31 Days of October

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you BorisPasha. The sky was so very strange especially as it was quite dark to. The insects must have felt brave - I do tend to see quite a few butterflies when it windy though. I really enjoy my volunteering as it is so rewarding knowing you are helping maintain habitats for the wildlife and it something I look forward to every week.

I just edited my post for today with some pictures of a green woodpecker who visited my garden this afternoon.

[cypher]

Conservation work is always interesting & rewarding even if it's hard work it still sounds like fun, I used to do something like that years ago now & really enjoyed it too.
Lovely to see some of your garden wildlife, beautiful butterfly & the bees are lovely too, I had to laugh at the yellow wellies I'll think of that whenever I see them now, nice to see some happy birds, great shots of the green woodpecker, you caught her really well, hope she comes back to visit you again soon

[Thin Lizzy]

Catching up with 3 days of total bliss. I so squealed with joy seeing more pics of Sherbet The beauty ham, her little paws holding on so melted my heart.
You might not have had Papa Smurf long, but he would've have felt so loved by you.
The garden wildlife is truly breathtaking.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank You …

…cypher, conservation is so interesting and I also find it so very relaxing hearing the birds singing and seeing all the other wildlife whilst you are busy working. I do hope the green woodpecker come back to visit my garden again soon it was so lovely to watch her hopping around.

…Thin Lizzy, I’m glad you enjoyed seeing more photos of Sherbet, she was so gorgeous and she definitely knew how to use her looks to get what she wanted – lots of playtimes and treats! I’m sure Papa Smurf was grateful to have so much love before he went to the bridge – I do have a soft spot for older animals. I do love seeing the wildlife which visits my garden so it so nice to be able to photograph some of them as the most of the time I see a perfect photo opportunity I typically don’t have my camera to hand.

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18th - Flowers

I also enjoy photographing flowers/plants – as they make such perfect subjects for photographs as unlike hamsters they don’t move as soon as you are about to take the photo or demand payment in treats for taking part in photoshoots!

Whilst taking photos of plants I found to I could also experiment with all the features on my camera to help me learn what each setting does – I found this extremely useful when I got my camera last year.

Here are a few of my favourite flower photos I have taken …

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As well as photographing flowers I also enjoy taking cuttings from plants and seeing whether they root and grow. Last year, I took some cuttings from some chrysanthemums – about 30 – not expecting them all to make it however it turns out that they all decided to root and this year I had to find home for 30 chrysanthemum plants in my garden. They are all doing really well and are all currently flowering so they are providing lots of orange colour to the garden this autumn. Here is a collage of their flowers at different stages of opening …

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[cypher]

Really nice flower photos SKB, you must have a lovely garden! I especially like the sea holly, I love those but sadly they hate my wet garden, the sunflower & hydrangea are really great shots too although I like them all & it's hard to choose favourites.
Well done with your cuttings, those chrysanths area beautiful colour & must look wonderful at this time of year.

[Pebbles82]

I agree with Thin Lizzy! Three days of total bliss. What a lovely thread - so much in it. I love Sherbet's photos and it made me smile to think of her wrestling with Whimzees. Papa Smurf's story really moved me - I am so glad you adopted him and he had a happy loving home in his old age.

The bird photos are gorgeous! You have some really interesting birds in your garden! Wildlife conservation is a great thing to do and anything to do with watching nature is food for the soul

[souffle]

Stunning wildlife pics and the flowers really brightened up a dull day! The sky was very odd the other day. Apparently it was sand from the Sahara and smoke from forest fires in Spain causing the dust in the air turning it orange!

[BorisPasha]

Lovely pictures of the flowers, I especially like the second one down on the right. I forget what they're called but it reminds me of a thistle

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you ...

...cypher, I found it so hard trying to decided which photos of share as I have so many favourite photos of flowers - I do enjoy taking close up photos so I can capture all the details in the flower. A few of the photos weren't taken in my garden however my garden looks lovely in the spring and summer although currently my garden look very bare apart from the chrysanthemums.

...Serendipity7000, Sherbet did enjoy wrestling her whimzees it was always so funny to watch. Papa Smurf was a very special hamster - I don't know why his previous owner decided to take him back to p@h but I'm so lucky to have found him up for adoption. I really enjoy watching wildlife and it also very rewarding knowing that all the work that we do is ensuring that their habitats are properly maintained.

...souffle, the weather on Monday was so very strange, at first I thought my eyes had gone funny, it was not until I noticed that their were white fluffy clouds in front of the yellow clouds which made me look online and found out what was causing it. I never knew that Saharan sand and forest fire smoke could turn the sky yellow and sun red. I realised in the evening I should have taken a photo!

...BorisPasha, I do really enjoy taking photo of flowers it nice that they don't move and decided to run away when you are taking photo and also really nice to capture the beauty of the flower. The second one down on the right is a Sea Holly

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19th - Birds

At the end of last month I visited a local bird park which is home to lots of exotic as well as British birds. I hadn’t been there for a very long time, so thought it would be lovely place to spend a day. I took my camera so I could take plenty of photos – which I realised that morning I hadn’t charged up either battery pack for my camera– so luckily I realised with time to charge them up.

I really loved the bird’s bright and vibrant colours. Some of the birds were very curious and would fly toward me and land on the mesh as I was taking a photo – which a couple of times gave me quite the fright. Whilst taking the photos I was talking to the birds and was thanking them for posing so nicely for the camera – as I’m so used to doing this for Pumpkin – I did get a few strange looks from other visitors but I’m sure the birds were grateful.

I took lots of photos that I found it so hard trying to select only a few to share. A few of the photos have slightly blurred parts from the meshed wire of the enclosures as I had to try to focus my camera through the holes and then would accidentally move slight as I was taking the photo.

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[cypher]

I think most gardens are starting to look a bit bare now SKB but yours must still look nice with all those chrysanthemums mine's looking very bare now after storm Ophelia swept through it!!

Great photos of the birds, what an amazing selection, I'm not even sure what some of them are but they're all beautiful, love the owls & the one above them.