This little patch seems to be quite happy this year. I’ve cleared some of the weeds which were looking to clog it up, but left everything else as it is. Its a small strip at the edge of the lawn, but happily houses the redcurrant bush, bluebells, a few other plants and a geranium which is slowly raging out of control at the other end. But, I did find an angle shade caterpillar under the geranium this morning, and bees were enjoying it as well, so it’s doing a good job for now.
(c) K Wicks
There are Starlings and Sparrows nesting in the holes and eaves of both my neighbours houses, so I had just been enjoying the little chirping of new birds from afar. Or so I thought. Today I saw a bird shoot into my wall and disappear. I watched and waited, and saw the exit. So quick I almost missed it. But it looked like a Blue tit. So I got my camera, set to video mode and waited, again. And waited. Just before giving up, it darted out and luckily I caught it. Here are the stills. It’s extra exciting now to know I also have birds nesting, and interesting to see how they make do and manage to find somewhere warm, dry and safe right alongside people.
(c) K Wicks
This is an updated post as since doing the original one a few of weeks ago, I found three more!
Amazing how many different spiders there have been just in my small garden. I have listed all the ones from the last two years and hopefully will get more this year. And because I have a number of pics for each, I think a post showcasing each of them will soon come as well 🙂
(c) K Wicks
I hadn’t realised there were so many different types of wasp until I started taking photos of nature. Not just the variations of your classic yellow and black one, of those there are many. But the more unusual ones I hadn’t realised were part of the wasp family until I looked them up. I will start with the classic one though, and I have a few good shots of these so they may get their own post.
I believe this a Queen wasp. I only noticed it at first in the garden because I could hear a scrapping sound on the fence and saw this large wasp chewing the wood off in small strips! Apparently this is what Queen wasps do to prepare the nest for eggs.
This wonderfully coloured little beauty is a Ruby-tailed wasp, which is a type of cuckoo wasp. If you know what cuckoos are known for then you’ll know why they are named so. Laying eggs in another wasps nest is their thing.
You may think, why would you put an ant, which clearly looks like a spider, in with the wasps? Well, I was surprised to find out this is a wasp! The females are wingless and look like hairy ants as you can see. And to add to the strangeness of these little insects, when you disturb them they squeak.
We didn’t get to see many of these, but was nice to catch a couple of pictures here and there. They are quite big like carpenter bees and just as cool.
I think this is a red paper wasp, and as you can see I didn’t get a great picture and it was only one.
Again, not the greatest picture, but only a small window as this guy did not linger. After much trawling through pictures and species, I think this is a Cicada killer wasp, but it does have lots of similarities to hornets and even some types of bee, so please feel free to correct me if I have got this one (or any of them) wrong.
(c) K Wicks
The first few bees of the year have been passing through, as more of the garden starts to come to life, more are coming. The muscari has been helpful, and my decision to move the small gooseberry bush was a good move. It didn’t have any fruit last year despite having some the first year of purchase. So I figured it needed more sun, it’s doing well and already attracting bees! So maybe some gooseberries this year to go with loganberries if that plant also survives it’s relocation. So far so good.
Although I love Spring, this is the frustrating bit for me, where everything is moving along, but slowly. It will take another few weeks for more to happen. But it’s coming…
(c) K Wicks
A pretty little butterfly that was extremely plentiful in Spain, hopefully I can entice more into my garden this year, but will have to see what grows to help with that. But this one was great to photograph as it didn’t even seem to notice me most of the time.
(c) K Wicks
Just a lone sparrow sitting on the fence.
(c) K Wicks
The variety of these little guys is great, they come in all sorts of colours and between the UK and Spain I have gathered quite a few pics.
(c) K Wicks
I have just updated my iStock portfolio and added another 100 (ish) photographs of nature, if you like that sort of thing 😉
https://www.istockphoto.com/gb/portfolio/katrinawicks
(c) K Wicks
Amazing how many different spiders there have been just in my small garden. I have listed all the ones from the last two years and hopefully will get more this year. And because I have a number of pics for each, I think a post showcasing each of them will soon come as well 🙂
(c) K Wicks
MKW Publishing 