wildlife

[admin]

A few photos from today.

Marsh Harrier male
Crossbills, male, female and juvenile.

mh1 by Frederick Carrie, on Flickr

mh2 by Frederick Carrie, on Flickr

xb4 by Frederick Carrie, on Flickr

xb1 by Frederick Carrie, on Flickr

xb2 by Frederick Carrie, on Flickr

xb3 by Frederick Carrie, on Flickr

[Carolyn]

Super photos. Love the crossbills! That can't be a juvenile from this spring already, surely?

[admin]

Nests have been found in January and February. They are very early nesters.

[Carolyn]

I suppose being seed eaters rather than insect eaters, they can breed early. A bit chilly for the babies though in Jan/Feb!

[shelagh]

On one of the warm days last weekend managed to snap this visitor to the garden without frightening it off.

[brianw]

A Deer little thing decided a solitary flower stem of Eremurus robustus would look lonely, and grazed it off last night, on the way to my small pond near the house. Guess there is little water around at present with this drought. It left the other 2 plant groups of Eremurus with another 14 flower stems just yards away; so far. Scattered some human hair around in hope of deterrent.
I have/had a collection of surplus old pots of various old bulbs and other plants and some rocks, awaiting sorting round the back of the house, mostly covered by coarse weeds, grasses etc. Last week one night they were all turned over and scattered around. Guess a badger had quite a feast of slugs and snails.
Something dug a hole ~5” diameter and 6” or so deep recently, very near the hedge. Oddly there was little “spoil heap” so don’t know where the soil went or what did it. A very hard and root filled stony part of the garden too.
Seriously considering isolating part of the garden with fencing; impractical to do the whole thing. Maybe a small pond by the front gate would keep some of the 4 legged night visitors happy.

[ian mcdonald]

Brian, it sounds like your garden is good for wildlife. A good place to have when we are surrounded by destruction.

[Maggi Young]

This pic from Ian the Christie kind of the  Pied Wagtails which  have  just  hatched.....

[Lesley Cox]

A wonderful photo. Not birds at all, just wide open mouths with a bit of fluff attached. How daunting for the parent to face those every time they return with a little something for lunch. They'll be exhausted by the time each day ends.

[brianw]

Great nest construction. My nest-cam is still looking at the empty base of the box. The Bluetits using our feeder leave the garden and cross the road to a neighbour. Very much more bird feeding activity when the rains arrived at last. (~40mm so far) The female pheasant not visible for over a week now; sitting somewhere maybe.
3 Mallards moved in last week for 3 days. A pair plus a friend ;-) Wrecked my tiny pond until I covered it with 2” square plastic mesh. Even then the female squeezed in and I had to get her out again. What a lot of noise; but as soon as she was a few feet away back to normal. Put out a plastic potting tray with ~2” of water in it and she sat in it for several hours with the male sitting alongside. They just sat on the lawn at night usually.
Noticed a Magpie attacking something from the window. Rush outside to rescue a slow worm. It had shed its tail but not fooled the Magpie. Put it in the hedge to recover. Used to have many slow worms just a few years back but seem rarer now even though we have 2 thick hedges.
Deer still visiting by the various trimmed plants around and slots in soft soil.

[Derek Davidson]

Like to post this just back from Gardening Scotland on Friday placed my new acquisition's in the garden unplanted had a quick brew came outside and spotted the hummingbird Hawk Moth.

[Maggi Young]

I've yet to see a hummingbird hawk moth here - I'll be beyond excited if one ever arrives!

[Gabriela]

Like to post this just back from Gardening Scotland on Friday placed my new acquisition's in the garden unplanted had a quick brew came outside and spotted the hummingbird Hawk Moth.

One that I look forward to see every year!!!

Maggi - they lay eggs on Galium sp. so planting some in the corner of the garden may increase the chances to have it around. Also, they like to feed on plants with long and narrow calyces; here they are very happy for Phlox and Vernonia, but of course there are many other such species.

[Lesley Cox]

YES!!!
I thought mine was but never having seen such a thing in NZ, wasn't absolutely sure.

I spent several minutes chasing one around a row of large orange and yellow lantanas in wooden tubs, at Melk Abbey in Austria, last September. I did post photos and a small video on Facebook at the time but have had trouble locating the transferred phone photos to my laptop then accessing them to post here. I know they're here because I've seen them but then they vanished from my sight. In the meantime today I've had another look at my phone photos and yes, it was a hummingbird hawkmoth a wonderful creature but never still even for a second

[ian mcdonald]

A spider in the garden with egg sack, Pisaura mirabilis? img. 1020647.