What's buzzing or flying near you 2025 ?

Great Black Backed Gull

 

At the river today, does this look familiar @Fat Controller ?



Canada Geese

 

It's a nice area, we stopped off for a couple of hours in transit from Berwick-on-Tweed to Falkirk.

 

The female woodpecker that visits numerous times a day brought her juvenile today, I was so pleased to see it. They stayed for ages and she alternated between feeding the baby with sunflower hearts and then bits of suet nuggets. Not very good photos as I was taking them through my kitchen window with my phone!

 

We have woodpeckers here @CatDouch, but they rarely come in the garden due to plenty of good habitat nearby. I regularly hear them when I'm outside.

The youngsters of various types have been in though
Hello!

Where's our tea, Dad?

 

Lovely to have you back again @fairygirl your pond looks lovely and clear , do you do anything to it to keep it so clear? My pond water is clear but this year the top is covered with duckweed. I don’t mind too much as it’s a wildlife pond and the birds don’t seem to mind. Once the froglets leave the pond I think I’ll skim it to remove as much as I can.

 

I'm always thrilled to see a greenfinch in the garden. I hear them a lot, and spotted one shouting "weeee - ul" from the top of a neighbour's tree the other day, but they don't often come into my little patch.

It's been a very busy day for tits - lots of young blue tits chasing each other around the feeders. Seems to be a good year for them.

 

Funky little chap on the Astrantia.

 

Goldenrod Crab Spider 1: Hoverfly 0

 

Hi @CatDouch , thanks. I don't do anything to the pond. The bit you can see in that pic is very very shallow. I enlarged/altered the pond just when the whole pandemic/lockdown thing was going on, but the ground is so compacted and it's solid, sticky clay, so I was struggling to get more of it at a deeper depth. However, it means it's great for wildlife because there's lots of space and shallow areas for them to drink/bathe, and especially for insects to drink. I expect our pretty regular rainfall means that there's less build up of 'stuff' too. Cooler temps, generally, here will probably help to keep algae away too as the water stays cooler for longer.
I used one of those pond clearing options - can't remember which one, in the first year, but I've not used anything since. I add watercress in late spring/early summer, because that's when the water warms up and the blanketweed/algae appears, but I also like a bit of swizzling with a long stick, or walking round to the beach bit and shoving my hand in to remove it
There's a good layer of gunk in the base now, which gets disturbed when the birds bathe, but it all settles. We get lots of damselflies etc, and this year I had a larger dragonfly, but couldn't get a pic at the time it appeared. I tried looking up which one it could be, but there's quite a few that are similar.

 

The best photo I could get!! I was hiding behind a pillar in our carport using my phone
My swallows have raised a brood of 5 chicks and they fledged yesterday morning and came back to the nest with the parents at dusk last night, I’m so pleased. Hopefully they’ll go on to have a second brood.

 

Lovely @CatDouch . Fingers crossed that they all do well once they're out there by themselves.

 

Mute Swans