Sparrows

Later on today I went to M. celebrating her birthday.
She has loads of sparrows (mussen) in her garden,
so I took along my camera for a few shots.
I saw at least more than 20...flying around.
I think even more, young and fathers and mothers were flying off and on,
tjeeping sounds all around and everywhere.
Great to see and hear.
We sat all afternoon in the garden enjoying & watching them,
along with thee and drinks and lovely snacks.
Also the sparrows celebrated on breadcrumbs.




Its so nice to see..how curious looks they have on their face.

Flycatchers prey

It won't be long that the young flycatchers go on the wing.
Every day I expect the young peeking out of the hole of the nestbox.
But until now only the father and mother fly off and on to the nestbox.
I am always curious what the prey will be for lunch and breakfast.
though it is not always easy to get a glimpse of it
Today it seems to be kind of wigly insect and beetle.

poppies

The come and go of the poppies

As the sand 3

Help!
Where was I?
How many was it.?

Losing track of counting all the sand and all the blessings.

As the sand 2

Counting blessings as many as the sand

As the sand

night-cap

This morning, I saw 2 new papavers had opened.
Both still had their sleeping night-cap on.

Blue-tit

The blue-tits have young.
Loads of caterpillars are collected.
I wonder where they all come from.

Papaver

The day before and today.

Geometer

I found a (caterpillar) geometer, (spanner,) on a rosebud.
Of course I want my roses come in bloom, so I took him out.
I put him on a round plate...now he is going in circles all the time,
with his funny way of walking.
I could not determine what kind of caterpillar he is...
or what butterfly comes out

Maybe someone knows who reads this blog ?

blackbird washing in slowmotion

The most delighted I am about this blackbird, washing himself in very slowmotion.
washing away& shaking off
all heaviness...anxiety, worries of life's demands.
to go on with fresh delight and lightness of heart.

flycatchers

The flycatchers have young babyflycatchers.

The female flycatcher has come out of hiding, after having breeding the eggs.
Here she sits together with him on their favorite watchingpost.
the dead branch of a firtree.
You can clearly see the breedingmark on her chest. (dark feathers showing under the white.)
Also you can see clearly here the difference between male and female.
They are such lovely birds.

de blaar van Marcus

My nephew M. went for a few days to Rome last week.
along with my sister A. and niece M.

I received their snail postcard from Rome,
with this drawing as a stamp.
(For those who cannot read Dutch: it says, 'The Blister of Marcus')

No other stamp was glued.
Probably the postman thought it was paid for enough.

Rising up

The rising up.
I was so happy that the swans wanted to cooperate.
They were showing how to rise up, and letting go...
It took a lot of walking on water and splashing before they finally lifted.
(600fps)

Flying swan

I like the flying swan, who wanted to pose for my camera,
showing off...how to fly.
(600fps)

If you look closely... you can see how to move your wings, and than mount up.

weird bird

Then this afternoon another weird bird, named Bibi, came in de birdbath for a drink.
The birdbath is at least 70 cm high, so he is manouvring very careful along the edges of the bath..
well,... the bath is round, but Bibi can walk the edges...
see for yourself.
Because it is slowmotion (600fps) it takes some time.
This camera sees the things you normally cannot catch, that quickly, with the normal eye.

Vliegkunstenaars

Few days ago, I took part on a project 'Vliegkunstenaars'.
The university of Wageningen gave opportunity to film with a highspeed camera, to film in slowmotion, flying objects...birds, butterflies, insects...and/or other winged species.
For them to do research on flying movements for science.
For us to do the filming.

One lesson to get to know the camera, the rest of the time practice.

Of course I loved the subject and the chance to use such a camera.
I took the camera a few days home, to film my garden birds..and my loved subject: bathing.
Here a coaltit filmed by 600fps(frames per second)

Flycatcher

Much of the time I see the flycatcher sitting on his watchpost,
(a dead branch of my neighbours fir tree.)
He spends there many hours to keep an eye on the birdhouse, while she is breeding.
Meanwhile he is cathing a fly so now and then.
Today a strong breeze, that makes his feathers blow away.
And if you look closely,(middlephoto)
again, he hides one of his legs in his feathers.

