Botanical garden flowers, birds, butterfly

This 23 February 2019 photo shows snowdrops in the botanical garden in Leiden, the Netherlands.

On that day, we heard great spotted woodpecker, greenfinch, great tit and rose-ringed parakeet sounds there.

On the roof of the garden’s eighteenth century orangery, a herring gull. Growing up its wall, a Maule’s quince plant. Famous naturalist Von Siebold brought this plant, the oldest Maule’s quince in the Netherlands, from Japan in the nineteenth century.

Under the Gingko biloba tree, flowers of snowdrops and crocuses. And of giant butterbur: also a plant first brought here by Von Siebold.

The axolotls are no longer in their terrarium in the hothouse. Given away, as caring for them was too complex.

The giant Australian stick insects are still in the other hothouse, but difficult to spot. The inhabitants are still present in the two hothouse aquariums, one for small fish, the other one for bigger fish; but the signs naming the species are gone. As the species sometimes change, probably the new signs are not ready yet.

Not far from the hothouses, these yellow crocuses; attracting honeybees.

And these orangeish-yellow Edgeworthia tomentosa flowers; with a palm tree in the background.

Scores of jackdaws fly overhead, calling.

On the hill near the source of the stream, these purple crocuses, besides many winter aconite flowers.

And these Siberian squill flowers.

In the canal, a swimming moorhen.

On a branch next to the canal, a female chaffinch.

In the pond, a juvenile grey heron tries to catch fish. Someone saw the first pondskater of the Netherlands in 2019 this week, but I don’t see any in the stream here yet.

Finally, to the Victoria amazonica hothouse; where we saw this blue morpho butterfly from its non-blue side.

January 2020: now, giant owl butterflies in that hothouse.

Stay tuned, as on 24 February, we went back to the botanical garden!