SKB’s Photography

[SKB_Hamsters]

I have been contemplating for a while now on creating this thread as a means of sharing some of the other photos I take apart from ones of Pumpkin which I share on her thread – and seeing that it’s a New Year I thought this would be the ideal time to create this thread.

I really enjoy taking photos as it a lovely way to capture memories but also a way to take a snapshot of something which simply catches my eye – this normally includes flowers, foliage, wildlife, landscape to name a few. I use my Canon PowerShot SX530HS bridge camera to take my photos – although I have had my camera for a year and a half now I am still finding that I’m learning about as well as also still experimenting with all the setting on my camera!

____________

The Moon and some Butterflies

On New Year’s Day I visited a local garden near to where I live and see their flower themed Christmas light again before they took them down – and seeing as I have membership so can get in free – I thought it was a lovely way to spends the late afternoon/early evening and was a perfect opportunity to take some photo too. Whilst taking some photo of some of some of the lights I noticed the moon was in it full moon phase – as the sky was really clear and still – so I really wanted to capture its beauty. It took me a little while with some trial and error to get a good clear detailed photo opposed to a blurred glowing ball – before I was successful …

44081

After I got my clear photo of The Moon, I began to be a little creative using both the moon as well as the trees to capture these photos too …

44082

Whilst in the tropical glasshouse I noticed around some butterfly feeding stations not expecting to see any due to it being late I was pleasantly surprised to see a few – some hanging down from undersides of leaves whilst another enjoying some orange. I’m hoping to go back later this month during the day and hopefully see some more butterfly even watch some flying about as well as take loads more photos. But here are 3 photos of 3 individual butterflies which I was happy to see …

44083
44084

[cypher]

Great shots of the moon, I really like all of the nice creative tree silhouettes against the moon but I think the moon alone has to be may favourite there.
Lovely butterfly & really good captures!

[BorisPasha]

Beautiful pictures SKB :D I love the pictures of the moon with the tree silhouettes, very stunning. Love the butterfly sitting on the orange too :) I'll look forward to seeing some more!

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank You cypher and BorisPasha

_______________

Wildlife

Today I thought I would share a few photos of some wildlife that I took back at the end of October (although the Squirrel was beginning of December). Pumpkin has given me good training in taking photos of wildlife which moves as quickly as she does!

A Robin and A Grey Squirrel

44125

Butterflies

44126

and two busy bees

44127

[Pebbles82]

Beautiful photos :-) I especially like the moon - was it a supermoon? I know there was one in December and another one due after Christmas. Where it is extra large as closer to the earth than usual.

[Thin Lizzy]

Aww SKB, more of your wonderful talent. Stunning pics.

[Drago]

All such beautiful pictures SKB! I had no idea you were so skilled in photography :) I especially love the pic of the robin

[BorisPasha]

Lovely pics again SKB, I love the robin and the squirrel but I think the squirrel is my favourite, just love the way it looks against the tree and the orange of the leaves :)

[SunnyOy]

Wow, you are very talented! I love the little Robin and Mr. Squirrel. The idea of photographing the moon is extraordinary! Admire your sense of beauty. :D

[dreamtree1234]

Wow, I just love all your amazing photos! I especially love the moon by itself and the moon with all the tree silhouettes. Capturing such detailed moon photos are quite a challenge and your expertise and artistic eye definitely did the moon's exceptional beauty justice, SKB! You are truly a very talented photographer, and I definitely look forward to seeing more of your great pics. Thank you for creating this lovely thread and sharing your great talents with all of us. :)

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you so much Serendipity7000, Thin Lizzy, Drago, BorisPasha, SunnyOy and dreamtree1234 for you lovely compliments and I'm pleased that you all enjoyed seeing my photos. I was very fortunate with getting a photo of the robin and squirrel - previous attempts when trying to photograph birds or wild mammals they have disappeared as soon as I get my camera to focus.

Serendipity7000, I wasn't aware of supermoon but your reply made me research it and I found out that the night of 1st Jan there was a supermoon (day I took the photo) and their is another one is predicted on the 31st too. It did look slightly bigger in the sky although I still had to zoom in to about 100x to get a clear detailed photo (I have never zoomed in this much before)


(I tried sharing some photos the other day after sharing the photos of Pumpkin on her thread but somehow I had accidentally pressed a button on my computer which caused my laptop to be put in a safe/aeroplane mode so couldn't work out how to access any internet signals but today I have managed switch it off so can now share my photos I had planned to share!)

____________

Chrysanthemums

Today I'm going to share a few photos of my favourite flower - the chrysanthemums. I absolutely love them especially as their flowers comes in some many different forms, colours and the plants themselves are easy to propagate by cuttings. They also flower at the end of year and continuing flowering until they get frosted so add lots of colour into the garden when the other plants have died back for the winter.