Goat Moth caterpillar

Today I encountered a weird creature, I've never seen nor heard before.
So I took it home, to find out all about it.
A very huge sized caterpillar, in orange and purple colors, the size of a finger!
Listening to the name of:
Goat Moth-caterpillar, Carpenter Moth, (Cossus cossus) Wilgenhoutrups

The caterpillars feed in the trunks and branches of a wide variety of trees, taking three or four years to mature.
The night moth that comes out, is greyish-brown.
I think the caterpillar was on its way to cocoon.
walking on the street, to find a place to hide in the ground for cocooning.
He seems to be eating quite of trunk, so he is not so loved.
Also he is not the most beautiful...but maybe one of the weirdest?

fly catchers update

This morning I saw the female flycatcher peeking out of the house.
So now and then she peeks out, to get some fresh air, I guess,
From the house, she lauched out to catch a fly, and flying with the fly immediately inside again.
So she gets her vitamines and nutrition.
while she is doing the breeding.
I guess there are eggs. didn't dare to 'have a peek' yet.

Meanwhile the male keeps an eye on the house and new family.
Its funny he always pulls one leg inside...
as he glances around

Oh yes of course..the house is fixed a bit crooked.

I know...but the birds don't mind.
When the breeding is done, I get it fixed.

beechhedge

A few months ago, my garden got an dramatic change.
All the surrouding conifers were removed, because they were growing way too high.
The garden did't get a lot of sunshine anymore, because of the height of the conifers.
That was okee for years...
But when one conifer died last year,
The ugly brown dead spot forced me to do something about it.

Now a month ago, after having removed all the old conifers and their roots
and new ground on top, a new hedge was planted of red beech.
I love red beech...though when I decided to have these,
I hardly could imagine how it would look like in my garden.

Few weeks ago, after watering them almost every day,
the new plants are getting their leaves,
which makes the view quite a different one.
and....lots of sunshine!

red beech

During the warm days...all the trees have becoming their leaves.
In just a few days time, all of nature has changed.
Its always before they are out, you cannot imagine how it would look like.
It seems you've forgotten all!
When its there..you think..oh yeh of course...!
but every year its all new!
as if you see it for the first time.

The red beech begins to unfold.
Its great to follow the unfolding.

finch bath

After the beautiful weather its time for a finchbath

easter-splash

Its the most loveliest weather of all times.
It looks summertime, temperatures are warm and shiny.
Blackbird has one of his joyful moments,
having a great splashy time.

Malus

Recently I bought a Malus (sierappel)
for the birds..and of course for myself as well.
The tree is now in full blossem..even fading away already a little bit...
because of the very warm temperature we have got, like summerdays.

In autumn the flowers become little firy-red apples.
which are just for beauty.
But the birds love it!
They feed on the apples in winter time,
Especialy the blackbirds love it and I hope some other birds will feast on it too!

Building

She is doing the finetuning of the very last necessary furniture.
the finishing touch so to speak.
Very small tiny little twigs...as a soft plaid for the eggs.



He is carefully watching the whole buildingprocess,
as the main director over the construction.

Queen out!

Yesterday evening I had to get something out of the garage,
And there he sat on one of my gardenboots.

I had stored the cocoon of the Swallowtail butterfly (Koninginnepage) in the window of the garage,
to keep him cool..so that he would not come out too soon.
(The rest of the house is much warmer).
That morning I had checked the cocoon, but didn't see, any sign he would come out.
I was mistaken.

There he was in full colors...
sitting on the boot, on the floor and I was happy that my eye caught him.
He could have been sitting anywhere in the garage, without me noticing.
I put him on the boot in the little glasshouse, because it was too late to let him outside.

This morning when it was warm and lovely outside I let him sit on my finger,
(its such a special thing, this tiny strong legs gripping your finger).
From there he flew off...circled a little around, till he disappeared high up in the blue sky.