A Year in the Life of an English Country Garden - 2016 - The End

[jennyb]

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.

 

[jennyb]

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.

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?

 

[shreds]

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.

 

[jennyb]

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.

You are probably correct, Ian, but it's quite difficult to find them when they are not on the move. I will have a hunt around.

 

[shreds]

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.

 

[Ed Sutton]

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?

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!

 

[jennyb]

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.

Give it a try! They are fascinating.

 

[jennyb]

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.

 

[Ed Sutton]

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.

 

[jennyb]

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.

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.

 

[Ed Sutton]

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.

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!

 

[jennyb]

A few more from yesterday while it is still dragonfly weather. I tried some shots with my 400mm lens and a 25mm extension tube. Still not very successful but I will post them anyway.

First is a large red damselfly.

Next is another shot of the Common Darter. I am posting this because it shows so much detail. The wings are really beautiful and delicate. It is easier to shoot darters because they land on a perch waiting for passing prey, as opposed to hawkers who seem to spend most of the time on the wing.

Finally, I found the next one amusing. Two Common Damselflies were mating and a second male tried to get in on the act He was quickly dispatched.

The hot weather seems to have disappeared for the time being and it is very windy but it is still warm enough. So I may shoot more dragonflies next week.

 

[Ladystrange]

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

 

[jennyb]

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

Thanks, Claire. Yes, insects are not the easiest things to photograph but getting close enough to the dragon/damselflies is the biggest problem.

 

[jennyb]

There is so much happening in the garden that I am having trouble keeping up with the photographs. I will be posting twice this week to try to keep up to date.

This post is mostly moths. I have been wanting to run the moth trap for a few months but to run it, the weather has to be fine with no possibility of rain which would break the bulb. I also need to have time the next morning to photograph the moths. So, I ran it last weekend. I should point out that no harm comes to the moths. The traps consist of a strong light bulb to attract night flying moths and a container where the moths go and hide away amongst egg boxes.

In the morning you can take out the egg boxes where the moths are hiding and record what you have captured. Many night-flying moths play dead if you disturb them during the day, so it is fairly easy to tip them out onto a leaf or other background and photograph them. Once I have taken the photograph I release them amongst some plants where they are not likely to be picked off by birds.

I had quite a good haul last weekend. However, some moths are incredibly difficult to identify so I only recorded the obvious ones.

Firstly, the Buff-tip was not even in the trap but lying on the driveway. Luckily I did not stand on it. The camouflage is amazing. It looks just like a twig.

Very excited about the next one. There were two Elephant Hawk moths in the trap which I have never seen before. These are huge and the photos do not show their relative size.

Next, the Ruby Tiger. I love taking photos of faces.

It is fairly obvious why the next one is called Chocolate Tip.

I have already posted a picture of the Small Magpie, but I think this one is probably better.

The next moth is only tiny - about a centimetre long.

The last moth is one of my favourites. I love it's fluffiness but you can't see the yellow tail hidden under its wings.

Finally, just to change the subject, the clematis (those that survived) have been doing really well this summer. They were all massacred by slugs and we lost half of them completely. The ones that came back are dripping in blooms. Another plus point - the deer don't eat clematis. Here is one of them.

As usual, comments/suggestions very welcome.

 

[jennyb]

We have been entertained for most of this week by a family of Pied Wagtails. For some reason Mum brought them to spend a couple of days on our patio. She was a very good Mum and spent a huge amount of time feeding them with grasshoppers. The photos I took are not fantastic for a variety of reasons but I think are still worth posting for a snapshot of Pied Wagtail family life!

The first shot shows the three youngsters on the patio. This is not a good shot but the only place I could shoot them together was when they were hiding among some greenery that we had left on the patio after trimming the honeysuckle.

The next shot is of one of the youngsters when it was trying to look like an adult. Most of the time they were all fluffed up like babies.

This is Mum.

She was back and forth all the time with grasshoppers - sometimes two at a time.

It was really amusing. The grasshoppers were obviously still alive and a couple of times as she was feeding it to the little one, the grasshopper leaped out of its mouth. The Mum immediately rushed to grab it again and stuff it back into its mouth. After about ten grasshoppers, she realised that she was feeding the same chick each time and ignoring the others, so she hopped around trying to find them.

The conditions for these shots was not good. The sun kept coming and going and I know some of the highlights are blown. I could not get enough DOF and also the birds were on the wooden bench on the patio - not the best background. But I thought they were worth posting anyway.

 

[wallyboy]

Some cracking shots jenny, keep up the good work, the Damselfly is a corker.

 

[Ladystrange]

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!!

 

[jennyb]

Some cracking shots jenny, keep up the good work, the Damselfly is a corker.

