The Photographer and the Starling

Starlings are such fascinating birds. They fly around in huge flocks and can empty a bird feeder in a few minutes. They are noisy and messy and generally not the most popular of all birds which I think is a shame.

The two things that fascinate me most about starlings are their amazing ability to mimic lots of other birds. I once had one land on the roof of my house and it made a harsh cry that sounded exactly like a magpie. I looked up expecting to see a magpie, one of my favourite birds, and instead this much smaller bird was sitting there. It is amazing how that starling could make such a loud noise when it is much smaller than a magpie and how it could mimic the sound so well.

I have spent ages trying to get nice photographs of s starling with mixed results. These birds are so busy and never seem to be around long enough to get a nice photo. They are also far less confiding than great tits or pigeons, making it impossible to get really close to them.

I have a wonderful 20x zoom lens on my camera that lets me zoom in really close to animals that are far away. The problem with this is that if the animal moves even a tiny bit the result is a blurry photo.

I tried photographing starlings on my bird feeder when they come rushing in to collect a beakful of mealworms. I got some really nice photos but the bird feeder always looks so dirty it spoils the photo. Unfortunately I am a perfectionist.

I decided I wanted a photo of a starling sitting in a tree. There is a nice tree that overhangs my back garden where I knew they would land. I think in the end it took me three weeks of patient waiting, crouching in the garden every day after putting out some mealworms, until I got the shot I wanted. Every single time I tried to take a photo the bird was looking the other way, or it moved. I have a lot of photos of a tree with a bit of tail sticking out and things like that.

I did finally get a photo I was pleased with, although being a perfectionist I would like it if the bird was looking towards me just a bit more, but overall I think the photo captures the beauty of this bird as it sits in the tree and the sunlight shines off its feathers.

The following photo is the one I took. Being a 12mp camera I was able to enlarge the photo slightly when I made it into a greeting card in my shop so the original is a little smaller but apart from that the photo is as it was when I took it.

Starling in a Spruce Tree Custom Birthday Card by Fallen_Angel_483
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My carnations are blooming in September!

Went out into the garden this morning as usual to check the crops and found that a couple of my carnations are flowering again. They had all finished during all the unseasonally harsh wind and rain that we have had but now apparently a couple of them have decided to flower again.

These carnations really do get better with age. They are now in their second year and have produced much earlier than they did in their first year and there were many more flowers.

I do find that they are the most difficult flower to photograph. Not sure what it is about them that makes them look awful in almost every photo I take.

Here are some products I made with my best carnation flower photos to date. I guess now mine are having a second flurry of activity I should get out there and try again to photograph these beautiful flowers!

Pink Carnation Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Pink Carnation T Shirt by Fallen_Angel_483
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Pink Carnation Mousepad by Fallen_Angel_483
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All the small things

I love to use macro photography to capture small insects and plants in lots of detail. It is often amazing when you see a macro photo blown up large on the computer screen for the first time and you marvel at the detail and complexity of nature. Even animals and plants that you completely take for granted can be so fascinating when you view them this close.
Here are some amazing macro photos on products in my Zazzle store Natural Beauty.

Gorgeous Moth Mousepad by Fallen_Angel_483
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Yellow Chionodoxa Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Passion Flower Macro Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Butterfly Greeting Card by Fallen_Angel_483
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Small Magpie Moth Greeting Card by Fallen_Angel_483
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Green Bush Cricket Postcard by Fallen_Angel_483
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Brimstone Moth Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Bumblebee on a Thistle Avery Binder by Fallen_Angel_483
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Don't pull up all your nettles

In the pursuit of gardening excellence wildlife sometimes gets overlooked. Your own back garden should be a place to support nature and you can without compromising the beauty of your garden.

In a time where more and more gardens are being lost to concrete it is really important to turn your garden into an inviting habitat for wildlife. You can do this and still have plenty to delight the senses.

Here are some tips for supporting your wildlife.

