A continuation of last blog with a start regarding Bumble Bees.
16th.
Up on the South facing eaves of our house we have a Buff Tailed Bumble Bee nest. It is so interesting to watch , they have sentries buzzing around all the time while others are bringing pollen and building material in. The first shot shows three about to enter the crack where they are nesting. The second shot (with the aid of my cameras flash shows in more detail the construction that is going on inside the cavity. As you go around the edge of that side of the house all you can here is their buzzing.
The whole garden is full of the Buff Tailed they initially started feeding on the dark red Geraniums that you can see in the first shot, but now the Cotoneaster is out (second shot) that is full of them . In fact if someone other than us two walked past the hedge it could be quiet frightening as it (like me seeing them) “buzzing”.
I had another surprise while photographing the Bees, I could see and hear the parents of our Blue Tit nest getting very vocal and darting about not going in the nest box on the summerhouse. thinking a Stoat had got inside I watched to see why. It was in fact the babies fledging, typically I had the wrong lens on to get great shots of the event but below is what (out of focus) shots I did get.
Parent feeding the baby outside the box to entice it out.
The moment the babe launched itself out into the unknown world, it didn’t fly much and went straight down onto the ground, but we have witnessed at least one baby (not sure how many were in the box) being fed in a bush later on. Babes fledging from one of my nest boxes I have never witnessed, let alone photographed before, so even though they are not shots to be overly proud of, it is a record of the event.
18th.
More baby birds from our garden, this time it is the House Sparrows. First shot is one of the fledglings, second is the mother and her two babes and once the mother had determined that I was no threat the other side of the double glazing, in the last shot she fed the young ones.
Then on the nut feeder appeared this baby Great Spotted Woodpecker, you can tell it is a youngster because the red patch on its head is in the front where as you can see in the second shot (depending on it’s sex) as adults the male has the red patch on the rear of the head and the female has no red. The babe had a go at getting food by itself but as the last shot shows, dad supplemented with a food pass.
19th.
I said this would be a busy month, all these photos taken in a four day period, but when I get a chance to get the Pine Martin on the ground (even if it is a snatched shot missing out it’s tail) I have to take it and show you. Normally it jumps down from the peanut feeder box and is away, but on this occasion it smelt the peanut butter jar that a Jackdaw had very cleverly taken from it’s stand and threw it on the floor for easier access & the Martin could smell it. I have never seen it feed from the jar and on this occasion it just sniffed it in passing and never attempted to eat from it. My son keeps telling me to put an chicken egg out for it, I have tried but it never took it and I would prefer it not to get used to eating any bird eggs in my garden.
20th.
Some more bird photos taken from the comfort of indoors , glad I cleaned those windows this week.
Two babes from a different nest eagerly begging for food from Mum , not a brilliant shot as the camera seemed more interested on focusing on the Lupins.
Took a close up of one of our very tame male blackbirds because I think those are ticks below his eye.
A frequent visitor to the garden this week are a pair of Jays, quiet bold compared to normally being very cautious and fly off at the slightest movement, so we think they have young close by.
29th.
Just to finish the month off I walked up into Glen Fender and managed to go all of one hundred yards from the road and captured these next TWELVE shots of the wild flowers growing in what was a very small area of the land, Great time of the year to see such beauty.
Surprisingly the shot below and above are the same plant as there are a large variety of colours, it is the Heath Spotted Orchid.
I thought this one was another colour in the Heath Spotted range, but apparently this is a hybrid, crossing the Heath with a Northern Marsh Orchid.
The shot above and below are to just show you the abundance of Orchids in amongst the Cotton Grass and meadow Buttercups.
As the meadows in the glen are fairly wet so plenty of Cotton Grass as can be seen above, plus, below, a close up.
An Alpine Bistort which I thought was an attractive plant.
Clover is very common with most of you we have red complete with Beetle) and below white.
A Field Buttercup with Cuckoo Spit on it.
A Water Avens a stunning little plant.
As I stated at the beginning it was going to be a busy month and for you the reading and photographs is a bit longer than normal. Hope you enjoy.