This first collage I have shared before in the 31 Days of October thread, of my chrysanthemums. They lasted really well into December until they got frosted however they have started to produce new shots and I have some cuttings for my winter colour this year. They are also my favourite colour Orange!

44243

In my previous post the butterflies where enjoying the nectar from a beautiful chrysanthemums back in October when for my dad's birthday we visited a local horticultural garden - I was amazed to see so many butterflies on one plant before - I have been looking to get one of these one for my garden for the butterflies.

Here are a few more photos of some other Chrysanthemum I took when I visited the garden in October -

44241
44242

[dreamtree1234]

Such gorgeous photos, SKB! I'm so happy for you that you captured such a special lunar event - the supermoon - in all its glory. :) You truly were very lucky to capture the images. It makes your stunning moon photos all the more memorable and special for you. I have tried in the past to view the supermoon, but I unfortunately have always seemed to miss seeing it at its fullest and most impressive stage because something unexpected always came up and made it impossible for me to go outside at that time.

I love all your beautiful chrysanthemum flower photos, too. Those cluster of flowers are quite impressive. I especially love the solid orange ones in the first collage and the pink merging into a salmon orange center ones on the bottom of the second collage. I also love all the details in the top photo of the second collage; the flowers look like the color of a blazing fire. :)

[cypher]

Sorry SKB, I missed your previous post, love the Robin & squirrel, the butterflies are really beautiful, the contrast with the flowers really shows them off well, it goes without saying I love the bee shot ;)
Love the rich colours in the the chrysanthemums, particularly like the petals in those first three.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you dreamtree and cypher so pleased that you are like seeing my photos of the wildlife and chrysanthemums.

_________

Exotic Butterflies

I visited my local horticultural garden this week to see and photograph the butterflies inside their glass house. It was a lovely day out even though it was really windy and raining heavily outside - due it not being busy they allowed visitors to stay inside the butterfly exhibit for as long as they wanted opposed to a normal 30min time slot which was lovely as I could admire all of the beauty of all the different species butterflies without being rushed, watch their aerial acrobatics and take lots and lots of photo. In total I stayed in the exhibit for 2 hours and in that time I took 453 photos! (although my camera is set for continuous for when I take photos of Pumpkin).

Don't worry I wont be sharing all 453 photos just a selection of some of my favourite. The species of butterfly in the exhibit are usually found in The Americas, Asia and Africa so are a bit different to the butterflies I usually see in my garden or when I'm doing my wildlife conservation volunteering.

Here are a few of the photos I took - I have includes what species they are beside the photos (although 2 I'm unsure of as they weren't in their butterfly spotting guide which was provided)

44279
44280
44281
44282

[cypher]

Sounds like a real treat having all that time to enjoy the beautiful butterflies SKB & your photos are lovely, some really stunning species there, I particularly like the second photo, showing how leaf like it really is & the final one where you can see the movement of the wings.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you cypher, it was a lovely way to spend the morning especially when it was such awful weather outside, being in the warmth out of the bad weather watching and photographing butterflies really brightened up my day. I thoroughly enjoyed it - so much so I might have to go back next month when its still quite!
The Indian Leaf butterfly was really well camouflaged so many people walked past this leaf which was slightly obstructing the path not realising there was a beautiful butterfly on the other side so perfectly blending in.
I tried to capture some other photos of the butterflies flying around but my camera found it difficult to focus however as I had already focused on this butterfly before it took of I managed to get some action shots.

[dreamtree1234]

Amazing photos, SKB! It must have been truly amazing to not feel rushed to leave after the half-hour visit. You were so lucky it wasn't busy and they allowed you to take your time to enjoy all the splendor of these gorgeous species; it would be so easy to miss a spectacular sighting of a well camouflaged butterfly otherwise. They are all so gorgeous and your pics of extremely detailed and lovely as always. I couldn't choose a favorite as they are all so special and unique - love them all. :)

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank You dreamtree1234

_____________

My Furry Garden Visitors – Ratties

For a number of year I have been getting the occasional rat visit my garden – although it has been over a year since I last seen a rat in my garden but yesterday I had a new very welcome rat visitor to my garden who is still a youngster/baby! My garden wildlife soon earn themselves names – including Spike (the very large Hedgehog), Woody (the woodpeckers), Mickey ( Mice), Limpy (a female pigeon which limps as it walks down the slope of my garden) and my past garden rats (Cheddar, Mozzarella, and Blue Cheese).

My Past Garden Rats - The first Rat who ever visited my garden was Cheddar a male rat who soon made the garden his play area climbing through bushes, as well as climbing my garden tree and the metal bird feeder pole to reach the bird feeders so he could get something to eat. One morning I discovered a piece of string dangling from the bird feeder pole which was left over from a coconut which was stuffed with suet! For a few month I enjoyed watching him and then I didn’t see Cheddar for a month - I was wondering what might of happen to him but one day he returned with a “close friend” Mozzarella (a female rattie) they used to play with each other and a little while later alongside Mozzarella was one adorable baby – who I named Blue.

