wildlife

[ian mcdonald]

I was out early this morning before it got too hot. As promised I enclose a photo. of the Lizard orchid img. 1020694. Also seen were purple loosestrife img. 1020701. Blackstonia perfoliata img. 1020702. White campion, a declining flower in this area img.1020703. also Erigeron acer img. 1020708.

[Paul Cumbleton]

This lovely dragonfly, a Broad-Bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa), has been frequenting our garden pond recently. I was able to watch it mate with a female who subsequently laid eggs in the pond.

Paul

[ArnoldT]

Here's two shots of an infant praying mantis getting a start on a career of pest control.

[ian mcdonald]

Just back from a visit to an old sand quarry to look at a rare sedge. Among the other plants seen were vipers bugloss img. 1020709. Musk thistle img. 1020710 and tree lupin img. 1020710.

[scotalar]

I'm always wondering how our nature is great and how we can kill this beauty

[Roma]

Last week I spotted this bullfinch eating seeds of Oxalis enneaphylla

[Lesley Cox]

How dare he? I wonder will the seeds go right through and maybe germinate somewhere else or will they be chewed up - well, whatever small birds do to their food - and be fully digested.

[François Lambert]

'singing' every night in the garden for a coupe of weeks now.  And we have a couple living here, so with a bit of luck they will have chicks.

Indeed, they raised 2 chicks.  Unfortunately, strong winds a couple of weeks ago has blown one of the 2 chiks out of the three where they were raised.  But the other one was spotted in the garden one morning at the age they start to move from one tree to the next, a one week period where they develop better flying skills and loose their last down, but still get fed by the parents.  They whistle constantly from 6 PM to 5 AM to tell their location to the parents.  So, that morning, when going to the greenhouse I spotted this on an old pole right at the backdoor 

[Maggi Young]

Wow!  How  great to have that in the garden.

[François Lambert]

Wow!  How  great to have that in the garden.

That's one of those moments when I feel 'rich'.  Now that he is starting his life on his own, he left the garden and we find it very 'silent' in the garden.  We were so used to hear him whistling all night long.  In previous years we have also had chuch owls nesting under the roof of the barn.  And we are very happy to see there are again a few swallows flying around.  We had a nice population of more than 50 three year ago, but the last two years we had none flying around.  My guess is that they got caught on their migration to be roasted & eaten.  Often the swallows make their nests in te barn.  A bit messy because swallows don't clean up the poo of the chicks, but a big piece of cardboard just under the nest is the right solution.  Same for the chirch owls in fact, they also let everything drop down.

[Lesley Cox]

As Maggi says, wonderful to have an owl in the garden. I have a North Island friend who had a family of our native moreporks in his garden. The nest was right at the top of a very tall bamboo, among stems which were 15cms thick. They were very hard to photograph though, about 10 metres off the ground. The morepork is so named because of his call which literally sounds like "more pork."

I really like your signature under your post Francois. The very essence of being "aholic" (alcoholic, bulb or seedaholic, is that there is NO moderation.

[TC]

I took this shot near the Ken Dee marshes in Galloway some weeks ago.  A field was being cut for silage and a group of Red Kites were swooping down collecting the insects being disturbed.
This bird was trailing a length of grass around with it.  Why, I don't know.

[Lesley Cox]

A magnificent shot Tom. It would take a lot of insects to feed so large a bird.

[David Lyttle]

This particular caterpillar which I found by chance in my garden yesterday gained recognition as iNaturalist's Observation of the Day http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/6900594 Its name is Declana egregia and is also known as the South Island zebra or SI lichen moth. The host plant for the caterpillars are various Pseudopanax species. I don't have a photo of the moth which is notable for its striking black and white pattern (see http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/resources/identification/animals/large-moths/image-gallery/geometridae/declana-egregia) The caterpillar is truly an extraordinary creature in its camouflage and behaviour and is one amongst the many jewels of our local biodiversity here on the Otago Peninsula. The moth also features on the NZ $100 dollar note and I don't see those very often either.

[Steve Garvie]

A Song Thrush brood photographed a few days ago in a nest on the side of our garage. They have since fledged.