FANTASTIC WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS
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We have just had a magnificent Swallowtail fluttering round the garden, it landed on the geraniums.
I tried to take a photo but have a new (secondhand) phone that did its own thing. I have an image but not good enough for posting.
Excellent Bonjour, such a joy to see them.
Very lucky yesterday and extremely pleased to see two swallowtail butterflies in the garden. Also delighted to get my first ever picture of a swallowtail laying an egg on our carrots. Amazing to watch as they are very particular where they lay their eggs and only lay one at a time. Then moving on to a different plant to repeat the process. As you can see, the egg laying swallowtail had a damaged left wing. The one on the lollipop was perfect.
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Still on the subject of butterflies. Please don’t throw your over ripe bananas away. Hang them up with a bit of garden wire and after a couple of days see the butterflies start to arrive. They love the sugar so much that you can approach closely without disturbing them. Don’t hang the bananas near to a door or window, as they also attract flies and wasps.
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I am guessing this might work with ripe melon and other things? I shall hang some above the compost heap, then in due course snip the twine.
Thank you for the idea Twinkle.
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Bonjour I’m sure all fruits produce sugar as they ripen, so it should be an interesting and successful experiment. At our previous house, we had many apple and pear trees. It was always an absolute joy in the autumn to see so many butterflies feeding on the fallen fruit.
We recently took a BF trip from Roscoff to Plymouth.
I spent a good while sitting by a large window on the Starboard side.
I was heartened to see so many fit healthy seabirds, particularly Gannets both hunting and flying, adults and juveniles. This was in sharp contrast to the many rafts of dead Gannets and other birds of two or three years ago.
I also saw a lot of Petrels, more than I have ever seen in the Channel. Around three miles off Plymouth there were a pod of Common Dolphins and seconds later a shoal of Blue fin Tuna with some fish only a few metres from the ship and at right angles to her.
Amazing sights.
Bonjour Twinkle, more great shots. What equipment are you using please ?
It’s a GardePro E8P wildlife camera with WiFi connectability. On Amazon it cost 120€ as well as a 32gb memory card costing 11€. I’ve only had it a few weeks, but thus far am very impressed. A major advantage is the rechargeable battery, eliminating the regular need for expensive replacement AA batteries. The WiFi connectability is also very useful and not too difficult to understand. Just one word of caution, I have used these cameras quite a lot over the years and they don’t have a great lifespan. I’m afraid external usage takes its toll. That said, I would expect them to last a couple of years or more with luck.
Thank you Twinkle, I have tret myself and placed an order.
I am hoping to be able to set up a bird of prey feeding station close to the camera. It is simply a dead mouse nailed onto a post or stump. If it is not nailed they fly past and snatch the food. Nailing it means they need to land and pull it off. I would love to get some shots of the Owls.
Time will tell.
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Thank you both and well done on your purchase Bonjour, I have no doubt you will enjoy it. Your feeding station idea reminds me of a similar exercise my neighbour in England did twenty years ago. He used to regularly feed a wild barn owl at dusk with a box of dead chicks that he used to buy. Here are a couple of pictures I took.
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I think you should enter these in the photograph competition. The images are unbelievably good. Thank you.
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