Since those three I haven’t seen a rat in my garden for a while now. I personally love rats, so they are more than welcome in my garden – despite some of my relatives keep telling me I should put traps and poison out (no-way!) as apparently I don’t want them in my garden! I will never put anything out to kill these beautiful animals and I like to consider my garden as a haven for wildlife including rats! They are such fascinating and intelligent animals to watch – and sometime in the future I want to have pet rats but in the meantime my garden rats are considered my garden pets.

Yesterday evening, a new little visitor was spotted exploring the garden, running around, climbing up the bushes trying to reach a bird feeder before scaling the metal bird pole and tucking into the suet nuggets. The difficult thing was trying to come up with a cheese themed name for her/him (like my other garden rats) after looking through list of cheeses - I finally decided on Red (short for Red Leicester). Red was even out when it was snowing this afternoon – enjoying some more of the suet nuggets. Before climbing back down and running off.
I just had to take some photo, So meet Red …

44536

[SKB_Hamsters]

More Butterflies and a Robin

Last week I decided that this Wednesday I was going to visit the butterflies again. Seeing the forecast on the weekend I thought I wouldn't be able to go due to the "Beast from the East" bringing snow and freezing temperatures (it even caused my wildlife conservation volunteering being cancelled Today due to the snow!) - luckily yesterday we only had the remains of the snow left over from Tuesday afternoon light dusting of snow that I was still able to visit the butterflies.

It was lovely to see the butterflies again, this time they were flying around more than they were last time - as it was really, really hot inside the glasshouse (a complete contrast to the weather from outside - I even had to go outside with no scarf and coat on to cool down a little!) and the sun was streaming through the glass - keeping the wings of the butterflies nice a warm for their aerial displays. So it was a perfect place to spend a freezing cold day - apart from my camera took a little while to adjust and lens to stop steaming up!

This time there were some different butterflies than there was last time and it was really lovely to watch them flying around giving aerial displays.

Plus I saw a robin who I currently residing inside the warm glasshouse, he was singing away and I manage to get a quick photo before he disappeared back into the undergrowth!

44558
44559
44560
44561
44562

[cypher]

Really beautiful photos SKB, how lovely to see all those wonderful butterflies & forget about this dreadful weather for a while! :)
The robin is really sweet, it must have been lovely to see him/her & listen to the song, I've missed mine singing in the garden early in the morning these last few days when it's been too cold even for a robin to sing!

[BorisPasha]

Just getting caught up with your lovely photos. So many exotic looking butterflies and I enjoyed reading about your garden visitors. It's nice that you give then names too. I hope you'll get to see more of Red pottering around in your garden if/when the weather improves :mad:

[Thin Lizzy]

Seeing these pics warmed me up with the beautiful colours. You really do have a good eye for getting amazing pics SKB.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you cypher, BorisPasha and Thin Lizzy. I'm pleased to hear that the photos helped to warm you up during the cold weather. It was lovely spending the day with the butterflies again as it lovely to be so warm on a freezing cold day.

I hope the weather begins to start warming up soon considering it now spring! Although the other day whilst tending to some of my flower seedling in my garden I saw lots of large bumble bee buzzing around - I should have lots of pollen rich flowers for the bees, butterflies and other wildlife soon. I'm really hoping the weather begins to warm up again so I can get back in my garden and start taking photos again.

BorisPasha, I missed a very good photo opportunity on Monday of Red - I was sitting in my greenhouse potting up my seedling and out of the corner of my eye I see movement in the bushes to my left - thinking it was a bird I was pleasantly surprised to see it was Red. She was only about 2 arm lengths away and all that separated us was a piece of glass and she wasn't phased by my presence at all. I kept saying "awwh" as she was so adorable. Then she enjoyed nibbling on a piece of apple in my garden which I put out for the blackbirds to eat during the cold weather.

______________

The Views From an Aeroplane Window

I recently re-discovered these photos that I captured on the 16th September 2016 which I took using my iPad out of the aeroplane window during my long flight to Orlando. I never had a window seat on long haul flight as however this time I did and after getting bored of the on-board entertainment I decided to take a couple of photos out of the window.

These are two photos I took as I was flying over the East Coast of the US (if I remember correctly I think I was over South Carolina at the time) ...

44856

[BorisPasha]

Aww the missed photo opportunity, it never fails though. I only have my phone for taking pictures so try to keep it in my pocket but I never seem to have it when one of the hams is looking particularly cute or doing something funny :mad:

Love the pictures out of the plane window, good that you had such a clear day to get such amazing shots :)

[cypher]

All that blue sky from the plane window looks amazing SKB!
Hopefully we'll have some of that soon & I'll look forward to seeing more of your garden & wildlife.
All my flower seedlings are still indoors & with more snow forecast I'm not expecting to do much in the garden just yet!

