Pictures of Wildlife.

Spotted this little bug in my garden yesterday: a Bee-fly (Bombylius Major); this fluffy bug is a hoverfly camouflaged as a bee. With three hundred wing beats per second, it stands motionless in the air, like a hummingbird.

 

I saw the first small tortoiseshell in this year on Tuesday

 

Why doesn't the door open for me?

 

Red squirrel, still partly in grey winter coat. The squirrel on the right side of the picture shows the winter coat more clearly.
two weeks ago in nearby woods in grey winter coat.

 

This brazen individual, I think it is a vixen, spent some time foraging around our lawn in broad daylight, fully aware that we were watching and photographing it with our mobile phones.
She didn't even consider clearing off until I clapped my hands a few times, almost waking Millie (our ageing Husky) up, who was asleep on the patio.
She trotted down the drive last night about 7pm in broad daylight, with two small cubs the size of kittens and went under a neighbours caravan for a while. She did the same last year to shelter in a heavy shower of rain. She trashed the hedgehog feeding station the year before.

 

common brimstone, white wagtail and Eurasian jay, spotted on Thursday
According to folk wisdom, the observation of a wagtail means that the summer is very close. Hard to believe as the weather has cooled in recent days, sleet and little frost are forecasted for next night

 

Bad spring for hedgehogs. Warm then a long cold spell and now warm and cold nights. Spike is having his 4th year in our garden so is getting to be a bit of an old boy.
I prefer to let him look after himself as feeding him creates problems with foxes. They have become unpopular having taken one of our neighbours rabbits a few weeks ago.
Never the less I am watching him closely and tried to put natural food sources to hand. He lives in a well built Hedgehog house with plenty of escape routes between my wife's strawberry troughs. Behind the wooden fence to the rear is our "wild" garden with compost bins etc. along the fence are tomato troughs and Raspberry plants with spaces that he can get through. The garden boundary fence has a hole in it to get through to tour the estate and for visitors to come and go.
Next doors cat deals with intruding mice and the foxes hunt for them as well. The cat keeps the foxes from staying too long. I have a routine of "Aggressive Patrolling" to keep pests at bay and out of the shed etc. Only Spike is allowed to live in the garden, others get disturbed so move along. Millie the Husky checks it all out every day.

 

Zebra spider

 

Vixen, she is getting to look old now, she trashed our hedgehog feeding station two years ago. She was probably born on what was the municipal Golf Course next to the much diminished nature reserve which has gradually become a housing estate with 1000 houses. She is raising a third set of cubs somewhere nearby. Some people put out food for their cats some for hedgehogs but the foxes eat much of it. She will come quite close to our Husky but cautiously back off. I think that she or one of her cubs came up to our Husky three years ago before the houses were built thinking she was a fox but ran off rather surprised when she was a few feet away and the dog turned round. Millie the Husky is equally perplexed by the foxes. She is 14 now but when she was younger would have chased them for miles.
By the noise from our neighbour dogs, I think she slips in through their dog flap to eat their food when times get tough in winter. Very brave as they have Rottweilers and a pug.
They also feed their cat that goes out at night, on their garage roof (or so they think).

Still taken from our Trail Cam Video
We were just behind a low fence by the Iris in the foreground but didn't have a camera or phone ready at 7.30pm

 

Seen through my patio door, Quenda (Bandicoot) are about the size of a small rabbit and can weigh up to 2kg. They are 28-36cm in body length with a short, stiff tail 9-12cm long. They have a long, pointed nose and short, rounded ears. Their fur is short and coarse and is usually a dark grey-brown colour with a creamy white belly. Their tails also have dark brown fur.
They are a marsupial, like many Australian mammals including Kangaroos, and have a pouch on the belly for young.

 

A laughing Kookaburra, originally a bird of the Eastern States of Australia, it was imported into Western Australia and now thrives. One having a drink on one of the very hot days this Summer.

 

Geese in the wetlands

 

Sitting in my garden this afternoon and I spotted this little critter.

 

Coot on the bank

 

Robin on the path this morning.

 

Beetle in the rain

 

Beetle on the farm

 

Fox Cubs at Dawn.

 

New young hedgehog but where are the older ones. None seen since March before the cold snap.

 

Heron below the weir