flame

All the buds & flames of the poppys have gone out,
but one....
(see also post of may 25 and the one of may 17)

The wind is playing with the last fiery flame.

scrape-scratching sound

As I sat this morning in my garden with my first cup of coffee
while the first glances of the sun came in,
I heard a peculiar familiar sound...
a sound you can distinguish out of all the other morning sounds of birds and so on.
when you once heard that sound you will never forget.

the scratch-scrape-scratch-scrape-.... scraping of teeth on a nut.


I slipped inside to check if what I heard was true...
There he was again,
sitting in the sunrays with his breakfast.

inside the heart

Inside the heart of a poppy....

dragonfly

last couple of days a big dragonfly perches on a garden-pin.
He loves sitting in the sunshine,
He flies a little around...then returns to his stick
sits again a little in the sunshine,
goes off again for a small flight and returns again.
this goes on the whole day as long as the sun is shining.

If you look at his face, it looks like he is smiling,
great grin on his face.
would he still smile, when the sunshine is gone?

lost feathers

The baby-coal-tit who had an accident yesterday,
did not come out completely unharmed.
This morning I found some of his new feathers.
(The feathers look so perfectly new).
If you look at yesterdays photo...it looks like he is missing some tail-feathers
he has only 2 or 3 left!

They were laying on the ground and in the water of the pond
I hope he has soon growing new ones.

saved

I heard a bump on the glass-window,
looked outside,
a small baby-coal-tit had flown against the glass

I saw Tommy running to the struggling fledgling, who was now lying on the ground,
I rushed outside, screaming loud No! No! Neeeee!
Both cats know what that means...
so Tommy backed off a little,
that gave the little bird just a sec to flutter/flap away...
Because of the tumult Bibi was alarmed and he ran outside because I accidentally had left the door open.

So now two stalkers and me ..chasing the little bird.
Me, screaming loud again...No, No! Neeeeeeeee!
that helped again... cats intimidated, the bird flutter-flapped away...falling into the pond
where I could grab him out of the water before he drowned.
I held the frightened trembling little bird a while in my hands
I felt his soft warm feathers...wild looking eyes...squeaking a bit,
such a beautiful beauty.

Had to get Tommy and Bibi indoors, who didn't want to.
after a while that succeeded.
put the frightened bird outside on a table...ran inside to get my camera
meanwhile the bird had flown on the edge of the garden-seat
still wet and shaken.
a while later, we both relieved.... he flew safe into the trees

catching up

Catching up with the flycatchers(vliegevangers).
they were building their nest end of april.

I honestly thought after seeing no sign of both of them:
1. they were gone to my neighbours,
2. were eaten by Bibi,
3. had some other accident.
But a few days ago I saw them again!
both were flying to and fro the nest....
that means they have babies!
Today I waited with my camera for closer look.
The first 2 photos is mother-flycatcher,
she is a bit lighter-brown than the father, her breast is grayish-white
the father is more dark-brown/black, white breast and he has 2 white dots on top of the beak.

Mother has caught a centipede
Father has a beak full of other crawly creepy things.
(click-click images for better view on the creepy-things...:-)

droplets

In the grass,
very small,
lay a web with hundreds of waterdroplets.
some seconds later the sun reflected in the drops.

lots of nuts

Its kind of windy-raining-stormy outside.

Some branches of the beech-tree fell out...
Snapped off because of the way too heavy weight...of the nuts.
so many beech-nuts hanging on the branches!
Amazing!

Is it because the oaktree has been cut down this winter...
so that the beech florishes way better without being in the shade of such a big oak next to him?
Or is it just a good beech-nut-year?

fiery flames

The poppy's have become like fiery flames!

hidden blue revealed

Hidden blue revealed

4 legs up

lying on your back....in the sun...4 legs up...

as you can see,
for Tommy and Bibi its a very 'hard' & difficult life.

in the grass

Who is this....
between the knee-high grass?

struggle

A very big bug, a cockchafer,(meikever) sat on a leaf of a waterplant in the pond.
He was going in circles and circles...on the edge of the leaf.
thinking he would come out of the water, if he walked enough miles.

More than once he slipped of the leaf...nearly drowning,
but he managed to come back on the leaf after some struggle.
Finally I saved him...
probably he didn't remember that he could use his wings

gone out!

It was only some minutes later.

I suddenly saw that the little baby-bird was hanging out very far!
Then in a split second the bird flew away.....!
gone out!
Immediately the next bird sat in front the hole....and also went flying....!
Then a third bird came out...and went flying after his sisters and brothers.

It all happened so quickly that I could only capture the birds sitting in the hole...
the flying away was too fast to capture.
I was so amazed that I was just there,with my camera, at the final minute...
that I saw them flying out with my own eyes.

(The 3 last photos are all different birds, just before flight...even they all look alike)

screaming young

The father and mother black-tits, still are going off and on with loads of caterpillars.
So many they have carried into the beaks of the young,
who seem never to have enough.
This morning I saw one of the young baby's peaking out!
so beautiful soft and new is their look.
so eager looking out..whats out there!

they were so busy......the young screaming for more food..
the parents flying as soon as possible with a new found snack,
to silence the hunger and the screaming.