UKGW Macro Safari Video

03/09/2011 by nigel.

Here is a macro video that I made in the UKGW garden. I used my Canon 550D with a macro lens in video crop mode..
In the video amongst other mini beasts you will see a White Death Crab Spider with an unsuspecting lunch of a hover fly.

I call it my Macro Safari..

Enjoy.

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2011 So-Far

03/09/2011 by nigel.

Greetings and welcome back to the UKGW Blog

Over the course of this year due to other commitments I have been a bit slack with the UKGW blog. So rather than try to make up and remember all of the goings on of the last year in the garden I will mention a few things that have happen and post up the story in pictures.

I decided to take part of the wildlife area and turn it into a micro wildflower meadow..
When I say micro I mean around 5m x 5m..

Even this small area has attracted different insects to the garden that were not normally seen.

We have a lot of the harlequin ladybirds around this year but also quite a few British ladybirds which is nice to see.

The teasel that I planted over a year ago came to life this year, it’s like a natural sculpture.

The pond has seen the usual dragon and damselflies along with the pond skaters and water boatman.

This year also saw a very large population of common newts.

So here it is… The UKGW garden blog in pictures..

February

May

June

July

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First Hedgehog of 2011

19/03/2011 by nigel.

In the early hours of this morning we had our first Hedgehog of 2011 visit the Hog feeding station.
Fortunately I placed some hog food in the feeding try two nights ago so the little fella had something to eat.

Ahhh Spring, what a great time of year!

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First Entry of 2011

13/03/2011 by nigel.

So here we are and the first entry for 2011. I have been doing a little maintenance to the cams in the garden due to a couple of cams that decided to stop working. I have removed the Fox cam for now and replaced the Hedgehog feeding station cam ready for the little critters to come out of hibernation.
I have also made a few changes to the bird feeders; the mealworm log is now raised and fixed to the nut and fat ball feeder post. I have also attached a tray so that I can add some other bird food mixes for the smaller birds, although the bigger birds still like to help themselves. The ground feeder is still being used but is not fitted with a cam at the moment.

After replacing the hog feeding station cam the first capture was of a couple of frogs passing through followed by a newt.

And today a first time visitor or at least the first time we have seen one a Blackcap visited the feeding tray.

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The Hedgehog and the Frog

12/05/2010 by nigel.

Yesterday evening I noticed a hedgehog walking around the garden on the hunt for food… It came across a frog hidden in the undergrowth and pulled it out into the open. For quite some time the hog pulled the frog about and tried to chew on it. On Inspection amazingly the frog appeared to suffer no injuries. After the hog had given up and walked off the frog made it’s way to the safety of the pond.

I managed to capture the whole thing on video… Check it out on the UKGW YouTube channel…. Follow the videos link above..

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The Robin and I…

10/05/2010 by nigel.

About a week ago a little Robin started to show an interest in what I was doing in the green house. So I threw a few meal worms out. I started dropping the worms closer and close until they were within a foot of where I was sitting. So I took advantage of this and managed to get some very nice close up still shots…

A worm in payment for a picture..

Over the course of the week I started to hold out my arm with a few worms in my hand.. The persistence paid off and on Sunday the Robin took the worms from my hand for the first time. Now when I go out into the garden the Robin is waiting for me. Today it actually started to fly around me before I even had a chance to get the meal-worms out.

I managed to shoot some footage of the little fella feeding from my hand.. You can see a small clip on the UKGW YouTube video channel.

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Missing Feeds

10/05/2010 by nigel.

Some of you have emailed me about the two feeds that are down… This is just temporary while I do some maintenance with the feeds and within the garden.. I should have them back up soon.

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Newts

07/04/2010 by nigel.

Yesterday whilst giving the wildlife pond a bit of a spring clean I noticed a Newt. Today I have counted three at any one time. So I decided to place the pond cam into the Wildlife pond to see if I could catch a glimpse of the little critters.

The results were very satisfying….

The picture below shows two of the Newts.. A video can also be found under the video link to UKGW You Tube channel.

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New Hog House First Visitors

29/03/2010 by nigel.

Last night we had the first visitors to the new Hog House. One of the hogs was having a nice sleep when it was rudely interrupted by another hog.

The full video can be seen on the UKGW video channel.

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Robin Action Shots….

28/03/2010 by nigel.

Here are a few great frames from Feeder one of a Robin..

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