feather

While going out in the wood with one of my friends F.
I found this beautful feather, hanging in a branch
which looks to me from a bird of prey.

young songthrush

Young Song thrush (zanglijster) after bath.

bullfinch again

Today I saw the bullfinch (goudvink) again, together with her( his mate).
Before I could grasp the camera she was gone.
I only got a quick glimpse.
I think I need to set up my birdtent again for closer view.

I thought they were allready gone,
but they seem to camp somewhere in the neighbourhood and only come for a drink at the birdbath.
I will keep an eye on them.

young robin

I heard.... tick-tick-tjick-tick-etick-tick.
That's robins alarmsound.
I looked around to see if I could find him.
Mostly in hiding.
As I looked at the direction of the sound, I saw a young robin.
Young robins are not quite red yet.
The firy red breast comes later when they are more adult.

But this one has a little red shining through.
a little speckled red and grey.
lovely to see...they look so new...so pure.

buzzard jump

On our ride
we heard a buzzard screaming, sitting on a branch of an almost dead tree.
after we spotted him, he jumped over to another branch.

lots of small tortoiseshells

On a ride with my sister A, we were going through a beautiful path along the river and fields.
Suddely we saw on a windstill place this group of thistles, loaded with butterflies.
(click-click on overview for better counting)
It were all Small Tortoiseshells (Aglais urticae) (Kleine vos)
sitting and dancing from flower to flower.
Never seen so many all together.
quite astonishing...

A few moments when the sun hided behind some clouds,
instantly all butterflies disappeared for a while going in kind of hiding,
coming back some moments later when the sun broke through again.

Bumble

Bumble loves to creep in the flower.
Yummy yummy.

Exchange

Again there is a young blackbird in my garden.
Probably the 4th nest.
I had some breadcrumbs leftovers...which the motherbird had found.
Which caused to have a view on this intimate exchange.

poppyseeds

The poppy-seeds are ripe.
The little windows under the top are open.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

I had another butterfly in my garden yesterday, I had never seen before.
A kind of hummingbird butterfly...never sitting still for one moment...
flapping his wings all the time like... a hummingbird.
Very nervous kind of ADHD-type.
Because he flies like a hummingbird his name is: Hummingbird Hawkmoth. (Kolibrievlinder)
Macroglossem stellatarum)

He is hovering in front of the flower...sticks out his extreme long tongue, in order to stick deeply in the flower and then flies off to another one after some sec.
Actualy its a night-butterfly..but this one flies daytime.
Very difficult to get a good shot.
Once you've seen him, you'll never forget.

Queen is back

I was extremely surprised when I sat in my garden this morning,
suddenly seeing the Queen again!
As I always name this butterfly...because in dutch he is named Koninginnepage.
In English Swallowtail.
Three years ago when it also was tropical back in 2006...he visited my garden.
Normally in colder summers they stay in France, Belgium...not coming much higher north.
Back then I collected the caterpillars and later watched them go into cocoons.
A year later(2007), I waited to see the butterfly come out.
This whole project I named 'Save the Queen'.
if you are interested: click under labels (Save the Queen 3)
and Save the Queen 2
& Save the Queen 1
Now he is here again!
I do hope he comes back.
Its such a beauty.

Harvest 2

Again I collected some seeds.
These are seeds from grasses...with beautiful decorative flowers&seeds.

harvest

Today after yesterdays heavy T-showers and windstorms,
many plants were horizontal instead of vertically.
After inspection rearanging binding and cutting, I saw many plants had formed seeds.
So I collected some to sow.

mostly you don't know what color you get and being surprized is fun too.
But I collected some seeds of the white foxgloves (vingerhoedskruid) and some of the pinks.
to have them separate.
You easily have thousands of seeds in a few minutes.
and some white (Aquilegia) Akelei.

baby

My sisters daughter M. gave birth to a lovely little baby, last week.
M. and her friend A. had asked me to design the card.
I also did the stamp on the enveloppe for the new born boy.

The seal of the postoffice on the card says 'gein'
short for Nieuwegein...
Which means fun, or new fun.
That's a good start!

young song thrush

A young Song thrush, zanglijster,(Turdus philomelos) is relaxing in the dish for the breadcrumbs.
He has still a kind of innocent clumsy look, which makes him so special.

folded wings

I saw him again, this (White Admiral, kleine ijsvogelvlinder, (Limenitis camilla) .
this time with folded wings.
I see him so now and then, but he does not like so much to pose.
as he is always on the move.



Some time later I saw a butterfly landing on a rose,
when I wanted to look closer I could not find him anymore.
When I looked better..it was as if a dead leaf was sitting on the rose.
It a Comma, (Polygonia c-album),Gehakkelde Aurelia.

finch

A common finch is maybe not so spectacular as the red bullfinch,
but even finches have their ways.
I like watching birds because every bird has his own characteristics and ways of doing things.

This one opened his beak every time he splashed under water.

chatting at the bath

The blue-tits not only take a bath in the birdbath.
They also take time for chatting in between.

2 feathers

After the dove left...
He left this.