A few days ago, squirrel came along to find a little something. The pond was frozen and he found a nut frozen in the ice. he could not get it out...

Happily for him he found another nut outside the pond,

Ice on the pond

 It has frozen last night. The pond has a thin layer of ice 

This morning I threw some peanuts outside for the birds. Some landed on the ice. A blue jay saw them and he happily for him did not cracked through the ice 

Pond

 The pond is full of leaves now...lots of autumnleaves are blown into the water.

Actually it looks realy nice.

I have to find a more simple way to make my photo’s...last week I fell, and hurt my arm severely. 

Xrays showed a crack in my elbow on the same spot as I had 8 years ago. So that’s kind of disappointing to not be able to use my right arm very well. My heavy telelens-camera is too heavy for my arm to hold.

That’s why my posts are a bit delayed and will be for the coming weeks...

Anyway, don’t know how long it takes...as long as it needs to be.

Fishing nuts

 So now and then, I throw some nuts into the water of the pond.

Squirrel knows that and it's kind of playing hide and seek...for him to find the nuts between the autumn leaves.

He is very good at it.

squirrel, rainy day

During a very rainy day, last week...
 

Restored pond

My pond has gotten a new paint layer.

The paint had gone cracking on several places and even deeper under the paint, due to frost last winter. Before winter arrives, it was best to repair it, so that the frozen water cannot make the cracks even deeper. I'm so glad it succeeded. 

Only with the help of a very kind and friendly neighbour who repaired it all!

cocoon

 Recently I discovered a beautiful cocoon on the glass of my window.

I think it's the cocoon of a Cabbage white, (koolwitje)

Larva of orange ladybird

Today I noticed a very small larva, which looked like a ladybird larva. However this one is yellow, and the ones I know of are black combined with a little orange.

I could determine the larva, which is of an orange ladybird...in dutch:(Meeldauwlieverheersbeestje,) in latin it listens to the name of: Halyzia sedecimguttata.

A beautiful name for such a small creature of maybe smaller than one centimeter.

Smallest of the smallest

I haven't seen him for years.

To be exactly, it was in 2020 May 14 smallest of the smallest

This small bird...the Gold crest, (Regulus regulus), (Goudhaanje), is the smallest

of the smallest under the birds.

He has a beautiful golden crest in his head...and he is flying/moving extremely fast.

I was so happy to see him again, because I was thinking he might have disappeared totally.

Hedgehog

 Last Sunday I got from a good friend some hedgehog food. She herself has 2 Hedgehogs in her garden, coming every night for dinner. She refills the jar every time when it is empty...so they come back once or twice the same night!

I decided to serve the food...on a place they might pass. Every night a little closer to the door so that I might see them better. Every day, for three night in a row, the little plate was completely empty, so I knew I had some visitors.

Yesterday it was bingo...I saw a hungry Hedgehog nibbling the food..He really seems to like it a lot..next morning all the food was gone! So for tonight I refilled the saucer again for a yummy treat. 

Caterpillar

While gathering some nuts for the squirrels, I saw a yellow-green caterpillar crawling in the grass.

He was looking quite weird. having a kind of long red tail sticking up at the rear end.

I decided to take him home and find out all about him. I put him in a glass container, so that he would not run away, before I had found out his name. (Pale Tussock)(Calliteara pundibunda)(Meridians borstel).

He is really funny, having some brushes on his back, and the red brush at the end...

His host-plants are many, like beech, oak, birch and other trees. He pupates in leaflitter and overwinter as a cocoon. So I put him out under a birch-tree in my garden, between lots of leaves, so that he can cocoon someplace he likes. 

Lanterfanten

 I don't know the exact english word for Lanterfant.

The word Lanterfant and lanterfanten has several meanings. 

One is that you're wasting your precious time, by doing nothing in particular and that you're being lazy and that you ought to or do better do some useful work. 

The other one is more freeing...when you 'lanterfant' and do nothing in particular, relax and rest, kind of letting go of doing useful meaningful things, like obligations, things that should be done...that makes space for more creative things...and this state of being, opens up possibilities you never thought of.

It has to do with enjoying...and delight.

Anyway, pictures speak more than 1000 words...

Happy squirrel

Squirrel discovered the nuts I placed for him on a table. It looks, he is quite surprised and happy with this unexpected treat. I smashed the nuts on purpose, so that he stays on the table for a while to eat them...

So nice to seem him eating...and enjoying his nuts.
 

Nuts for squirrel

 I discovered recently a walnut tree nearby. so I go there to collect some nuts under this tree.

It seemed to me a nice idea to help squirrel for wintertime...and feed him some nuts when he forgot his strorage places...or?

No I don't think he will forget...but somehow, just for fun to get him around... its just so much delight to see him every time seeking for more yummy nuts.

Squirrel again

I think he is amazing...such beauty roaming around in my garden...

looking for his treasures...I think he himself is the treasure... 

(when you click the images, they appear much sharper and you can even see all the drops on the grass! )

squirrels

Squirrels are extremely busy. Running to and fro with nuts in their beaks, going along my window. so very kind for me to watch, but mostly they are already gone before I'm able to grab my camera.

It's such a great sight...They are now all in the business of making storage places all over the place. 

Or planting nut-trees everywhere, depending if they can remember where they keep em. 

Unknown eggs

 What is this?

While uprooting a plant, (Campanula) I noticed at the foot of the plant some eggs!

They were more than 20. Some fell down to the earth and I thought better not to touch them anymore.

They are small, maybe 1,5 mm. Some other eggs stayed on the roots of the plant, so I took them with me for making a photo. 

I think I put them back to where I found them. But whose eggs are these? Are they from a butterfly? if yes which one? or maybe from an insect? who can tell? Please let me know if you know or have an idea.

Nut time!

 The nuts are ripe at the neighbour's nut-tree! At least, squirrel thinks so, carrying the nuts still in the bolsters in his beak to safety-storage-places in my garden.

I have saved some 'last-year-nuts' for him as well. Yesterday I threw some into my pond, as I love playing games with squirrels, This is a fishing game. They have to fish the nuts out of the water. That mostly is not a problem at all, because the nuts float to the side and are easily picked out of the water. Today some nuts didn't float to the side...so for squirrel a challenge to pick them... 

He is so cute and smart as well, though today it seemed to be a little difficult...the nuts were too far away and out of reach. He was kind of irritated that the nuts were out of reach. I could tell by the agitation of his swiping tail, rapidly going left and right ...!

Look at his bravery!

Finally he got them all....when the nuts floated closer to the side within reach... 

Robins

 

It's hard to tell which robin is the adult and which one is the juvenile.

The young one has gotten all his adult-like feathers now. I don't see the difference anymore.

This one looks like the adult one. However I'm not sure. They chase away each other now, to defend territory and who's boss over it.

(see also earlier posts about the young robin)

(and here another one)