Wildlife mid 2009

[ranunculus]

This all reminded me of one of our favourite Larsen cartoons, of a children's slide in a playground with two spiders spinning a web across the bottom, saying "We'll eat like kings tonight!".

...And the other one said; "They will only be child portions, but they will simply slide down".

[annew]

A bonus, which made smashing the dish worth it, was sitting by the river with fish and chips watching a family of mergansers feeding, mum and 9 babies. Sooooo cute! At one point she flew to the top of the weir and called the babies, who made several unsuccessful attempts at running up the weir to join her. She eventually took pity and flew down again. Every time one jumped on her back for a ride, she would dive from under them.

[mark smyth]

gulls eat swifts!
http://www.commonswift.org/3963Firth.html

[ranunculus]

A brief stroll this evening (after 5.30pm) onto the moors outside our front gate and these are the images that I captured during a pleasant fifty minute walk ...

[ranunculus]

Final batch from this evening's stroll ....

The poppies were on a farm's high dry stone wall.

[Lesley Cox]

I do like your spidery story Anne. Are you accident prone?
Lovely walk Cliff, the little photo essay is very endearing, the whole family enjoying the evening out.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Lovely pix Cliff ! 
Very relaxing...

[KentGardener]

Are these two worms doing what I think they are doing!?   

[ranunculus]

Are they smiling?   

[Anthony Darby]

Worms are hermaphrodite so the male part of each worm fertilises the female part at the same time. This means it doesn't matter which worm the early bird catches.

[Ragged Robin]

A brief stroll this evening (after 5.30pm) onto the moors outside our front gate and these are the images that I captured during a pleasant fifty minute walk ...

Lovely photos of your evening stroll, cliff, the goslings are cute trouping along between their parents - the colour of the poppies against the sky is magic are there strips of poppies in the fields as well?

Only 2 weeks until I'm strolling the the Highlands and i hope to see some flora and fauna too 

[Ragged Robin]

On my evening stroll I came across this beetly thing that shone like gold then emerald then gold... it wasn't fazed at all during the photo shoot as it was so busy eating 

[gote]

On my evening stroll I came across this beetly thing that shone like gold then emerald then gold... it wasn't fazed at all during the photo shoot as it was so busy eating 

It is a green rose chafer, cetonia aurata.
Quite common in Sweden and is unusual since it flies with the "shell" closed. There are openings at the side that allows the wings to stick out. This must give good aerodynamics and they are quite fast.
Göte

[gote]

We have some extra guests this year.
Part of the little terrace in front of our summer house is covered by a roof and on the wall hangs an unused basked originally intended for a pot.
In April I found that a Motacilla alba (Wagtail) had built a nest in it. I saw six eggs but forgot to take a photo.
Of course we have been avoiding the terrace all the time and will be glad when they are out flying.
In the first picture they are still blind and believe that i am a feeding mother.
Later they are less naive
Göte

[gote]

Since we are near the lake we have plenty of Natrix natrix (Grass snake?) sometimes they climbe shrubs. Last year one tried to (managed to?) get at some young birds sitill in the nest. This one is climbing a rose bush for no obvious reason.
Göte