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- Jenny
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Got to say, I think this is stunningly beautiful photography, very well done
Thanks for your comments, Dave. Glad you like them. However, some of the dragonfly shots are fairly highly cropped.
Got to say, I think this is stunningly beautiful photography, very well done
Sounds like you get plenty of dragonflies round the pond. Good luck with the brown hawkers. I found them very difficult to photograph as they rarely seemed to settle low enough down to get close to.
Keep the photos coming.
Sounds like you get plenty of dragonflies round the pond. Good luck with the brown hawkers. I found them very difficult to photograph as they rarely seemed to settle low enough down to get close to.
Keep the photos coming.
Would they be any easier very early in the morning, before they have had time to warm up? This is very true with butterflies who are very dozy first thing, being cold blooded.
Yes, I have never managed a shot of the Brown Hawkers. I have never seen them land. I am only assuming they are brown hawkers - big brown ones with brown wings. We get them every year.
Regarding your previous post, I am really surprised that your pond did not attract dragonflies. I wonder why?
We have a number of old sand quarries that are now wildlife reserves and lakes near here, where you just walk through the grass and they rise like a cloud in front of you. Strangely never bothered attempting shooting them...despite being on the doorstep.
Big and brown is likely a brown hawker.
My pond did produce a couple of damselflies (as in I saw them as they emerged), and briefly attracted a common darter and a brown hawker. Then it sprang a leak and shrank dramatically. Frogs love it and I had 83 in it spring 2015, 64 this spring. It also gets newts. Two mallards ate almost all the snails one year - and it was under nine feet across before it shrank!
Is it not possible to fix the leak? It sounds like you are doing a big favour to a lot of wildlife!
Luckily ours is a natural pond formed by a dammed up trickle of a stream. It is kept intact by hundreds of feet of solid clay. Unfortunately the stream brings down lots of silt and it is a huge problem to stop it from silting up.
Mine's a pond with a butyl liner. Finding the leak would be difficult enough. It's doing well as a bog garden with a big puddle in the middle at the moment. I'm tempted to dig a second pond and make it more leak resistant , then leave the original one as a bog garden. One sort of benefit of having a garden that turns to a quagmire in winter is that the pond fills up through the leak during wet periods! You can read a bit about its development here.
Thanks for the encouragement. A fibreglass liner will be the way forward if I do get round to digging another pond as I have a feeling it might have been blackthorn suckers that punctured the current pond liner. I'll not start any digging until it's cooler though!Wow! That's an interesting story with some lovely frog pictures. You must dig another one, maybe with one of those plastic or fibreglass liners. The entertainment value is huge.
Excellent new additions Jenny. Absolutely love damselflies and dragonflies as well, gorgeous wee things and you've captured them so well here. Well done too on the grasshopper, I chased one for a half hour a few weeks ago and still didnt manage to catch him!! Love the ducks too, hard to beat the Mallard
Some cracking shots jenny, keep up the good work, the Damselfly is a corker.
Super additions Jenny. I dont know why you say your photos aren't good because I think they're fantastic! Keep up the good work!!
I haven't been able to log on for a while Jenny, for some reason I cant see some of your recent ones, but of those I can see are as always fantastic!
Thanks, Walter. If the badgers come early enough I am still hopeful of a proper photo.More lovely takes,
Glad the Badgers are still about.
Thanks for your comments, Claire. I am not sure why you can't see some of the photos. I can see them. Perhaps try refreshing the page?
Yes Jenny when I logged back in today I've been able to view them ok. Again great photos, I especially love the baby Jay and the Red Hot Poker, but all fantastic. Great shot too of the Painted Lady and brilliant to see the badgers. Looking forward to the next installment
Always a treat to dip in your thread Jenny, nice work,i will be going around the farm later to take a few snaps, prompted by looking here.
Thanks, Claire. I never really know what I am going to photograph from week to week. Depends what catches my eye.As always and as Walter said, a highlight of the week to see your updates Jenny. Fascinating about the wasp eggs on the acorns. Keep em coming
The weather has been hot and humid but we have missed all those heavy thundery downpours that most of the country has been getting. We are in desperate need of rain. The butterflies are still all over the buddleia but it is in such an awkward place that photographs are very difficult. The Painted Lady has disappeared but there have been two Red Admirals and a lot of Whites. Here are a couple of photos neither of which are particularly good. I am still trying!
It may be hot but it is obvious that we are headed well towards autumn. The oak trees are laden with acorns, there are beech nuts dropping all over the place from the large beech tree by the drive and there are lots of hazelnuts dropping all over the place. First, the acorns. I am happy with this shot for a change.
I have also noticed that there are lots of Knopper Galls this year which are caused by tiny gall wasps called Andricus quercuscalicis laying its eggs in the growing acorn. They apparently don't cause any problem with the tree.
The next is an unopened Beech nut.
You should be very proud of such beautiful photos.
The conkers on the horse chestnut look a bit odd this year - all mottled. The chestnuts trees are suffering from the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner where a tiny caterpillar crawls inside the leaves and makes them brown. I don't think there is much that can be done about it and I don't know if that is what is making the conkers shells look strange.
Finally, the blackberry season is upon us and I have been picking them virtually every day in the last week. My freezer is rapidly filling up! However, we could do with more rain to bulk them up a bit.
That's all for this week. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.
I have no idea where my comment went but I wrote how proud you must be of your wonderful photos. You might be able to see my first comment but I cannot.