{"id":1706,"date":"2010-08-29T00:08:46","date_gmt":"2010-08-28T23:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1706"},"modified":"2013-11-10T14:10:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T14:10:15","slug":"unexplored-corners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/unexplored-corners\/","title":{"rendered":"Unexplored Corners"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Every garden has them, small areas where debris collects or where the shrubs 'take over'. They are quiet spots, and though often overlooked they make perfect homes for some of the smaller garden inhabitants. I've been meaning to post about this first little fellow for some time. It inhabits a leaf (well it may move between a few of them), disappearing at night (under a leaf?) but back the next day.
<\/span> Green shield bug<\/span><\/p>\n

Just along from the shield bug we maintain a compost bin. It only contains garden cuttings which makes it less attractive to rodents. There are of course hundreds (thousands?) of brandling worms, spiders and other crawling creatures in there, but among them there's a small colony of slow worms. Generally they live below the surface and will dive under cover (at quite remarkable speed) if disturbed. This one was enjoying the relative warmth of the day and stayed put while I took the photo.
<\/span> Slow worm among the compost<\/span><\/p>\n

I mentioned garden debris. If you are sweeping shaded corners watch out for what might be living beneath the fallen leaves. It might be a newt (we've found frogs and slow worms in the past).
<\/span> Smooth newt<\/span><\/p>\n

We've plenty of spiders, but one I've been looking for over recent weeks in the nursery web spider. I found several today on some dense ground cover plants.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

Fallen fruit is another fruitful area to explore, though some care may be needed. Wasps love rotting apples!
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

And all the while overhead, impossible to ignore, the herring gulls circle and call…
<\/span>
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro IS USM lens with the exception of the gull which was photographed with the EF 400mm f\/5.6L USM lens. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[991,310],"tags":[645,68,114,1171,1132,312],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insects-2","category-slow-worm","tag-bug","tag-gull","tag-newt","tag-slow-worm","tag-spider","tag-wasp","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t