Wildlife August 2010

[mark smyth]

Very nice. How did you get it to sit still long enough for a photo?

[mark smyth]

The Bumble bee conservation people need some help. It's easy just click the button
http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/shortlistitem.cfm?id_category=3&id_entry=110

[daveyp1970]

talking about bees me and my nephew went for a nature ramble and saw this swarm sorry about the quality but it was took with my phone.

[angie]

And you were that close

Angie

[Maggi Young]

Dear goodness, I don't know what this place is coming to..... we've had 'orrible bugs that bother innocent Swifts, horrendous bugs in MEGA close-up... and swarms of bees.....  I feel I should be sitting here in a veil, spraying myself liberally every five minutes with Avon-Skin-So-Soft spray ( well known for its anti- mozzie/ bug effectiveness) with a fly swat at my side.... the place is infested I tell you! 


For those of you who would like to relax with some less "wild" life, take a look at Ian's latest Bulb Log....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010Aug111281536809BULB_LOG__3210.pdf 

[Anthony Darby]

Very nice. How did you get it to sit still long enough for a photo?

When the sun shines here the butterfly, like all of us, stop and soak up the rays for as long as possibly. This little fellow let me take half a dozen pics on the golden rod and a similar number on the gravel before flying off to a nearby Cyprus hedge to soak up some more rays!

[Anthony Darby]

We had a swarm of bees near us a couple of years ago. I immediately phone a local bee keeper who came and collected them.

[angie]

Oh Maggi Poppy and Lily are so cute ...much better seeing these two sweethearts rather than all those creepy crawlies 

Angie

[Ragged Robin]

Here, here, Angie, what a dog's life in Ian and Maggi's garden    How do they look so perfect, so adorable, so WHITE? They must go wild and get up to mischief sometimes 

[angie]

Here, here, Angie, what a dog's life in Ian and Maggi's garden    How do they look so perfect, so adorable, so WHITE? They must go wild and get up to mischief sometimes 

Robin I have never seen those two doggies dirty and they don't stick to the paths, as you say what better life could they ask for.
The owner of Poppy would be so happy if she could see her well loved dog being spoiled by their new mum and dad.

If there is another life after this one I am coming back as a dog in a loving family

Angie

[Maggi Young]

It amazes us how Lily and Poppy manage to stay so white.... though there are occasions.......

[Gunilla]

  Lovely  .

[Ragged Robin]

Ah, yes, well we all get a bit muddy in the rain, don't we?  Or was she helping with the bulb log 

[Maggi Young]

Ah, yes, well we all get a bit muddy in the rain, don't we?  Or was she helping with the bulb log 

 It happened like this....... it was not long after Poppy arrived with us....our pond is very overgrown with a lot of ivy round the raised edges and bonsai in big pots making it fairly inaccessible.... after a few weeks of being content to just wander around this large green area ( hardly any clear water visible, duck weed giving matt green appearance and lots of Bog bean foliage etc) ...  Poppy decided to have a walk THROUGH it..... that was when she discovered that it wasn't grass.

However, she swims through the undergrowth and hauls herself out..... very wet, very cold, and, on account of the duckweed, a very green dog.
 
Now she' s a smart cookie  is Poppy, ands realises that she most likely wasn't meant to go in the funny wet place and that she'd better hide the evidence of her trespassing and that green is not a very good look for her complexion........ so she makes off at speed into the back of a bed and rolls .... vigorously.... and lo and behold, she was correct.... all the evidence of the duckweed is gone... she has managed to remove every single piece of the tiny green dots from her coat.....

what Ian and are confronted by is this wet, brown creature, trying hard to assume a nonchalant pose... which, after a moment or two, we recognise as Poppy!

It was the funniest thing it really was.  The look on her face as if to say, "what's the fuss about, I've done nothing" was priceless.  Then, when I told her she'd have to have a shower, the look became " oh, bother, and I was SURE I'd done such a cunning disguise!"

She's 13 and a half years old..... game for an old bird!!

[Ragged Robin]

Fab story Maggi, had a giggle, Poppy is really adventurous for a 13 year old