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Sunday Selections #15

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that  otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think  that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I  have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

Easy Peasy.

 

The common theme this week is aphids. It was a bad year for aphids this year and the little suckers were everywhere. Luckily for me it also meant there were heaps of ladybirds and feathery birds feeding on them. These photos were all taken last summer.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • amandab April 17, 2011, 7:35 am

    #3 is amazing. I saw the blurred image and wondered what had happened but as I kept scrolling …. WOW! 🙂

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 7:48 am

      Thanks Amanda, I couldn’t find any photos I liked for this weeks selections and then I remembered the ladybirds. I am pleased you like them.

  • Marita April 17, 2011, 7:39 am

    Love the ladybirds 🙂 they are Heidi favorite too, although she thinks they are playing leap frog. 😀

    You have made me think about aphids on my poor roses.
    The roses are looking very sick with large black patches. 🙁

  • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 7:50 am

    Of course they are playing leap frog, it must get very boring eating aphids all day 😉 Roses are seriously tough plants. I just snip off any diseased leaves and burn them.

  • Elephant's Child April 17, 2011, 7:52 am

    Loathe and detest aphids, love lady birds. What is the small bird? A real cutie

  • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 7:56 am

    I tend to just ignore the aphids here as they don’t do too much damage before something comes along and cleans them up for me. The first photo is of an Australian bird, the silver eye. Orchardists dislike them because they eat fruit but I don’t mind them as they also eat insects and I grow enough fruit to share with the birds. The second bird is an European Goldfinch an introduced species here in Australia but they don’t seem to do a lot of damage either.

  • Dannie April 17, 2011, 8:37 am

    absolutely beautiful pitures you take Kim 🙂 I am joining in today #3 and #4 are awesome you have captured that perfectly ! Showing my daughter your wonderful pictures as she is an animal lover 🙂

  • sleepydwarf April 17, 2011, 8:38 am

    Pretty birds. Horrid aphids. Horny ladybirds!! That’s a great picture. The silver eye pic is fantastic too. Great positioning. I find birds really difficult to photograph. 🙂

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:51 am

      I am very very sneaky when it comes to photographing birds. (and persistent) (and lucky) 😉

  • del April 17, 2011, 8:53 am

    Beautiful photos again. I love the silver eye perched on that little branch, the silver of him against the green and blue is striking.

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 7:43 pm

      I like the fact that you can see the aphid in its beak as well 🙂

  • Mena April 17, 2011, 10:16 am

    Very pretty photos Kim.

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 7:45 pm

      Thanks Mena. I like to try and balance what pleases my eye with a nice clarity when I am photographing birds.

  • Megan April 17, 2011, 10:19 am

    I really like all the photos of the birds, we mostly have ugly birds where I live, at least they seem to be the most common birds, so seeing pretty birds is nice for a change if only in photo.

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 7:46 pm

      Come to Australia Megan, we have lots of pretty birds.

      • Megan April 18, 2011, 2:57 am

        I really want to go to Australia just got to figure out how/when I can work that out.

  • Sam @ Learn. Create. Do. April 17, 2011, 10:20 am

    Beautiful nature shots. Ladybirds are my favorite bug. I use them on some of my scrapbook pages (not real ones of course) 🙂

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:09 pm

      I went to a plant nursery and they had tiny wooden ladybirds about the size of my little fingernail. I loved them. I am going to try and make some ceramic ones. I f they work out okay I will send you some 🙂

  • Kelly April 17, 2011, 10:32 am

    These photos have just made my day. Beautiful! Especially the one of the silver eye eating aphids. 🙂

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:09 pm

      I am pleased they have made you happy Kelly 🙂

  • gaby@727m2 April 17, 2011, 11:31 am

    Ladybirds are my favourite creatures in the garden, so thank you for those remarkable up-close-and-personal shots… and the birds are just divine 🙂

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:13 pm

      I get very excited when I see Ladybirds in the garden and I think I have taken hundreds of blurry photos to get one decent one.

  • Dorothy April 17, 2011, 11:49 am

    I love the bird photos. They’re such difficult creatures to capture on camera.

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:11 pm

      They were very busy eating the aphids and I was being vewy vewy qwiet (You can see that I am channeling Elmer here )

  • Kakka April 17, 2011, 1:46 pm

    Great photos Kim. And just what are those ladybirds doing? Playing leap frog is just a great idea on a sunny day – lol.

  • Marie April 17, 2011, 2:05 pm

    Aphids were the bane of my life when I lived in Adelaide – they made meals out of my lovely rosebushes. We used to plant garlic around the bushes to help ward them off and it did seem to help. Your photos are amazing – such fantastic detail! I adore ladybirds and always love to see them in the garden and you’ve captured them so well – look at them shine 🙂 I was surprised to see the goldfinch as I had no idea we had them in Australia (apart from domesticated pets). They are possibly the most common birds here in the Swedish woods.

    Thank you again for hosting this – and for sharing your beautiful photos with us all.

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:16 pm

      I only see the Goldfinches here in summer. I don’t know where they go in the cooler months. I don’t mind them as they don’t seem to do any harm and I was pleased to see them chomping on the aphids as I thought they were only seed eaters. I enjoy photographing the birds as it gives me a better chance to examine them in detail.

  • kebeni April 17, 2011, 2:17 pm

    beautiful nature pics, especially the beetle porn LOL

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:16 pm

      Apparently they are playing leap frog Kebeni 😉

  • river April 17, 2011, 2:29 pm

    Lovely photos, Kim.
    I had a gazillion aphids this year too, sadly no ladybirds or feathered birds came to eat them.

    • frogpondsrock April 17, 2011, 8:19 pm

      I had more aphids this year than I have had for a while now River. I tend to leave them alone as they seem to just infest one plant. ie: they were all over one Kale plant in the garden and left all the other brassicas alone. So I left them alone and just thought of that Kale plant as the sacrificial plant.

  • HappeningsOfUs April 17, 2011, 4:14 pm

    lol @ number 3!

  • Jay from The Depp Effect April 18, 2011, 5:27 am

    Gorgeous pictures! Such lovely close-ups of what surely must be one of everbody’s favourite insects. I love them!

    And the birds – I think you must be very skillful to get those shots!

    • kim (frog ponds rock) April 19, 2011, 8:53 am

      The ladybirds are most definitely my favourites, closely followed by dragon flies and then spiders. I have had a lot of practice taking blurry photos of “almost there” birds Jay lol. Lots of practice.

  • carolina April 18, 2011, 4:34 pm

    Photos 3 and 4 and the last one are definitely my favourites. Wow!

    • kim (frog ponds rock) April 19, 2011, 8:56 am

      The last photo is right outside the window next to my computer. Luckily I had the door open and was able to quickly grab one or two shots before the finch flew away.

  • gym girl April 18, 2011, 7:35 pm

    beautiful photos

  • Watershedd April 18, 2011, 8:04 pm

    As always, beuatiful photos, Kim. I particularly like iamges 4 and 6.

    Must get some out myself next week. Marbe I’ll pick up y camera. Maybe not. need to do something.

  • Ali April 18, 2011, 9:24 pm

    There’s something so enchanting about ladybugs, isn’t there? We were at the beach yesterday and I glimpsed a beautiful orange one struggling through a mound of seaweed. I looked away for a moment to call the 5yo to have a look and it was gone. I wish I’d thought to take a photo!