sunday with the roofvogels

Bird Friends of mine invited us over today to watch the ringing of barn owls that nested in their barn (ringing = banding in European lingo) by a Flemish Barn Owl protection group. Fortunately, there happened to also be a kestrel nest just 2 m from the barn owl nest (how lucky is that!!!!!), so we got to witness 3 kestrel young getting ringed as well. Stijn doesn't think they're cute, but I immediately fell in love with them!

There were 5 barn owl chicks, and Phoebe was thrilled to be able to hold one of them for a few moments. They were very docile and easy going, and she loved every minute of it.

Alex enjoyed a moment with a barn owl chick as well, which she loved. The kids have been watching "Dr. Doolittle" and all wish they could talk to animals, especially after this special session!

Here you see a younger chick and its older sibling which was born some days earlier - what a dramatic difference in size!

The female was soooooooooooooooo pretty to see, and luckily she remained in the nest box so we could get a close look at her. Now that's icing on the cake!

how many chicks have you seen in your garden?

This spring I've seen loads of chicks in our garden, thanks to our well-stocked feeder that attracts them from far and wide. Somedays they devour the food in < style="font-weight:bold;">chick count? Not spectacular, but not bad either ...

5 blue tits
5 great tits
2 marsh tits
3 green finch
2 great spotted woodpecker
1 robin
1 hedge sparrow that won't stop chirping!
4 goldcrest

scorpion fly

nobody guessed, but thought you'd enjoy knowing about this cool SCORPION FLY (family Panorpidae, order Mecoptera). The MALE shown here has enlarged genitalia that resemble a scorpion's stinger, but MY fotos from a few posts back were of a female, which lacks this prominent feature. They've been very active in our garden the last few weeks and a joy to behold! Undoubtedly one of my favorite kinds of flies!

Carl the Carrion Beetle

While brushing my teeth this evening, I spotted a CARRION BEETLE nonchalantly walking across our hallway!!!!! It's Nicrophorus investigator, which translates to "i thrive on eating DEAD animals!"

It also goes by the name Sexton beetle (English) or Doodgraver (Dutch) - meaning "dead digger". This particular beetle was infested with tons of tiny, reddish-colored Gamasid mites, which apparently are harmless to the beetle, but look kinda creepy to the unknowing.

After putting it into one of our plastic insect houses, Phoebe's first question was, "what can we feed it?" I can already see she's hoping to keep it as a pet, but that would entail finding dead animals. At least that's cheaper than a trip to the pet shop to buy food. Oh no, is Stijn's Dutch frugality rubbing off on me?

I'm thinking .... Hmmmmmmmm ...... this could be my new angle for coaxing them into walking in the woods! We could design a scavenger hunt (ha ha ha, no pun intended) to see who can find the most animal carcasses ... but i wonder how fresh they have to be.

Just this evening, Phoebe talked about how she missed Dudley, the dung beetle, and how we provided a happy home for him for 6 months - funny what kids remember...

One thing's for sure, when they reminisce about their youth, they're more likely to remember the creepy crawlies we found than the home-baked cookies!

disaster strikes!

ohhhhhhhhhhhh, you won't believe the FRUSTRATION, the DEPRESSION, when I discovered my beehouses had been raided! By WHAT, I have no clue, but clearly SOMETHING had mounted the bee house, broken through the earthen plug, and feasted heartily on the pollen and beebabies so carefully tucked inside. I found the evidence one morning, so i think this happened during the night, but i'm not 100% sure.

Above you can see that several pieces of bamboo had been manipulated for closer inspection by the beast, and I even found 1 piece of bamboo lying on the ground underneath the bee house.

And here you can see that one bamboo piece (top, right) was "munched" on and split into pieces as the critter devoured the very last of the bee babies in this house. This occurred during the SECOND RAID! Yes, the critter made a repeat visit! Not only does this critter have a mouthpart that can excavate earth and split wood, but it also has a good memory, along with the ability to climb patio posts, scale patio walls (or fly). Hmmmmmm...... this could be a tough mystery to solve.

