Never seen one in the flesh before but it was unmistakable. As usual the camera had been put away and the bird didn't stay for long. Here's hoping it will visit again.

A Newt at Last

The newts in my pond have been leading me a merry dance. Every time I have spotted one the camera has been indoors and by the time I fetched it the newt had disappeared. Until today. The first time it did its usual trick but the second time it actually stayed still for a short while and gave me a few chances to photograph it.

Common (Smooth) Newt - Lissotriton vulgaris




The original shots are very grey so I used the Auto Adjust Colours facility in IrfanView to enhance them. I have used IrfanView for many years as it is so easy to use for quick cropping and colour adjustment. Another big advantage is that it is free.

This newt is larger than one I saw a few days ago so it looks as though the garden population is thriving. Reading the information on The Garden Safari it would appear that they can live for up to 19 years so this may be one of the older ones. I would estimate it to be getting on for 3.5 in (9cm) long.

It might be nearly my last chance to spot them this year as they spend the Spring in water and are active during the day. The rest of the year they become night active land dwellers.

Spent part of the day levelling sections of the pond surround. It is entirely above ground level and was originally for testing model boats which is why it is only about 10 inches deep. This does not seem to bother the aquatic life which continues to thrive. It is surrounded by potted plants of various types and there are many marginal water plants in the pond itself plus some shallow water pond lilies. Overall size is about 18 x 12 feet.

The Pond - junk in the background as I was heaving things about to get at the sections which needed altering.


Another Great Pond Snail: