fennel

flowers of fennel (bronze sweet fennel) or foeniculum wrapped in raindrops.

fly me like the wind

multiplication

the one seed

scattering seeds

seeds poppy

countless seeds in one seed-container-vessel of a poppy.
only one flower...producing so many many seeds.

if I would have the patience I would count them... but I don't. :-)

eagle breeding

on many eggs

king of the winter

the 'king of the winter', as this bird is called in dutch, (winterkoning)
wren is having a warm summerbad

speckled robin

When robins are born,
they don't have their well known red breast yet.
They are first speckled, with a slight reddish brownish fade on their breast.

but all the characteristics, movements and behaviour...
is typical robinlike!

up

then after fixing their rings, inspection,
measuring wingspan and weigh their weight..
they made up the journey back in the bag.
Then....
I climbed the high ladder to make a photo in their domain...

1 egg

one egg did not hatch..
the egg is beautiful spotted,
almost round....
slightly coned on one side.

ring

waiting for their turn to get ringed.

fluff balls

all the fluffy balls were taken out of the bag,
for me, so they could pose for a photo.
meanwhile loudly exercising their voice

young kestrels

The 2-week-baby-kestrels were transported to the ground in a big bag,

looking inside the bag....was this...what I saw.

3 beautiful fluffy white-grayish down balls
& dark round big eyes looking... staring in fear,
not understanding the unexpected journey.

Today they were getting their rings...

baby common kestrels

Today I had a chance to see 3 young baby common kestrels.
They are born in a nest box very high on a huge pole.
In Dutch they are called 'tower-falcons'...
probably because they like to live in high towers.

The Kestrels were getting their rings today.

buds

buds of Thalictrum, just before opening up

rose

rose.

what a beauty

robin

There are two robins coming all the time in my garden.
They have young I guess somewhere
hidden away in a for me unknown place.

They feast on the ants, of which some have gotten wings, flying ants.
With beak full of ants...they go to and fro.

in my notebook

In my notebook, one year ago, back in 08 Sept 2006
I had made this drawing.
So that somehow excites me very.

Archie

Archie has made it to the top!

If you want to know why this snail is called Archie,
search in the archives and go back, scroll all the way down to post 12 aug 2005
or go to this link:
there you can read all about Archie (World-Snail-Racing-Champion 1995)

I see now I'm blogging almost two years now!
Time is also racing like Archie!

grass seeds

summergrass seeds

Tommy

washing

surprise!

I decided to go around the house,
to have another look for the birds in the trees.
To see if I could spot one.
I saw mother bird around, so that could mean one of his young could be near.

All at once I saw one bird very close.
so close, I was so surprised!
He had waited for me, to pose for some photos!
after that he took his wings to fly out of sight.