[Thin Lizzy]

Now that's one hell of a view, breathtaking!

[dreamtree1234]

I truly enjoy this great thread, SKB! I love hearing about all of your adorable enchanted garden friends and seeing all the stunning pics. I love all the butterfly pics and definitely smiled at your darling little Red. I do hope that he continues to frequent your lovely safe haven. I look forward to seeing him again, too. :) I also love that you have special names for all your little garden friends and think it is so sweet that they become part of your extended family over time. I hope that you will one day see Cheddar, Mozzarella, and Blue again, too. I loved hearing about their story as well. I definitely agree that rats are quite wonderful little creatures and very entertaining to watch.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you BorisPasha, cypher, Thin Lizzy and dreamtree1234.

___________

Wildlife and Flowers From a Local Horticultural Garden

Saturday Afternoon as the weather was nice, I visited a local horticultural garden with my parent as it had free entry this weekend and as I hadn't been for a while - I thought it would be a lovely place to have a walk and take some photos.

It was so lovely to see lots of spring bulb in flowers along with other spring flowers to photograph there were more flowers out that I had expected so here are a few photos -

44979

as well as a bee enjoying the cherry blossom nectar and a tree branch covered with lichen ...

44980

As well as plant there were lots of wildlife to photograph. So many squirrel digging in the grass and flower bed searching for their buried nuts, which did make trying to photograph them very difficult as they were moving to quickly but with some patience I got lucky with a squirrel who sat on a branch just above ground level to eat it nut it had found which was perfect photo opportunity. I haven't seen this many squirrels in one place in a very long time!

44981

I did see lots of other wildlife as well as the huge number of squirrels including both male and female pheasants, mallard ducks, mandarin duck, moorhens, a thrush to name a just a few. Here are a few of my favourite wildlife photos I took ...

44982
44983

[Pebbles82]

So many lovely photographs! I particularly like the squirrel one and the last four bird ones. It's actually quite hard to get a good photo of a squirrel close enough without them moving! That one looks really quite big!

[cypher]

I've been missing spring this year so it's lovely to enjoy your beautiful photos SKB, the blossoms are really lovely & I do love lichen too.
Great wildlife shots of the squirrel & the birds.

[BorisPasha]

Wonderful pics SKB, I really like Mr Duck, he looks very serious in that picture :) Love the squirrel too with his big bushy tail.

Your photo with the bee is only the second bee I've seen this "Spring", I saw a bumble bee on my blossom tree the other day :D

[Drago]

Beautiful photos! You really do have such a talent for photography..

I love that pheasant :)

[dreamtree1234]

I love all the beautiful photos of wildlife and the blooms. The lichen pic was quite lovely, too - it's very artistic. The pair of mallard ducks put a huge smile on my face and made me think of Robert McCloskey's famous children's book Make Way for Ducklings. I hope they will have little ducklings following them, too. Of course, the squirrel pics are precious. I'm sure you had a grand time watching them gathering all their hidden treasures. They are always so fun and entertaining. :)

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you ...

... Serendipity7000, I did struggle trying to take a clear focused photo of a squirrel as they were moving around too much (and I thought Pumpkin was difficult to photograph). I didn't want to get too near to the squirrel just in case I startled them but fortunately my camera has very good optical zoom therefore I could manage to get a good photo at a distance away.

...cypher, I hope spring reaches you soon - I have been eagerly waiting for spring so I can get wildlife photos and to start sowing my seeds. I loved the texture of the lichen and is something which most people would ignore. I was surprised by the amount of wildlife that was out and about during my afternoon stroll.

...BorisPasha, Mr. Duck does look serious in that photo - although the other ducks where sleeping so he might have just have woken up. I hope you start seeing more bees soon - I have been seeing loads over the recent weeks especially big bumble bees - I even had to rescue a bumble bee who became stuck in my greenhouse behind the bubble wrap took me a little while to get it out the door to freedom.

...Drago, for your lovely compliment I do thoroughly enjoy taking photos and experimenting with different subjects . Male pheasants look so majestic and I was also fortunate to see a female too as they are often a lot more harder to see. The male did try his best at trying to get the attention of the female but she wasn't interested and ran off.

...dreamtree1234, I don't think I have heard of that book before but whenever I see ducks I always call them Donald and Daisy. I was amazed by how many squirrels I saw as I don't have any that come into my garden they always captivate me with the agility and their excellent senses to find their hidden treasures.

