Gardens and wildlife

[Vanessa1]

Very impressive! What are you growing in there? Vegetables?

Thank you, cucumbers tomatoes melons lettuce radishes cress and lot's of different flowers. We're retired so we have time to indulge. The melons are a new thing we're trying.

 

[Pastacat]

Here are my recent critter photos!


7 spotted ladybug, but its color is a bit faded

Some sort of wood ant

Mottled ShieldBug nymph

An empty cicada shell

Some sort of wasp? I'm not sure.

22-spotted ladybug. I tweaked the brightness and contrast a bit to make it look more visible.

Garden snail.

 

[Vanessa1]

Fantastic photos, wonderful detail Ness

 

[Socks' Mum]

Lovely pictures, fascinating creatures

 

[Maz]

Amazing That yellow ladybird is very unusual - I wonder if it is a one off/mutation?

 

[Pastacat]

Amazing That yellow ladybird is very unusual - I wonder if it is a one off/mutation?

7-spotted one is very unusual indeed. They are usually red after all, but I have seen other insects with faded colors and unusual patterns in the area.
Here is a firebug that has a blotchy spot(usually both spots are perfectly round)


The 22-spotted one is a different species of ladybug that normally look like that. They actually eat mildew instead of aphids.

 

[Vanessa1]

Bullfinch:

 

[Maz]

The firebug is fascinating . I think bugs are very interesting outdoors, but not keen on having them indoors!

@Vanessa1 that is such a great photo of the bullfinch! Photographing birds is notoriously difficult.

 

[Vanessa1]

The firebug is fascinating . I think bugs are very interesting outdoors, but not keen on having them indoors!

@Vanessa1 that is such a great photo of the bullfinch! Photographing birds is notoriously difficult.

Thank you, my husband took the photo from the lounge window, then zoomed in! The bullfinch was a regular visitor. Haven't seen him for a while Ness

 

[Maz]

Surprisingly we don't get many interesting birds around here, despite being rural. Mainly sparrows and possibly some swifts. I think there is a greater variety of birds visiting urban gardens somehow. There are a lot of wild birds in the area though - pheasants, corncrakes, grouse and even the occasional red kite. But not actually in the garden!

 

[Vanessa1]

We couldn't believe the variety of birds here, we have pheasants occasionally running through the garden and on the back garden we had a green woodpecker.. beautiful bird quite big! On the bird table we have various tits and finches, nut hatch are normally at the base of the trees. We've had alot of woodpeckers have young and we've watched them feeding them in the tree, so beautiful. We have chaffinches and buntings. It's one of the reasons we love it here, it's so full of life. I have a bird feeder that sticks to the kitchen window that's very entertaining when you wash up. Unfortunately we also have preditors.. huge birds of prey that swoop through the garden and even take birds at the kitchen feeder , that's upsetting so I've taken it down for a while. Ness

 

[Vanessa1]

Hubby made the bird table:

 

[Socks' Mum]

Beautiful and safe from hawks

 

[Vanessa1]

Beautiful and safe from hawks

Thank you, hubby loves making things! We hear owls at night so hubby decided to make an owl box.

 

[Maz]

I partlicularly love the bird table - it has a proper roof! It almost looks shingled. And it matches your shed It does sound like a lovely place to live.

 

[Vanessa1]

Hubby made a lovely dovecote

 

[Maz]

That is really lovely

 

[Socks' Mum]

Thank you, hubby loves making things! We hear owls at night so hubby decided to make an owl box.

View attachment 14031

Lovely I can just imagine an owl peeping out the door

 

[Vanessa1]

This is it in the tree

 

[Maz]

Lovely