Woodpecker painting

 Have recently been working on several paintings. 

Here is one of them, a woodpecker sitting in the wisteria.
Oil on linen 40x50 cm

Blue-tits are out!

Last Saturday it was The day for the blue-tits to take off.
It took a whole day, for them to fly out one by one.

I don't know how many have been born. (they can have 5 -12 young)
Such a great sight to see them peek out the hole.
I wonder what they are thinking...when they see there is a whole world out there.
And fly into the unknown.
That's a challenge. There is no option to stay inside the small box.
Freedom always wins.

Squirrel swimming

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

  

 

Brave Squirrel!!!

A squirrel is coming almost every day, to cash some nuts.
I hide them in the flowerpots and sometimes in the water. 
See what happens!
He is not afraid of the water. He is a good swimmer! 

Ant

Ant struggling to find his way.

(Click images to enlarge, to see all the details)
 

Broad-bordered bee hawk-moth

Sitting outside in the sunshine, i noticed a kind of butterfly that I thought have seen before. because they move so quick and never sit still for a while. I told his to stay so that I could grab my camera for a better view.

Which he did.
He moved from one violet to another and I was able to get some nice pics.
I looked it up. I thought it was a hummingbird-butterfly, as we name it here. but they gave me a different name, which appeared later to be the same one.
Got some lovely close ups...while he is drinking violet-nectar.

Broad-bordered bee hawk-moth, Glasvleugelpijlstaart, Kolibrievlinder, Hemaris fuciformis.

He seems to be a night moth, but he's flying during the day.
Such a beauty!

Blue-tit

 

The blue-tits have young.
For at least a week, the parents fly to and fro tho the nest-box. 
I am always curious what's up for dinner. In the beginning its very small caterpillars.
Then later the caterpillars are bigger, matching to the size of the beaks and stomacs of the little ones.
They feed mostly caterpillars of different sizes.

Green beetle and a red beetle

 I was sitting outside, enjoying the sunshine and my lunch, when something tickled on my leg.
I brushed it off and while I looked what it was, I noticed that it was a very bright green tiny beetle.
I tried to get him on a small stick, which he allowed. Put him on a table, to get my camera.
Interesting such a bright green shiny green creature.
He has amazing big black eyes.(click photo to see it better)
I wanted to know it's name of course. So I looked it up.
It's a (Green weevil, Groene struiksnuitkever, Polydrusus formasus)
I love the photo that he spreads his wings.

And shortly after I had spotted this green beetle, My eye caught another one.
A bright red beetle.
He posed from both sides...so that was nice. 

It's a  (Cardinal Beetle,Zwartkopvuurkever, Pyrochroa coccinea, 

Squirrel

 A few days ago I saw squirrel again, jumping around, drinking some water and eating some nuts.
Like always...sniffing around and searching for snacks and yummy.

I was so happy to see him again.

Then a few days later I saw him again. He drank some water, and came very close to where I was sitting. He dug out a hidden nut out of a flowerpot. 
I could hear the scraping and the scratching of his sharp teeth, to open the nut and then he started eating.
It was amazing that he did not notice me, because I was sitting less then a meter away from him. Maybe 70 cm.
Of course I did not dare to move. Very quiet I observed his actions so close. What I did notice that he was so slow. not like I know squirrels behave. Maybe he is sick...even not noticing me...?
But after a slow drink he ran away, like normal.

I thought maybe he is just slow and nothing wrong...

Next day he was there again...now soooo extremely slow. He tried to drink some water.  
I knew and could see, he was not right. 
He was very ill.
I observed his extremely slow movements. For a while he sat dozing on a pot with thyme. 
I could tell this is not good. Later he went away, after he dozed a while on the warm stones.
Being in a wheelchair now, because a fall last year, I could not help him.
I felt so sad that I could not help him, then just feeling so sorry for the little creature.

  

Dandelions

 I love dandelions, especially when they are making seeds.
The white balls shining like light bulbs in the grass.

A lot of people think they are pests. maybe because of too many.
Anyway, When you look closely, (click the images to enlarge) you see such beauty in detail!
Which makes me wonder, that no artificial intelligence can imitate such lively beauty.

Fly catcher

 I did not see the flycatcher for a while.

I began thinking that he might be caught by the neighbors cat. I saw the cat recently having a bird. 
Can't stand that. Anyway.
This morning the flycatcher sat on the fence. 
It was still early so that made it a bit difficult to get a good photo. 
He is checking nest boxes. 

Apple blossom

This was a photo of the apple blossom 2 weeks ago. 31-03 2026

 These ones I took 5 days ago (on 09-04-2026)  
Look at the progress of the red buds, how fast they are coming out!

And here are the buds coming out further today!
It's going so fast now! 
I love the red buds and then when coming open they transform in into white!