_____________

Close Encounter of the Furry Kind and Red Leicester the Rat

This week whilst out doing my wildlife conservation voluntary work and I was sitting down having my lunch all of a sudden I see the tarpaulin which had our bags on beside me suddenly moving. At first when I saw the grass moving I though it was a big spider but then an adorable little face appeared - which instantly melted my heart especially as he looked so overcome in fear of all the people around. Initially I thought this cute face belonged to a mouse but turned out to be a vole. The vole kept me amused for a while rustling the tarpaulin from underneath and peering out every know and then - he didn't know where to go as the tarpaulin was surrounded by us all eating our lunch but eventually it found a large enough gap to make a run for freedom. This was the first vole I have ever seen in person so it was so lovely that it was such a close encounter only about 10cm away from me.


As well as the vole my other rodent friend my garden rat Red Leicester has been keeping me amused and entertained with her antics. Today she decide to climb up the tree in my garden and was having fun climbing up and down the branches after all that fun she climbed up the bird feeder pole and tucked into the suet pellets. Luckily today the birds let her enjoy some food as the other day a starling pecked her tail so it could get to the food - she didn't hang around and quickly disappeared. After that encounter Red was being more cautious and was listen out to the bird calls making sure she was safe. She stayed around long enough to get some good photos though before vanishing again ...

45044

[BorisPasha]

That must have been lovely to see the vole, shame you didn't manage to get any pictures :)

Good for Red getting tucked in to some food :D

[dreamtree1234]

Sounds like you had quite a lovely time enjoying the vole - how cute. I'm sure glad that it didn't turn out to be a huge spider, lol. I'm so pleased that Red was able to get some of the yummy food from the bird feeder, too. He sure is quite adorable. I love seeing his pics, especially the last one. He is truly adorable, and I'm sure he must be tons of fun to watch.

[SimonandSyril]

Adorable! and great photos

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank You BorisPasha, dreamtree1234 and SimonandSyril. It was a shame that I didn't get a photo of the vole. Red is a lot of fun to watch in the garden and I have been seeing a lot of her this week although I haven't taken any more photo as they would be identical to those I have already taken.

________

Ring Neck Parakeets and Spring Flowers

Today I thought I would share these photos I took 3 week ago during my afternoon walk that I haven't got around to sharing yet. Including a Ring Neck Parakeet which I often see /or hear when I'm in my garden. I think they are very beautiful birds but very difficult to photograph as they camouflage well in the trees. However when I took this photo there wasn't any leaves on the trees yet although I did have to zoom in quite a bit so the colour quality wasn't very good so I decided to grayscale the photo which I really like the silhouette look off.

45201

And also here are a few more spring flower photos ...

45202
45203

[dreamtree1234]

Lucky you, seeing lots of Red this week! I'm sure fond of this little one, too. He seems to be quite the entertainer! :) I also love the new pics. WOW, the silhouette of the parakeet on the tree limb is totally STUNNING!!!! The grayscale technique made it truly breathtaking and artistic. It looks like something from a wildlife magazine. I wish gorgeous parakeets were present in the wild where I go on a stroll. It must be so wonderful to see them like that. The four spring flower photos are so detailed and vividly beautiful. I sure love this thread, SKB! :)

[cypher]

Beautiful spring photos SKB, I really like the silhouette shot too.

[Thin Lizzy]

I do love that silhouette pic. Beautiful colours making me smile and feel warmth.

[BorisPasha]

Wow the silhouette picture is stunning and I never realised that there were parakeets in the wild here. I had to look them up and discovered that they are mainly in the South East of England which would explain why I haven't seen any :mad:

The flower pictures are lovely too :)

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank You dreamtree1234, cypher, Thin Lizzy and BorisPasha. I am pleased you like the silhouette photo of the parakeet. I quite like to see the spring flowers in bloom despite the weather not being too good - although yesterday I had a lovely morning that I decided to plant some of my plants out in my garden so looking forward when they starting flowering.

BorisPasha, they are quite a common sight (and a sound) hear in the south east of England. I too were surprised by my first sighting of one in my garden and hearing them but they are a quite a common sight/sound now. The other year they even enjoyed eating the sunflower heads of my mum's sunflowers and sometimes I leave monkey nut out for them which they do enjoy cracking into.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Caterpillar, My Wildlife Pond and Flowers

This week whilst I was out doing my wildlife conservation volunteering a fellow volunteer and myself discovered this beautiful large caterpillar (7cm/~2.7inches) when we were trying to find this very interesting and beautiful looking fly which we had only seen moments ago - which we didn't see again. So we decided to put the caterpillar in a clear plastic pot so we could take it to another volunteer who could identify the caterpillar - this is when we discovered it was a Drinker Moth Caterpillar. As my bag was nearby I got my phone out to take a few photos before it was taken back to exactly were we found it. So here are the photos I took ...