Thanks, Walter. It is quite tricky to get near the damselflies so there is some luck involved!

 

[jennyb]

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!!

Thanks, Claire. I tend to be very critical of my own work and I can usually see faults in most of my photographs. However, that is partly what this project is about. Practise (supposedly) makes perfect! one other thing to mention is that many of them are highly cropped. It is not particularly easy to get close enough to wildlife for decent uncropped shots.

 

[jennyb]

Well finally this week we have had some substantial rain. It was badly needed. I have a miscellaneous assortment of photos taken over a number of days.

Firstly, I was dead-heading the dahlias when I spotted this little bush cricket. It is always difficult to photograph them with enough DOF to encompass the antenna and the legs as well as the body. This is not a bad attempt.

Next is a better photo of a grasshopper than the one I posted previously. In spite of Mrs Wagtails best efforts to feed them to her chicks, there are still plenty around!

Next is another photo of a Southern Hawker emerging - better than the last one, I think. I like the shimmering of the wings.

Lots of Gatekeepers around at the moment.

This year I planted quite a lot of Kniphofia - Red Hot Pokers. I think they are a rather ugly flower but I planted them because they seem to do well in the garden, the deer don't eat them and they give a colourful display. I tried to take a more imaginative approach for this shot. I rather like it.

I finally managed a shot of the Blue-tailed damselfly. They are very shy compared to the others. This was the best I could manage - not fantastic.

This year has been a good year for Green Woodpeckers. The other day I saw six by the pond. This is one of the babies which are all speckled.

Finally, the most spectacular miss of the week - I was cutting the grass today by the pond and stopped to see if any dragonflies were hatching. Of course, I don't carry my camera around when I am cutting grass and a Brown Hawker landed right beside me and started laying eggs in the pond. Really annoyed because I mentioned previously that I had never managed a photo of one because I never see them land anywhere.

As usual comments are very welcome.

 

[jennyb]

This definitely seems to be the week of the babies. Following on from the previous post - I got a surprise when I came in yesterday to see a great huge baby sat on one of our garden chairs beside the back door. I thought there may be something wrong with it at first because it did not fly away when I went close to it. But, it was just asleep. If it continues to sleep so soundly, it will not last long. There are plenty of predators around. Here it is - just a big ball of fluff!

It's a Jay.

This is when it woke up.

Mum has been trying to teach it how to forage under the bird feeders and when the seed runs out on the ground, she jumps up onto the feeder and pulls out some more.

The Pied Wagtail family is still around and Mum is still feeding but the Green Woodpeckers have been feeding on both the front and back lawns. I think this youngster looks rather angry.

Finally, this morning there was a flurry of activity outside the bedroom window with about half a dozen swallows fluttering around. One of them hit the window and landed on the conservatory roof a bit stunned. It was okay and recovered after a few minutes but I managed to get a photo (it was in a difficult place so could only use the point and shoot).

Comments very welcome.

 

[jennyb]

It has been very windy this week making any flower photography difficult. So, I seem to be neglecting the flowers. However, one surprise this week - something I have never seen before. I was on the phone the other evening when I saw what looked like a mouse wander past on the driveway heading towards the garage. I could not investigate because I was on the phone but it didn't really look like a mouse. I just didn't know what it was. The following day I found it dead in the garage. The farmer has been cutting and baling the hay in the field out front so I suspect that it had been injured. Anyway it gave me a chance for a close look. It turns out to be a Pygmy Shrew. The body length was about 6 cms and the tail length about 4 cms, so it is quite tiny as the name suggests.

I don't like the idea of photographing dead animals but, because I had never seen one before, I had to record it. Here it is.

The next shot is just one of the many wood pigeons in the garden.

Next a few more moths. They are all Prominents, so-called because of the little tufts of scales sticking up.

Finally, the butterflies have been very few and far between this year except for the Gatekeepers and the Meadow Browns. There have been Peacocks, a Silver-washed Fritilliary and a Red Admiral on the Buddleia but fewer than normal. They have also been very nervous and I have not been able to get close. Here is a shot of a Peacock but it is not very good. I hope to get a better one if the weather holds.

Comments welcome as usual.

 

[Ladystrange]

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!

 

[jennyb]

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 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?

 

[jennyb]

I am not happy with the shots again this week. Partly due to lack of time and partly due to the subjects not playing fair. I have been trying to concentrate on butterflies again but they are still very nervous - more than in previous years, I think.

Firstly, a nice surprise - a Painted Lady. I have not seen one for several years. They do not breed here but are migrants probably from the continent. Maybe this one was blown north on the Spanish Plume that we had this week.

