NATURE PHOTOS

It is much cooler now, still sunny, but it's pleasant to be outdoors again. The following photos for the most part were taken this week on my balcony, and in and around the garden and farm, but the birds in the shade were taken about three weeks ago when Eva, Pedro, and I went to the park. I used the same strategy as before, and headed for the nearest bench in the shade and waited for the birds to come within view. They were all hunting for food and many were successful as you will see in the images below. 

Plunp March Frog

 

I think this is a Hornet or an Asian Wasp as there is a nest in the abandoned cow shed.

I could only manage to photograph the rear end.

Not a good photo, but I wanted to show the eyes and this is the nearest I came to showing the face.

These little blue butterflies are everywhere in the garden.

A Coal Tit taken from my balcony

Not sure, but probably a Buzzard

A thirsty wasp on my balcony

Drying off afterwards.

The Geranium Bronze butterfly is back again

Saw this insect on my balcony

• The following photos were taken in the Park, all some distance away.

SQUIRREL WITH NUT

Squirrels visit my balcony every day. Sometimes they eat their findings on the balcony ledge or they scurry away to eat them elsewhere.When I saw this one in a nearby tree I took a series of photos to share with you all. They are all very similar, except for the last photo,and they are not in order but I hope you enjoy these images as much as I enjoyed taking them. 

After finishing the nut, the squirrel came back for another.

I will be linking up to Eileen's blog "Saturday's Critters," A wonderful nature blog where you can post photos of your pets or any animal of your choosing. To get there click on the icon on my left sidebar.

THE GREAT-TIT

The Great-Tit is by far the most frequent visitor to my balcony, and they seem to breed successfully every year. Most of these photos were taken from the library window. The library is directly under my bedroom, and next to the kitchen, so we, the family, decided it was more convenient to have our meals in the library as the dining room is in the part of the house that is now closed off. It is a pleasant room with lots of light, and just outside the window there is a shrub where birds perch in the shade and eat the food taken from my balcony. Here are a few shots I took in June. Dear fellow bloggers this post was already ready to post, for I haven't been to my blog in over a week as I have been ill, and I suspect it was COVID. having experienced the same symptoms when I caught the bug before, my symptoms were high fever, sore throat, a paroxysmal cough, which I still have, nausea, vomiting, and stomach ache. Feeling of acute exhaustion still persist, and that is why I have not been visiting your blogs. I need some time to fully recuperate and then I will visit with pleasure. Since I wrote this Pedro has now contacted the same virus and is in bed with a high fever. I can hear him coughing late into the night. I hope he recovers sooner than I have.

Great-Tit feeding it's chick.

Young bird, and it's expression is so adorable. 

Young chick asking to be fed.

Young chick

Young bird.

Young bird.

Another Great-Tit chick asking to be fed.

The youngsters grow as large as their parents, which makes it so difficult to ascertain which is which.

I will be linking up to "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Saturday's Critters".

MOSTLY BIRDS BUT OTHER CREATURES TOO

 All these shots were taken in June and July. I have just chosen a few, a mishmash of anything in my     garden. Two shots are of the male juvenile woodpecker that came to my balcony on it's own.

As you can see there is very little green grass left after the blazing sun burnt most of it

I saw this lizard jump up and catch the damselfly in flight,

Buganvília

The Red Underwing Moth  Catocala nupta

I saw this moth outside the kitchen door which is always in the shade. I had to lighten it a little, -

perhaps too much, as a lot of the detail has been lost.

Blue-tit

One morning I saw This Hoopoe on top of our lookout.

I will be linking up to "Wild Bird Wednesday" and "Saturday's Critters"