45487

Yesterday I spent the day starting the construction of my wildlife pond. I have wanted a wildlife pond for ages now and when my parent asked me what I wanted for my birthday I said a wildlife pond - so they are paying for the supplies and I am constructing it - albeit my birthday isn't until the 14th of June I just couldn't wait and I thought the first stage would take a little longer than it actually did. So in the morning I dug a hole for my plastic preformed liner to sit in - a short while into digging I discovered a large conifer root which was going diagonal through my hole - which my dad helped me to remove. Once the hole was large enough I started to secure the pond in place with sand and compacted the soil (clay) that I had dug out from the hole around the pond ensuring the pond remained completely level. Then I filled the pond up with water and decorated the border with cobblestones. The pond is fairly small - 100 x 60cm/150l - but just the size I wanted and fits perfectly in the space I had available.

My wildlife pond isn't yet finished as I still got to add the plant both around and in the pond, add my water feature and then add a few pond snails - and the final step is to wait for the wildlife to move into there new home!

I thought I would share a few photos of how my pond look now (I will also show photo of my wildlife pond when it is finished) ...

45488

Whilst taking photos of my wildlife pond I also decide to take a few more photos from around my garden ...

45489

45490

45491

[dreamtree1234]

Wow, that caterpillar is gorgeous and really large! I have never seen any caterpillar like that around here so I decided to find out where they reside, and they only live in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland - no wonder I haven't seen any, lol. :) Great pics of it, too!!! I am also extremely excited about your early birthday present from your parents; that is very sweet, and I'm sure you will have tons of fun with it. Your wildlife pond looks great, and I look forward to when it is complete and all of beautiful wildlife make it their lovely home. It is so wonderful that you are making this sanctuary for them, and I'm sure it will bring you years of happiness to see it thriving and so full of life. What plants are you planning on planting around it? I also love all of your flower photos. They are absolutely gorgeous. The red poppy is so vibrant, and the white and purple one is lovely (purple and white are my two favorite colors with purple being number one). The strawberry - YUM!!!!! I know that you are probably anxiously awaiting for that one to turn nice and red so it will be ripe enough to eat. :) The osteospermums are so pretty; they are such a happy flower and make me smile. I love all of their variations in color, but my favorite one is the purple and white one - big surprise, right? ;) Happy early birthday on the 18th of June, SKB; I'm sure that I will be wishing you the happiest of days then, but I feel you can never receive too many well wishes even if a few are early, lol. :)

[cypher]

The caterpillar is lovely, your photos really show it up well.
Great work on the pond, it's amazing how fast all sorts of wild life will find a pond & so much fun to watch! Look forward to seeing more of it as it develops. A wonderful early birthday present that I'm sure will continue to give you so much pleasure for a very long time to come.
Really nice to see some of the flowers from your garden too, I think the strawberry flower is my favourite, I do love that simple beauty :)

[Thin Lizzy]

It's really big isn't it! Love your pond SKB. That strawberry flower is truly gorgeous!

[BorisPasha]

What a very fancy looking caterpillar SKB, he looks like he has the perfect camouflage :)

Lovely pictures of the flowers, especially the poppy. Though I really like the white osteospermums. I love strawberries, I hope it becomes red and ready to eat soon :)

What a wonderful birthday gift. Do you think you get any fish for your pond or are you just going to sit back and see what appears naturally? I'm looking forward to hearing about your pond visitors :D

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you dreamtree1234, cypher, Thin Lizzy and BorisPasha. It was so lovely seeing the caterpillar last week during my volunteering - it was so beautiful I was lucky enough to see another Drinker moth caterpillar this week alongside a baby fawn curled up in the tall grass waiting for it mum to return. I love how my wildlife pond has turned out and I have been really enjoying observing the wildlife which are using it. The strawberries are starting to change colour now so wont be too long before Pumpkin and myself are enjoying some.

Happy early birthday on the 18th of June, SKB; I'm sure that I will be wishing you the happiest of days then, but I feel you can never receive too many well wishes even if a few are early, lol. :)

Thank You for you early birthday wish although my birthday is on the 14th.

Do you think you get any fish for your pond or are you just going to sit back and see what appears naturally? I'm looking forward to hearing about your pond visitors :D

No, I am not getting any fish for my pond and I am just going to wait to see what wildlife decide to call the pond home. Also the reason against getting fish is that I would be worried about cats and wild birds who might of decided fish would be a tasty snack. Instead of getting fish I decided to get pond snails instead.

__________

Wildlife Pond and Snails!

My Wildlife pond is now complete and I am very pleased with the outcome of my hard work and my parents buying all the supplies as an early birthday present to set up my pond. Last Sunday, I dug a flowerbed around the front of the pond for some more flowers - all the flowers plants in the flowerbed I have grown from seed and have nurtured until they were ready to be planted out. Also last weekend I installed my water feature which is an elephant - I absolutely love it and I think it really cute. This Saturday I went to my local garden centre to buy the aquatic plants I had wanted as well as 5 Pond Snails! I absolutely love my wildlife pond and I'm very intrigued to see what might decide to call it home!