As you may recall from a previous post, we built 2 new bee houses, and both have since been used by solitary bees. However, the bee nest shown here didn't last long, unfortunately. First you see it (above, lower left) ....... and then you don't (below) :/

To make matters worse, a blackbird nest was ALSO raided the very same week. There were several chicks in the nest - although i never counted because i was waiting for them to get bigger - and these 2 eggs that never hatched. I found the magpie feather a few days later, so don't necessarily want to put the blame on them, but I wouldn't put it past them as they're aggressive nest predators. The upside is that I saw the female actively building a new nest the following day.


So .... if anyone has ideas for WHAT animal could have done this, I'm all ears. Beech martens live in Belgium, and are known to eat insects and raid bird nests:( Woodpeckers are also a possibility ... but they eat like kings at my well-stocked birdfeeders, so you'd think they'd show a little more respect. Maybe one of the juveniles got out of hand or gave into peer pressure. Whatever it was, it will not get the LAST bee nest as I'm protecting the final bee house - by bringing it in our house! Oh boy, wait til Stijn gets home and finds a bee nest next to his bed:)

what great historical event happened yesterday?

a few hints ..... with these fotos taken last month when we were there visiting ...

Arromanches ... where huge slabs of concrete remain that were once used to transport tanks and military vehicles ashore

Here we're standing next to one of those concrete slabs - and they're HUGE! One can only appreciate the scale and magnitude of this operation when you visit these sites and see what the allies were up against.

This is the cemetery at Omaha beach, where 9,000 American soldiers are buried. Every headstone carries its own story .... whether it's a soldier that died on the day of the invasion, the day before the war ended, or somewhere inbetween.

a pillbox at Pointes du' Hoc .... where Rudder's Rangers scaled the cliffs, against all odds, and eventually took control. Now there's a colony of Mew gulls nesting on those very same cliffs ... and barn swallows nesting in the bunkers.

Obviously the kids missed a lot of the details, but they absorbed a great deal of history during our stay in Normandy, and they will never forget the breadth and expansiveness of the beaches, which seemed to go on and on endlessly, and where the allies fought and died so courageously.

a home for solitary bees

What a happy day it is to see solitary bees using our beehouse. We don't get so many solitary bees where we live -- sad to say -- so when one begins nest-building, it generates a LOT of excitement and awe.

It's so fun to watch them "hole up" their nest with bits of earth, working fastidiously until the job's complete. It can take a day+ depending on the size of the hole.

Thijs loves building things, so thought we'd try our hand at building beehouses! With a piece of wood, some goggles, ear protection, and a drill, we were all set.

Drilled different sized holes, each about 2.5 cm long, into this bit of wood, but the question remained: would the bees LIKE it?

and the answer is ..... YES! Within a week, a bee had chosen one little hole and filled it completely with earth, giving us great confidence that YES, WE CAN (all of us!) make a home for nature:) Why not give it a try!

what on earth...

... is this insect?

With wings of gold

A long, slender abdomen with bright RED tip

And a ridiculously long beak!

Isn't he beauty-FULL:)

more spring visitors

I found this poor swift on the road while biking home from my Dutch lesson late Thursday evening. Must've run into a window or car because it lost one of its eyes, which doesn't bode well. Visited the rehab center the following day - at least they'll see that he's well cared for, and if he's not releasable, they'll hopefully use him for education. So much to learn from these amazing creatures!

Week prior we tried caring for this runt blue tit. Parents weren't feeding it, either because they were so busy feeding the other 5 baby blue tits -- or maybe they sensed this little guy just didn't have what it takes to survive -- he looked pretty pathetic when i took him in. At any rate, I fed him from 10:00 -6:30 pm (every 15 mins!!!!!), until I went to my Dutch class. He was doing fine when i left, but when I returned that evening he'd passed on.

Several weeks ago, this alpine water salamander (Triturus alpestris) showed up in our pond! And what a great surprise it was!!!!!!

He has the most beautiful orange underbelly, with pretty spots along the side. So far he's continuing to hang out, most likely dining on insect larvae (hopefully lots of mosquito larvae!!!!) and whatever he can find, but I'm a little surprised he's staying so long, since it's not a BIG pond (2 m x 1 m x 40 cm)! But maybe the lack of predators sold him on this real estate .... or was it the romantic tikki torches and flaming red rhododendron?