Next, there have been bees all over the Echinops. I am not a bee expert but it is a bumble bee and I would guess either a buff-tailed or a white-tailed bumble bee.

The next is a Peacock with its wings closed. They look almost black from a distance.

Next is another bush cricket but this time, I think, it's a dark bush-cricket. It was on the window in a very difficult place to get a camera to, so the photo is not the best.

Next is a Large White which is quite difficult to shoot when the sun is shining.

Some of the flowerbeds are looking great this summer. So many plants got eaten by slugs, I thought it was going to be a disappointing year but those that survived are looking great. This is the flowerbed that attracts all the butterflies and bees.

Finally, I am loathe to post this but I don't know if I am going to be able to get a decent photo this year. Since the destruction of the badger sett in the woods by the logging that was going on, I have not seen the badgers coming through the garden anymore. So, I set up the stealthcam and sprinkled some sultanas around to see if I could find out whether they are still visiting. They are The bad news is that they are coming in the middle of the night which makes it difficult to get photos. They used to come every night without fail an hour or so after it got dark which made it easy to set up the camera and wait. Sorry about this very bad video but I just wanted to prove they are still coming.

As usual comments are welcome.

 

[wallyboy]

More lovely takes,
Glad the Badgers are still about.

 

[jennyb]

More lovely takes,
Glad the Badgers are still about.

Thanks, Walter. If the badgers come early enough I am still hopeful of a proper photo.

 

[Ladystrange]

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

 

[jennyb]

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

Thanks, Claire. Glad you managed to see them. Yes, I agree the baby Jay is cute but it has grown up quickly and does not frequent the bird feeder any more. I guess it is off finding acorns.

 

[jennyb]

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.

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.

 

[wallyboy]

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.

 

[jennyb]

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, Walter. Hope you got some good photos at the farm. Glad I have given you some inspiration!

 

[Ladystrange]

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

 

[jennyb]

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

Thanks, Claire. I never really know what I am going to photograph from week to week. Depends what catches my eye.

 

[jennyb]

With the start of the meteorological autumn, I am officially two thirds of the way through my project. I hope I can keep up the momentum until the end of the year.

Another mixed bag this week. I will start with the horrible one. I love wildlife and most creatures are welcome in my garden with the exception of two - moles and slugs. These are such destructive creatures which undo all the hard work that we put into the garden. So, the first picture - one of the culprits that destroyed half my dahlias and clematis.

He did not live much longer

Next something a bit brighter. There are still a lot of bees around.

I posted a shot earlier in the year of some alder tree catkins and said I would post a picture of some fresh female catkins. Here they are...

While I was checking out the Alder cones, I noticed that many of the leaves were affected by Alder gall caused by the Alder Gall mite. A bit weird.

I got an email from the Butterfly Conservation Society this week asking to report any sightings of the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly. Apparently there have been very few sightings this year. Strangely, I had just spotted three of them on the Echinops that morning.

The next is, I think, a Green-veined White but I am not sure. It could be a Small White. I am sure someone will let me know if I have got it wrong.

Finally, we have some gorgeous Dahlias and I plan to take some time to photograph each of them. They make a beautiful display and the good news is that the deer don't eat them. The more you pick the more they flower so I always have a vase full. Here is the first. More next week.

This weekend we are getting some much needed rain which relieves me of my watering duties.

Comments, as usual, welcome.

 

[Shirleyr]

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.

 

[Shirleyr]

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.

 

[jennyb]

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.

Hi Shirley. Sorry I did not see your comments. I wonder what happened to them? Anyway, thanks very much. Glad you like the photos. It is quite difficult doing such a long project. I started on January 1st and will finish on December 31st! There is plenty to photograph in the garden at the moment but it starts to get difficult as we get into winter.

 

[jennyb]

Very dissatisfied with progress this week. I am in the process of changing my post-processing to use Lightroom instead of DPP and Paintshop Pro. Last weekend I went through a whole online course to learn about Lightroom but it is not easy to change after using DPP and Paintshop for so many years. On top of that I only have Lightroom (64 bit version) on my laptop and I usually work on my desktop, so I have to keep swapping between them with the images on an external hard drive.

After a mixed week last week, the garden got a really good soaking yesterday when it rained all day. When I went out this morning everything was soaking wet so that is partly the theme for this week. I am not happy with this shot but thought I would include it anyway because it shows just how intricate these spiders webs can be.

Next, the dahlia theme - we have several different varieties and they all put on a good show. I really like bright coloured flowers and these photos reflect the colours quite accurately. I was not sure which of the next two I like best, so I am posting both.

Finally, another bee shot. They are becoming a bit monotonous.

I really hope I have a better week photography wise next week. I am struggling.