Here is a photo of my finished wildlife pond. (dreamtree, I have include a list of all the plant I have planted)...

45565

Some close up photos of my Elephant water feature ...

45566

Meet my Pond Snails who inhabit my pond - I have 3 Great Pond Snails and 2 Ramhorns Snails - I think they are beautiful. I didn't think I would see much of them but actually I have seen lots of them since they have moved in - they have been coming up to the surface to breathe and have been exploring all around the edge of the pond just beneath the water surface. Here are photos of two of my 5 snails - as the other disappeared off to explore before I could take photos. I just love my pond snails!

45567

As well as my Pond Snails I have also have another snail who decided to visit my wildlife pond/garden - it was having fun climbing over the cobblestones and having a water side stroll around the edge of the pond. I did decide to move the snail to somewhere else in my garden as my plant had only just been planted out the day before so I didn't want anything deciding to take too much of a munch on them. I named this adorable snail Sloe. Sloe also decided to pose for the camera after moving him/her to another safe haven in my garden!

45568
45569

__________

I just thought I would quickly mention that I wont be able to be on HC as much as I would like over the next few weeks/months due to lots of other commitments which will mean I am going to be really busy and I might not have sufficient free time to spend replying to post. However this doesn't mean that I wont be reading through the forum on a daily basis but it might mean I will be unable to post replies like I would usually. If I find that I have sufficient free time available I will certainly come on HC and reply to threads and update you on Pumpkin's naughtiness but I cant guarantee it at this moment in time. I just thought I would let you know in advance.

[dreamtree1234]

Aww, the fawn nestled in the grass is a wonderful surprise! I really do love deer and always am trying to keep watch for any sightings of them around where I live, but I have sadly only seen a few of them in the woods while driving. Although I am glad to get a glimpse of them, but then worry that they may be hit by a passing car.

I'm glad that your strawberries are beginning to turn red now. I'm sure that you and Pumpkin will thoroughly enjoy them soon enough. Eros and I will probably be enjoying a few ourselves later this week, too. Yum!!!!

Oops, I am so sorry for the typo on your birthday well wishes. :( Happy Birthday on the 14th, SKB!!! May it be truly amazing and special. I'm sure that your family and Pumpkin will give you a well-deserved spoiling, lol. :)

I totally love your wildlife pond. It is absolutely gorgeous and I love that you are waiting to see who arrives and calls it home. That is so sweet; I hope you have lots and lots of wildlife coming to your delightful sanctuary. I am really excited for you and look forward to hearing all about them. :) I also love the adorable elephant fountain; in Thailand, an elephant with their trunk up like symbolizes good luck (especially if that elephant happens to be a rare white one). In fact, one of the Thai kings gave President Abraham Lincoln one during the American Civil War in order to wish him luck in preserving the nation and winning the war, ending slavery. I hope that your elephant gives you infinite luck as well. Thanks for sharing your list of flower bed and pond plants with us; it looks like you certainly have a wide variety of lovely ones. They look so beautiful and will become even more amazing when some of them start to fully bloom. Aww, I love all of your Great Pond Snails and Ramshorn Snails, too. They are so cute, and it so sweet that some of them decided to come and greet you when they came up for some air, lol. That must have made you smile. Do you have names for these five cuties? Oh my, I also adore Sloe; great name, too. I love that he/she posed for the camera, too, lol. All of these pictures are absolutely amazing and very detailed. I definitely don't have a favorite one this time because they are all equally great.

Have fun with your other commitments, SKB! I will look forward to seeing you around the forum when you get back. Take care, give a cuddle to Pumpkin for me, and have an AWESOME birthday on the 14th!!!! Hugs!!! :)

[Thin Lizzy]

WOW at the elephant water fountain, It's gorgeous, you've done a fabulous job skb.

[BorisPasha]

I think your pond looks fantastic SKB and the elephant is very cute too :) It's nice that you got some snails for the pond and I'm sure they'll be very happy there.

Sloe was doing a very good job there of posing for the camera ;)

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you dreamtree1234, Thin Lizzy and BorisPasha. Sorry for the late reply. My wildlife pond is doing really well and I have been really enjoying it to myself. I love watching my snails as they are more fascinating to watch than they would seem and I have some insect larvae currently residing in it.

I plan to share some updated photos of my wildlife pond most likely tomorrow or sometime this week as I have to take a few more photos as the flowers are all in bloom so it looks lovely.

dreamtree1234, I haven't given the snails names instead I call them by the type of snail they are such as the great pond snails I call them "great" and the ramhorn pond snails "Ramhorns" as I would feel bad calling a snail the wrong name.

