Wildlife Wednesday

Common Frog

Lens-Artists Challenge #120 – What A Treat!

Here in Ireland, we find ourselves in lockdown again. So we have to stay within 5km of our homes. So for this week’s lens artist challenge it was a case of heading back over the year’s photos and seeing what types of treats there were.

Seeing and being able to photograph wildlife is always a treat for me.

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  bumblebee on knapweed

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  White butterfly on verbena

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  Tortoiseshell on scabious

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  Male bullfinch enjoying dandelion seeds

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  grasshopper

Wildlife Wednesday

Sea anemone

Wildlife Wednesday

starling melody

Silent Sunday

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  Frog or two

Wildlife Wednesday

Bluetit

Bye bye 2019

As we say goodbye to 2019 and the decade, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you that have taken the time to read, like or comment on my blog. You support and interest keeps me writing and posting photographs – I could not do it without you.

Coal tit

Our world is a constantly changing place – sometimes for the better, sometime for the worst. Let us hope that 2020 and the new decade will bring lots more positives, for our environment, wildlife, and for people everywhere.

The Burren, Co Clare

Our little planet is beautiful and wonderful. Living here should inspire us all to do what we can to make it a safe, peaceful and glorious place for all things.

Happy New Year!

Fallow deer (farmed)

White butterfly

Lichen

Goldfinch

bumblebee

Wildlife Wednesday

The children and our visiting cousin from American found this little fellow by the compost heap yesterday.

Hedgehog

Excitement turned to sadness as we discovered he was injured. He was dragging one foot behind him and the other looked hurt too. He did eat some food we offered and we put him in a safe place overnight, with food and water.

You can see his leg sticking out behind him

This morning we brought him to our local vet. She told us his leg is broken and he also appears to have further internal injuries around the broken leg. She is not sure he will make it, but is keeping him till tomorrow to see if there is any hope for the poor thing. It was amazing seeing a hedgehog so close, just sad that it was not a happy, healthy one. We don’t know how it got injured. It may have got hit by a car and managed to get itself to the compost heap as it is only a few metres away from our small road.

Hedgehogs will use compost heaps to find food and also for hibernating in. They mainly eat insects including earwigs, beetles, spiders, caterpillars, slugs and earthworms. They hibernate in the winter when these animals are scarce and hard to find. As our winters are relatively mild in Ireland hedgehogs generally hibernate between October and March.

In Ireland, hedgehogs are protected under Appendix III of The Berne Convention and under the Wildlife Act (1976) and Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000. Hedgehog populations have declined dramatically in Europe, but no research has been carried out on hedgehog populations in Ireland. Use of slug pellets, increased use of chemicals, agricultural intensification and road kills are all thought to contribute to declining numbers. For more information click here.

Wildlife Wednesday

An empty blackbird nest in the beech hedge in the garden, exposed now because winds have blown the brown leaves off before the new ones are ready to open. We suspect either eggs or chicks were predated.

blackbird nest

 

Wildlife Wednesday

I disturbed these two little ladybirds when I was harvesting the last of our apples yesterday. They had found a lovely sheltered spot between three apples (well at least till I came around).