1. Garden ponds are very attractive places. You don't need a huge area of water to support frogs, toads and all sorts of insects like Dragonflies and Damselflies.

2. Rockeries can be made to look very attractive and will provide a cozy hibernation place for newts. Newts are great becuase they feed on slugs and other garden pests.

3. Compost bins are functional and will support lots of invertebrates that will encourage birds to come and forage in your garden.

4. Some of the most beautiful flowers are really helpful to insects. You can plant things like sunflowers, Lavender, Zinnia, Californian poppies and echinacea to attract bees and butterflies as well as making your garden look great.

Leaving a wild little area in the garden is really helpful to wildlife. I have some brambles, dandelions, nettles and wild grasses growing along with borage and Foxgloves. They grow around the compost bin with just a little path left to get to the bin. This helps mask the ugliness of the compost bin and also makes a great area for butterflies.

Without my little wild area I doubt I would have found a Small Magpie Moth in my garden resting underneath a Broccoli leaf. This is a very pretty species of moth that I was lucky enough to find and photograph.

Here are some products you can buy that feature this beautiful moth. The photograph used is my own photo taken in my own back garden.

Small Magpie Moth Macro Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Small Magpie Moth Keychain by Fallen_Angel_483
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Small Magpie Moth Mousepad by Fallen_Angel_483
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So next time you feel like pulling up those nettles think again and you too could have this little moth living and breeding in your garden.

The goodness of grubs

Grubs are great! So I guess I am on my own here in saying I think maggots are awesome. I even go as far to share my house with them. Why would anyone do such a thing. I'll tell you why.

I breed mealworms to feed to the wild birds that visit my garden. Since I have been feeding mealworms out every day I have noticed a huge increase in bird numbers in my garden. This is great for the birds and great for me. I get to see the birds and I know where they are going to land so I can get great photos of them.

You can normally buy mealworms from pet shops. They are used to feed some types of reptiles and amphibians that people increasingly keep as pets. The mealworms sold in the shops are expensive and often literally on their last legs. Most shops don't have the time or space to keep their own breeding stock so they buy the mealworms from suppliers. This means the mealworms are old when you get them and will soon be no use for feeding to birds.

I have a simple breeding system that allows me to produce 200-400 mealworms per day without costing much money or taking up a huge amount of space. They do take up quite a bit of time though.

To breed them you have to get 2 or 3 tubs of mealworms and keep them until they go into a pupa. About a week later they hatch out into beetles. You want to leave beetles in a container with bran and cabbage for about 3 weeks then remove the beetles into another tank and keep putting tiny bits of cabbage in every day so that when the beetle eggs hatch the tiny grubs have food. They will slowly grow for about 8 weeks then should be large enough to feed to the birds. Once you have a system up and running you just have to maintain it.

The mealworms I feed out are full of goodness and lots of birds love them. They count on them during the hard winter and feed them to their chicks in the spring. It isn't always the obvious birds that come to feed on them either. I regularly get House Sparrows, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Blackbirds, Robins, Starlings and Magpies coming for the worms. I have also seen Horatio the squirrel come for them.

Here are some of my favourite photos of garden birds enjoying my mealworms. They really do provide so much entertainment.

Hungry Sparrow Apron by Fallen_Angel_483
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Tea for Two Sparrow Apron by Fallen_Angel_483
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Mealworn Munch Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Hungry Sparrow Print by Fallen_Angel_483
Poster printing by Zazzle

Robin Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Greedy Sparrow with grubs galore Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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GRUB UP Sparrow Apron by Fallen_Angel_483
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Hoverflies do not sting and 7 other facts

It is not always easy to tell the difference between a hoverfly (flower fly) and a bee or wasp. There are so many different species of hoverfly and this variety of shapes and sizes adds to the confusion.

I am by no means an expert on these little insects but here are a few things I do know about these fascinating creatures.

