While I had a nice intermezzo with a big green Cricket (I tried to photograph this Cricket but he only showed me his back instead of head) I noticed something orange in the distance on a tree trunk. I was happy that this must be a butterfly but which one....not that there is much choice here in the South of the Netherlands. For a few seconds I hoped for the Queen of Spain Fritillary but ‘unfortunately’ it was the Comma Butterfly which is a common butterfly. The Comma Butterfly, together with the Peacock Butterfly, Small Tortoiseshell, Brimstone and nowadays the Red Admiral, belongs to the hibernating butterflies. During the coldest months they are hibernating as adult butterfly in sheds, garages, farmyard buildings, hollow trees, caves etc. in which they are protected from the worst of the Dutch weather.
I hope that this Comma Butterfly was not the last butterfly which I catched in 2012 with my camera!
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Each year after the summer holiday I have the intention to visit some heather area’s and each year my plans fade away. Again this year.....I wanted to photograph the Small Copper on flowering heather but again I was too late. I did not find one single Small Copper or any other butterfly, instead I found two resting Bumble-bees on the remaining pink flowers and a few hundred spiders. The Bumble-bees were resting on and between the upper flowers and the wind rocked them around. Photographing these hairy creatures was more a gymnastic exercise for me as I needed three arms: one to hold the reflector as wind protection, one to focus my lens and one to operate the shutter release. I love it to be out alone but an assistant on demand wouldn’t be bad sometimes!
In the past week a lot of little creatures like butterflies and dragonflies, disappeared. Some of them I find again in spider webs. That’s the circle of life.....eat and be eaten! The European Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) is the most common and well-known spider. The females are much larger than the males and the females are the web builders. On the web or in a nearby leaf they are waiting for prey to get entangled in the web. The prey is then quickly captured and wrapped in silk before being eaten. Here a grasshopper jumped into the wrong direction.....as the spider was sitting nearby on a leaf it looks like the grasshopper committed suicide. The catch on this image was an Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis).....you can see that this beetle used his defensive chemical (yellow/orange stuff) isopropyl methoxy pyrazine. When agitated, they releasing it from their legs.
Here he is....the sweet little roisterer who is devastating my new furniture!
One week ago I rescued a very frightened and shy kitten but within a day he changed into a playful (and naughty) kitten. Time is really flying and in one week a lot can happen. I rescued two animals which gives me a lot of energy although......I kept one and he costs me energy as he is 6 or 7 weeks old. Writing a new blog is almost impossible as he is walking over my keyboard and needs a lot of attention. This sweet little thing was crying for help and nobody stopped nor helped him....it’s unbelievable for me that a lot of human beings pass an animal in need without helping! Nature is changing very quick now; a lot of butterfly species are gone and not much flowers are left. Every hour which I have available I go out and search for spiders, butterflies and other creatures. The only butterflies which I recently found in the evening was the Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus). It’s an inconspicuous species with his brown wings and an unusual sleeping posture. Yesterday evening I was very happy that I found two Small Heaths in the last sunlight. Unfortunately one butterfly changed its sleeping position but the other one was cooperative. Here you can see the same butterfly in almost the same position, one without and one with sunlight on his wings.....it’s amazing what sunlight can do! In the last minutes all the clouds disappeared and I witnessed a beautiful red sunset.....it was a race against time but I’m satisfied with the following result of the same butterfly:
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Jibt dir dit Leben mal een Buff, denn weene keene Träne. Lach Dir'n Ast und setz Dir druff und baumle mit de Beene.
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