Yes nut I have often wondered about the mass produced bird food that we buy - are we doing the birds a disfavour by discouraging them from foraging for their food - after all 40 years ago the birds were seen in far larger quantities and they managed without commercial food .... food for thought there - I assume the RSPB have done some research into this?
Love frogs Philippa, so am quite envious of you and your little mate, can't wait to get our new pond up and running as perhaps we will have visitors before it is filled frithsoken that would be nice. Love the pictures Zenjeff, what is the mauve flower on the last picture?
Whilst watering the plants this evening I came across my old nemesis, it was hiding under the Heather in one of the pots, there are so many in my garden this year
Did you snip him with your scissors Sheps..did ya?
Lovely pix - and cute froggy story philippa
My young robin paid a visit today - haven't seen him for a while. He has a nice pale orangey tummy now. He gave me a little tweety call when he arrived at the feeder
The bees are still enjoying the fading alliums
Bottoms up!
Last edited: 13 August 2016 19:24:09
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks Philippa and Fairy, in an act of mercy ( very strange for me when it comes to Slugs ) I dropped him/her in the garden bin, maybe I should have just snipped it because it gets very hot in that bin as the grass clippings and old flower heads start to break down, so maybe it wasn't an act of mercy after all.
Good to hear that baby Robin is still around, Fairy
Hi there everyone, Lovely photo of your small tortoiseshell butterfly. Great photos again. A lovely day here. My husband found a small mouse in his rucksack and hoped he had not eaten any of the contents in his rucksack fortunately he hadn't. We went out and about looking at stone circles. May I say I don't put out bird feeders just let the birds eat the apples from my crab apple tree I agree about bird feeders. My calendula has now another bud on it.
It's almost been a year since we started our garden over from scratch to make it more wildlife friendly, but things didn't start taking more of a shape until Spring this year. We went from having rare visits of birds, and no small birds that we witnessed, to having several visitors to our newly built pond. We've not finished it yet but here are some of my favourite photos so far (I'm afraid there's ended up being quite a few!)
Spot the newt - the photo will probably need to be zoomed a fair bit!
Smooth newt:
Pond area in the Spring:
Male large red damselfly:
Male blackbird enjoying the pebble beach:
We had many fledgling sparrows using our new pond area as a playground:
Fledgling starlings exploring the pond:
Bumblebee on Verbena bonariensis:
Honey bee on Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife):
Blue-tailed damselfly:
Honey bee on Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower):
Red admiral butterfly on Lonicera periclymenum 'Heaven Scent' (English wild honeysuckle):
Spot the honey bee on Lythrum salicaria 'Robert' (Loosestrife) - will need to zoom in again!
Pond area in the Summer:
Hone bee drinking from the pebble beach:
Wasp drinking from the pond:
Newtlets are still around:
The most popular plants for the honey bees at the moment seem to be the loosestrifes. We have two in our pond - the purple loosestrife and the Robert - and the Robert seems to be the favourite as it is buzzing all day with them. The bumblebees seem to prefer the Echinacea 'Summer Cocktail (PBR)’ (Coneflower) but I'm yet to get a photo of them on there.
I'm hoping that next year the flowerbeds really start to take off and we'll have even more visitors.
The pictures are lovely Lucid, and seeing all your amazing wildlife too. As we are just beginning to plan a new, wildlife pond in our garden (see pond topic), I am pleased to see as many pictures, plans, pitfalls, ideas as possible from all those who have ponds in their gardens.
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Today's
Yes nut I have often wondered about the mass produced bird food that we buy - are we doing the birds a disfavour by discouraging them from foraging for their food - after all 40 years ago the birds were seen in far larger quantities and they managed without commercial food .... food for thought there - I assume the RSPB have done some research into this?
Love frogs Philippa, so am quite envious of you and your little mate, can't wait to get our new pond up and running as perhaps we will have visitors before it is filled frithsoken that would be nice. Love the pictures Zenjeff, what is the mauve flower on the last picture?
GD2
it is Didiscus Caerulea (blue lace flower ) annual grown from seed bees and hoverflys love it lots of buds and flowers on them
Whilst watering the plants this evening I came across my old nemesis, it was hiding under the Heather in one of the pots, there are so many in my garden this year
Sheps...
Did you snip him with your scissors Sheps..did ya?
Lovely pix - and cute froggy story philippa
My young robin paid a visit today - haven't seen him for a while. He has a nice pale orangey tummy now. He gave me a little tweety call when he arrived at the feeder
The bees are still enjoying the fading alliums
Bottoms up!
Last edited: 13 August 2016 19:24:09
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks Philippa and Fairy, in an act of mercy ( very strange for me when it comes to Slugs ) I dropped him/her in the garden bin, maybe I should have just snipped it because it gets very hot in that bin as the grass clippings and old flower heads start to break down, so maybe it wasn't an act of mercy after all.
Good to hear that baby Robin is still around, Fairy
Sheps...
Last edited: 13 August 2016 19:44:16
Hi there everyone, Lovely photo of your small tortoiseshell butterfly. Great photos again. A lovely day here. My husband found a small mouse in his rucksack and hoped he had not eaten any of the contents in his rucksack fortunately he hadn't. We went out and about looking at stone circles. May I say I don't put out bird feeders just let the birds eat the apples from my crab apple tree I agree about bird feeders. My calendula has now another bud on it.
It's almost been a year since we started our garden over from scratch to make it more wildlife friendly, but things didn't start taking more of a shape until Spring this year. We went from having rare visits of birds, and no small birds that we witnessed, to having several visitors to our newly built pond. We've not finished it yet but here are some of my favourite photos so far (I'm afraid there's ended up being quite a few!)
Spot the newt - the photo will probably need to be zoomed a fair bit!
Smooth newt:
Pond area in the Spring:
Male large red damselfly:
Male blackbird enjoying the pebble beach:
We had many fledgling sparrows using our new pond area as a playground:
Fledgling starlings exploring the pond:
Bumblebee on Verbena bonariensis:
Honey bee on Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife):
Blue-tailed damselfly:
Honey bee on Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower):
Gatekeeper butterfly:
Common darter dragonfly:
Last edited: 15 August 2016 11:58:23
Red admiral butterfly on Lonicera periclymenum 'Heaven Scent' (English wild honeysuckle):
Spot the honey bee on Lythrum salicaria 'Robert' (Loosestrife) - will need to zoom in again!
Pond area in the Summer:
Hone bee drinking from the pebble beach:
Wasp drinking from the pond:
Newtlets are still around:
The most popular plants for the honey bees at the moment seem to be the loosestrifes. We have two in our pond - the purple loosestrife and the Robert - and the Robert seems to be the favourite as it is buzzing all day with them. The bumblebees seem to prefer the Echinacea 'Summer Cocktail (PBR)’ (Coneflower) but I'm yet to get a photo of them on there.
I'm hoping that next year the flowerbeds really start to take off and we'll have even more visitors.
Lucid
The pictures are lovely Lucid, and seeing all your amazing wildlife too. As we are just beginning to plan a new, wildlife pond in our garden (see pond topic), I am pleased to see as many pictures, plans, pitfalls, ideas as possible from all those who have ponds in their gardens.