Photos from our garden

[Cibach]

Here are a few photos from our garden.

This is a European Nuthatch. They are part of the woodpecker family.

[img]Nuthatch by Gillian Clancy, on Flickr[/img]

We have a couple in our garden most years.


This is a Great Tit. We have lots of these.

[img]Great tit by Gillian Clancy, on Flickr[/img]


This is a pair of Spotted Woodpeckers. A parent feeding their chick from our peanut feeder.

[img]woodpeckers 5 by Gillian Clancy, on Flickr[/img]


And here is a bee on a Scabious flower.

[img]Bee on scabious by Gillian Clancy, on Flickr[/img]



And this cheeky chap was helping himself to peanuts as well!!

[img]mouse crop by Gillian Clancy, on Flickr[/img]

[LPC]

Delightful photos. Thank you for sharing them.

[Catherine]

Wow, beautiful pictures. You have a "wild" garden where birds and squirrels feel at home. I love the woodpecker feeding its baby. That was amazing timing. The bee on the flower was good timing too.
Thank-you for sharing that with us.

[Tobi]

Your pictures are lovely. The Woodpecker feeding its young one is really charming, and yes it is well-timed! A second later and they could have flown away!

[Catherine]

Photography is all about the right time and the right place. It does help to have a beautiful garden. The squirrel at the feeder was cute too.

[Cibach]

Thank you for all your kind comments.
We do get squirrels in the garden occasionally, but that is actually a teeny field mouse. They came back and forth until the feeder was empty, so either they had a huge brood somewhere or they were building up a stash!!

We have a very solidly built brick shed in the garden and one winter I had a very large bag of peanuts for the feeder on the bench. I went in to refill the feeder to find an empty bag with a hole in it and all the brown skins of the peanuts scattered over the bench. Not a peanut in sight!! I have no idea where they got in as it was a recently built shed with all the possible gaps filled, but I guess if you're a determined enough little mouse with a taste for peanuts anything is possible!!

[Tobi]

I thought it looked like a field mouse. Sweet little thing. Mice will adore peanuts, and I would think they'd be good for them, especially in Autumn/Winter, as there are good fats and protein in peanuts.

It's amazing one little mouse managed to carry a whole sack of nuts away....one by one! That's determination and patience for you! But my guess is that mouse let all the neighbours, friends and family know about it, and they turned up to help!

[platy]

Your bees are so fluffy!

[Catherine]

You are right. They are fluffy. The big fluffy ones are Bumble Bees.
They form smaller colonies that honey bees. They are great pollinators and carry huge amounts of pollen in "baskets" on their legs.

I guess they are a northern hemisphere bee. What bees do you have in Australia?

[platy]

New Zealand has bumble bees too. Apparently they were introduced to Tasmania but haven't made it to the mainland, hence why I haven't seem them.
I guess our most noticeable is the European honey bee.
We have a range of natives too http://www.aussiebee.com.au/gallery.html

Love the woodpeckers too. Reminds me of the movie The Big Year. So funny, I highly recommend it.