Leaves for Leontien

Sending Leontien my heart felt best wishes for her continual recovery.

Woodland Woodpecker

The Great Spotted Woodpecker

The Great Spotted Woodpecker has a black head, and a black bar separates the white patch on the neck.

This is the first time I have ever seen a Woodpecker feeding with any bird.The conspicuous red rump always gets my attention, and I grap my camera and take the photos through the patio window, but the quality is poor.  

The Juvenile has red crown

The peanuts lure the Woodpeckers to my garden, but the swinging motion on the feeder, is a bit of a problem!!

I will be taking a short break as from next week.

Pretty Pigeons

The Pigeon

I don't know what variety of pigeon these pigeons are, but they are very pretty, so I decided to post them anyway.

Blue Bijou

Lang's Short.Tailed Bue
Leptotes pirithous (Lycaenidae)

Lang's Short.tailed Bue Butterfly rarely reveals it's upper wings, which are mainly violet.blue in the male, and more brown in the female. The barred underwings are marked by two colourful eyespots, and a long tail.It favours flower rich grassland.

The Lang's Short.tailed Blue is a powerful flier, and strong migrant.It's migrantory habits allow it to reach almost anywhere
within it's range.Common and widespread in the south of it's range, scarce further north.I have seen hundreds here this year.

Hovering 2

The Hummingbird Halk-moth

Cautious

A Juvenile Robin

BREATHTAKING BLOG AWARD POLICY

Just recently, I was very kindly honoured in being nominated for the LIEBSTER BLOG AWARD, by Jerry, from The Great Outdoors , a great nature blog and the VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD by Fallar from Las Mira, another very interesting nature blog. I am extremely grateful and thank them both for thinking of me, but will not be accepting them or any other future awards.

After much thought, I have decided it will be this blog's policy not to accept any awards seeing as most of them entail passing them on, and not wanting to discriminate between fellow bloggers and all the fantastic blogs I follow, I feel this is, for me, the best option.

Many thanks again to Jerry and Fallar, and for those of you who don't yet know their blogs, I can tell you they are well worth a visit.

The Water Babes

The Nymph of the Damselfly
At the beginning of summer the nymph leaves the water to begin it's metamorphasis.

The nymth climbs up a reed, the skin splits down it's back and the Damselfly emerges.
I have never been fortunate enough to actually witness this transformation,but thought I
would show the nymth-.cuticle, which eventually dries in the sun and falls in the water.

Dainty Demoiselles

Male Damselfly Arigon Virgo

Female Damselfly-Agrion Virgo

The New Arrival

Local breed of cow from the north of Portugal ( Minhotes)

Dear fellow bloggers, as you probably know my first love is painting, and just recently I have been offered a couple of portrait commissions. Untill they are compleated I will be taking a blogging break.I should be back in August.

Gliders

The Swallowtail
Papilio machaon ( Papilionidae)

This Swallowtail has lost one of it's trademark tail streamers on the hind wing

The Scarce Swallowtail
lphiclides podalirius (Papilionidae)

The ground colour of the wings is yellowish but can look confusingly white in strong sun light as above photo shows.

From The Depths

The Viperine Snake
Natrix maura

Whilst I was at the pond one day last week, this Viperine snake emerged from it's depths.This gave me an opportunity to capture these two photos before it saw me and slithered away hidden by the vegetation.My first thought was for the Newts,but although I stayed there for a while hoping to get another shot it didn't reappear.These snakes eat fish and amphibians, and grow to 70cm in length.

The Mountaineer



Purple-shot Copper
(L. a. gordius)

This Purple.shot Copper butterfly is so bright and pretty that I just couldn't stop taking photos of it! This beautiful little butterfly is seldom seen below 1,000m. It can be found in the Alps, Pyrenees, and other neighbouring ranges.

Of the Family Salamandridae

The Newt

These photos were taken at different times and on different days. Strange looking little fellows, but oddly attractive. I'm not sure if they are Marbled Newts, and would appreciate any suggestions as to their correct identification.They have changed their appearance since I first spotted them!! I really wanted to take some photos of these Newts on land, but could only get these under water shots. It's not always the same Newt, and some images are clearly better than others but none of them are as good as I would have liked.

Pollen Probe

The Bee Beetle

This is my second post of the Bee Beetle.Yesterday I unintentionally deleted it along with all of your lovely comments for which I apologize.

Only have Eyes for you

The Peacock Butterfly
Nymphalis io (Nymphalidae)

The Peacock Butterfly basking in the sun on garden chair

Sun basking on warm surfaces is not unusual in many species of butterflies.

The eyespots and bright colours make the Peacock an unmistakable butterfly. 

Decorative Duck Continued

I saw these two ducks swimming together, and think the dark one is the male.

A Hybrid Duck

Local Lizard

Ocellated Lizard
Lacerta lepida

Cautiously he came out of his hiding place,

decided I was not a threat so went to lounge on top of the rock.

Ocellated Lizard
Lacerta lepida

This is the male of the species as it is more colourful.