[Rads]

SKB, love your little pond, and with the hot weather a true oasis for wildlife especially hedgehogs who struggle to get water to drink in hot urban enviroments.

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you Rads, I am really enjoying my pond as well as my garden wildlife. I haven’t yet seen a hedgehog this year yet but it easy for them to access if they require a drink.

____________

Wildlife Pond Updates plus Sun and Bee Photos

My wildlife pond is doing really well and my garden wildlife have been really enjoying it to. Insects have been laying eggs in the pond - this including a rat tail maggot the larvae form of a drone fly this has to be the strangest thing I have ever seen. Whilst the bees and butterfly have been enjoying the pollen rich flowers surrounding the pond.

Here is a photo I took today of my pond ...

45866

I have been really enjoying my pond snail however unfortunately I have sad news one of my pond snails sadly passed away but the other 4 are still doing really well. My snail eggs have recently hatched so I have lots of adorable tiny baby pond snail (both ramshorn and great) enjoying my pond to - I am really excited to see them grow up in adult snails.

Here are a some of photos of my pond snail and the eggs before they hatched

45867

As well as my new addition of my baby snail I have also got a new species of snail which have also been enjoying my pond. I have identified my new snail as bladder snail which their eggs must have been on my pond plants when I bought them. They are a tiny species of snails - this is a photo with of a full grown bladder snail beside my finger nail for a size comparison.

45868

I also thought I would share a few other photos I have taken this month including sunrise and sunset photos as well as a bee having a rest on a flower in my garden ...

45869
45870

[CookieBlossomBella]

Your photography skills are truly amazing. Your photographs are outstanding, they really are! It's nice to get to know people's hobbies on the forum apart from hamsters. It makes me feel like I'm part of a proper community. I really hope you continue to share your talents with the world. XD

[cypher]

Your pond is looking really good SKB, it's amazing how quickly they come to life!
The sunset is gorgeous & it's lovely to see the bee on your flower.

[Thin Lizzy]

Such bright colours SKB, not too keen on the snails as they're so slimy. Loving your pond, sunrise, sunset and bee pics. I do love bees.

[dreamtree1234]

I absolutely love hearing all about your lovely pond, wildlife sanctuary; it is the perfect place indeed. It really is thriving; the gorgeous flowers are so vibrant and welcoming, and adorable snails are looking as cute as can be. Congrats on getting the next generation of snails, too; that is exciting news although I'm so sorry to hear about the passing of one of your darling original snails. I'm also happy that you now have a new species to add to your snail family. The bladder snails are quite pretty. Although snails are slimy, I do think they look quite adorable and really have a silly personality, too. The sunrise and sunset photos are truly remarkable and extremely vibrant. The pic of the cute, fluffy bee resting on the flower is so sweet and endearing; I really do love bees. That photo truly made me smile. You really are talented with photography, SKB! I love this thread. :)

[Pebbles82]

Beautiful photos SKB. I especially love the sunrise one - that can be very difficult to capture well. The snails are fascinating and so lovely they had babies and they are doing well. So sorry one of the snails died. I have not heard of bladder snails before. They are all very lucky to live in your wildlife pond :-)

[SKB_Hamsters]

Thank you CookieBlossomBella, cypher, Thin Lizzy, dreamtree1234 and Serendipity I have been really enjoying my pond and I'm so pleased with it - I love listening to the water trickling when I'm in the garden or have a window open. Although I have been having to top up the water during this heat wave as the water had been evaporating quickly due to it being a small pond.

My baby snails are getting bigger, it been so lovely watching them grow up although nowhere as big as their parents yet.

I always think sunsets and sunrises are so beautiful - I don't know why I never photographed them before but these two were special so had to capture them.

Thin Lizzy, I'm shocked to hear you don't like snails - I think they are such fascinating creatures and also very beautiful. When I was a child I used to go around my Dad's allotment rescuing them all (also the slugs) and placing them in my little plot! My parents thought I was crazy especially having them crawling around my hands and arms! So I'm so happy to have my very own pond snails as pets in my wildlife pond - which I spoil with wilted cabbage leaves - there favorite!

[dreamtree1234]

SKB, I love hearing about how you rescued the little snails and slugs when you were a child. That made me giggle and brought a HUGE smile to my face. I totally understand. I still do that today and even have names for my slug "pets" that come to visit after it rains. The two slugs that I see the most frequently are Limitty because he is the skinnier of the two and Squirmity because he wiggles much more and squirms as he slinks along the pavement, lol. I, too, just love how snails and slugs look; they have such adorable faces, and I love their two pairs of retractable tentacles on their heads and the way their mouths move as they eat. :) I love that you have your own pond snail pets in your wildlife pond and always look forward to seeing their pics and hearing about how they are doing. Congrats again on them having babies; before you know it, you will be a great, great, great, great grandma of tons and tons of cute, snail babies, too, lol. ;)