Hairy visitor

This fellow, a Woolly bear caterpillar, will eventually become a Garden Tiger Moth. Right now it looks more like some form of insect from the sixties with its long hair :) It was surprisingly fast when it crossed over the lawn and it was not easy to get a reasonably sharp picture of it.

Party !

A sudden and unplanned garden party took place on the lawn the other day. It all started when hundreds of small beetles (Phyllopertha horticola or the Garden Chafer) appeared from nowhere. Within a few minutes a number of various birds were feasting on the poor insects.

A Common Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) and our friendly Wagtail. Click on the picture and you will see the beetles flying around !

This Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) has its mouth full of beetles! 

Even a Middle Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocoptes medius) started to walk around among the other birds to ge its share of the free meal! 

Last but not least, a Great Tit (Parus major) managed to catch a beetle and bring it home to its nest under our roof.

Deer in the field

There are always some deer roaming around the field. These animals belong to the same group but I don't know how "close" they are. They are lovely to look at but unfortunately they carry a lot of ticks around.

Female

Male

The Wagtail is back !

The probably most typical bird around our house is the Wagtail. I have posted serveral pictures of them and was almost a bit  concerned when they did not show up until a week ago. Everything seems to be OK now and they are busy building their nest. Lovely and very sociable bird!

Beasts!

I have written many times about the wild pigs that seem to be everywhere in and around Svångemåla. They destroy gardens, paths and fields but are difficult to see since they are mostly moving around during the night. My neighbor told me that he had seen a group of them a couple of evenings ago so I changed the settings on my camera to ISO 24,000, put on a long lens and went off at about 10 PM. Just outside our plot two big pigs were slowly walking along the road. I stopped and managed to take some pictures although I felt a bit nervous when I saw how big they are. When they eventually spotted me, the ran off at full speed leaving me with a good memory and some shaky photos :)

Crane chicken!

The cranes have spent a lot of time looking for food in the field and I was happy to see a small yellow head next to them. Unfortunately the farmer, who owns the field, had to cut the grass and I am still not sure if the chicken survived or not. Click on the picture to enlarge it!