1. They do NOT sting

2. They are actually classed as flies, rather than wasps or bees.

3. Many of their larvae feed on annoying bugs like aphids, thus helping the gardener with pest control

4. The larvae form a sort of transparent chrysalis where they change into the adult hoverfly

5. Hoverflies only have one pair of wings, Bees and Wasps have two

6. Adult Hoverflies feed on nectar

7. They pollinate some types of crops and certain tree species

8. They mimic wasps and bees to deter predators from eating them

I had the good fortune to see an enormous Hoverfly on a Buddleia bush near where I live. It was such an impressive creature that I rushed back home to get my camera. Luckily when I got back it was still there and I got my photo.

I also photograph the smaller species that come into my garden. They spend more time hovering about than actually landing on a flower, making them very tricky to photograph. I also look out for their larvae in the hope they will keep pests off my crops.

The larvae are nothing like the adults. Here is a close-up that I took of a Hoverfly larvae recently.

and below are some hoverfly products available from my store

Bye Bye Hoverfly Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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Hoverfly on a Marigold Budget Tote Bag by Fallen_Angel_483
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Hoverfly Greeting Card by Fallen_Angel_483
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Hoverfly Mousepad by Fallen_Angel_483
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Hoverfly Print by Fallen_Angel_483
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The Amazing Vapourer Moth

I have quite an interest in moths. I can often be found out late at night hunting for interesting moths to photograph. One of the most fascinating species I have found so far was the Vapourer moth. I actually found this species as a caterpillar. It was the most extroadinary beast I have ever found. Here is a photo I took of this rather ugly beastie.

This animal totally fascinated me so I kept it indoors and fed it on dandelion leaves, not its typical diet but it ate them with gusto. It grew rapidly, as caterpillars tend to do, and soon entered into a chrysalis.

In the meantime I had identified the species as a Vapourer moth. Not just an extroadinary looking caterpillar but quite an unusual moth. Firstly the female is wingless. She will release chemical signals called pheromones. These chemical scents will attract a male. The male mates with her and she lays her eggs on the remains of her own cocoon. The female never flies.

The male is a day flying moth, not nocturnal like the majority of moths. He is very beautifully marked with his brown wings and their striking white eye spots.

Luckily mine turned out to be a male and after taking a few photos I let him go on his way. Here are some of the lovely products I made using one of my Vapourer moth photos.

Vapourer Moth Greeting Card by Fallen_Angel_483
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Vapourer Moth Mug by Fallen_Angel_483
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Fighting Moths by Fallen_Angel_483
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Fighting Moths T Shirt by Fallen_Angel_483
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I love Ladybugs

I have been growing a whole lot of my own vegetables in my modest back garden this year. I have decided to garden without using pesticides. I want to encourage as much wildlife to the garden as possible to help me with this aim.
Today I noticed that a pair of 7 spot Ladybugs have settled on one of my broccoli plants and are waging war against a batch of greedy greenfly intent on gobbling up my broccoli for themselves. No need for pesticides, those greenfly are going to be taken care of by my little red and black spotty friends.
On a less promising note I found a ladybug that I believe to be a harlequin ladybug amongst some marigolds that I was planting the other day. I am not sure I feel so happy about these non-native ladybugs being in my garden, especially if they aren't good news for the native ladybugs. I have to study the photos some more to be sure if they are Harlequins or not but I hope I am wrong on this one.
I have some ladybug photos in my
store
Here are a few of my favourite ladybug products so far. There will be a whole new series of ladybug photos coming over the next few weeks.

Ladybug Customizable Baby Onesie by Fallen_Angel_483
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Little Ladybug Customizable Binder by Fallen_Angel_483
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Ladybug Customizable Greeting Card by Fallen_Angel_483
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Ladybug Magnet by Fallen_Angel_483
Magnet from Zazzle

Harlequin Ladybird Girls T Shirt by Fallen_Angel_483
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