As per, been super busy with various volunteering tasks and work at the pub. I'll just make this a brief post with some September photos.
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| Garden carpet moth on our bird of paradise plant (11th Sept) |
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| Raindrop covered hibiscus (12th Sept) |
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| Raindrops on a large white butterfly caterpillar clambering along chicken wire (12th Sept) |
My Dad and my Gramps were always very keen on keeping fish and reptiles and that sort of thing. In the past year my Dad has started this hobby up again with various beautiful fish, but more interestingly freshwater blueclaw crayfish
(Cherax quadricarinatus). These are native to Australia and apparently they are a delicacy over there. I personally wouldn't eat one, being a veggie, but they are certainly very attractive! My dad has inadvertantly managed to breed them and tells me there are 7 young ones scuttling around the tank (I don't really like to advertise, but he asked me to write that they are for sale). Cute as far as crustaceans go! He also kept a recent exoskeleton to show me, and knowing that I am now making a little collection of odonata exuviae etc, he thought it would be a good addition to my collection :)
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| Adult male (15th Sept) |
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| Juvenile |
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| Exoskeleton |
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| Underside |
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| The first one Dad got eating a fish (taken in December 2012) |
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| Little blue flower from a wild flower seed mat. Any ideas? Side view below... |
Monday 16th I braved the M25 traffic and drove up to Whipsnade Zoo. I had a wonderful day, mainly due to having my own personal tour from a very lovely friend :) They have about 1000 free roaming animals in the grounds - the mara were pretty darn cute!
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| Mummy Mara and her 2 bubbas! |
Mum and I drove down to Dungeness last weekend (21st) and purchased some new bins :) long overdue! We tested them out watching the skulking egrets and the wonderfully agile sandmartins. I never tire of watching hirundines skim the water for tiny insects, building up their weight ready for their long journey back to their winter residence. Some of my average attempts of photos are below.
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| Little egret on land |
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| Sandmartins |
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| Cormorant |
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| Grey heron |
Mid week we had some lovely sunny weather and the cosmos flowers were bloomin' pretty. I thought the pinky purple colour complemented the hazy green of the plants behind. Most of the photos I hardly edited at all and I was pretty pleased with the outcomes.
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| Cosmos at lunchtime |
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| Carder bee |
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| Bracken enjoying chewing his new toy |
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| Evening primrose |
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| Fuchsia |
morning of 24th
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| Cosmos in the morning |
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| I cropped this slightly and changed the contrast a little bit |
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| I only altered the contrast in this photo ever so slightly |
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| I only cropped this photo very slightly, other than that unedited. |
Anyway that is probably enough cosmos photos for now! I will hopefully post again soon with some interesting caterpillars I have seen on various walks and vol tasks. Thanks for reading all :)
Exoskeletons are pretty fascinating ! Loved your share
ReplyDeleteOur cosmos are seeming to love this time of year with a huge show of blooms too.
Thanks Willow! I think I'll pop some exuviae of different dragonflies on my next post :)
DeleteI too think thay exoskeleton is fascinating, as for the Mara never seen one of them, it looks like a hare on steroids :o).
ReplyDeleteGreat images, really like the the garden carpet moth and the small ring of light and the darkness surrounding it, very smart.
Mara are native to various regions in South America and yes they do look like maybe crossed between a hare and a capybara or something! Thanks Re. moth. Just required my mum holding a torch and pointing it at the moth :)
DeleteThe Crayfish are rather sweet. Like the exoskele too, fascinating. Your watery pics are great as is the heron coming in to land. Sorry don't know the ID of little blue flower but t'is very pretty. Nice to see some colour still around isn't it? CT :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you CT, it is indeed lovely to see the odd burst of colour in various places. A garden down the road from us has beautiful Autumn crocus' which I have told mum we should get some of!
Deletenice crayfish shots and like you I wouldn't eat one (being vegan). I like the Mara however Bracken steals the show - wonderful image.
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon :) Bracken does have a habit of looking rather cute and always loves his photo being taken!
DeleteSome wonderful shots Lou! Love the Heron and cormorant. Crustaceans are incredible! Unless they are invading our rivers... Noticed lots of butterflies on wing today, lovely to see them all still. Glad you enjoyed Whipsnade :)
ReplyDeleteTom x
Aw thanks Tom :) Yeah I don't think my dad is planning on setting any loose! Glad you still have some flutters, our last ones seem to be whites and speckled woods. Looking forward to a Scottish post from you :) x
DeleteLovely photos especially the ones with raindrops at the beginning :)
ReplyDeleteFascinating to see the crayfish exoskeleton. I think they are rather cute :) and a very unusual pet :)
Lovely Cosmos photos - glad they are still flowering so well - ours are still a picture too :) Great pic of the Carder Bee :)
Sounds like you had a great time at Whipsnade.
Thanks RR :) It has been a great month all round!
DeleteWonderful photos again. I'm fascinated by the crayfish and the Mara are gorgeous. The young are very cute. The cosmos is lovely at this time of year, so good to see some flowers still looking so fresh. And I'd love to visit Dungeness to see the wildlife there - I must work out how I can do it in a day.
ReplyDeleteBaby animals no matter what species always turn me into one of those people that makes silly noises at babies! Dungeness is great, lots of different routes you can walk and lots to see. We can only usually manage a couple of hours there due to the hound. We don't think it is fair to leave him for more than a few hours, being a hyperactive collie cross!!
DeleteBeautiful photos Lou, I do love the way you get the light...still working on that! I love the heron with a great background. The Mara are fab and how lovely to have them roaming about. Whipsnade sounds lovely. I did look up that blue flower but couldn't quite find anything, probably looking in the same book as CT, nearest ID I could get was a bellflower.
ReplyDeleteThanks Suzie :) I did go to Whipsnade when I was 5 or 6 but I didn't recognise it which seemed odd. Thank you for looking up the flower, sometimes they baffle me! I'll investigate more closely when I get a chance!
DeleteSeems your dad and granddad were the source of your own inspiration Lou Mary. Good to hear that the older generation can provide some useful help. So many photos it's hard to choose a few special ones but I liked the mara (never heard of that one) and appreciate the skill involved in getting a shot of a tiny and fast moving Sand Martin. Nice to be so close to Dunge!
ReplyDeleteYes I am lucky to have had a few people who inspired me. My Auntie Ruth and my mum too :) Thank you for your kind comment, the hirundines are certainly a species which require a lot of photographic practice! I'm not really close, about an hour. Manageable distance though!
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