Decorating Our Christmas Tree

My Mum, brother and I went for a walk in the forest. I was looking for another Fire salamander,  my Mum wanted to get spring water and look for a small Christmas tree. In one of my previous posts I wrote about the big storm we experienced here in the Balkan mountains, click here to read about it. So anyway,  my mum thought it would be good to cut the top off one of the trees that fell in the storm.  When we got to the forest my brother and I started to play hide and seek then my mum said we had to go - she had found a fallen tree and cut the very top from it. When we got home we decorated the tree it  looked really good.

Night life on the Streets of Shipka

My brother and I were going to make a video on the streets at night. As soon as I went out onto the street, I saw 4 or 5 locusts which were gigantic. My brother also found a green toad which he gave to me and it started to release some kind of liquid that smelt like dung and urine mixed together, it reeked! We were just about to start our video, when a female horn beetle flew into my brother's hair. He started screaming and shaking his head!  After about 2 minutes of screaming he finally shook it off. We were going home when I found a huge millipede.  I picked it up and it smelt of rotten eggs!! As soon as I got home I washed my hands and ate my dinner :)

Here is some information about green toads:

European green toads will change their colour in response to heat and light changes.
Female toads are larger than male toads and can lay 9,000 to 15,000 eggs at a time.
The toads mainly eat crickets and caterpillars. 

Here is a picture my dad took of a green toad in Koprinka

Green toad

How I Found This Fire Salamander

Hey guys today I'm making a Blog about how I found this salamander in the video


Me and my mum went walking up in the forest for spring water and it happened to be that I brought my camera. So whilst we were walking in the forest I spotted a beautiful Fire salamander I picked it up a few times and I filmed it. It was strange because last time I touched a Fire salamander I felt very sick but this time I didn't

INFO ABOUT FIRE SALAMANDERS 

Fire salamanders live in central Europe forests and in hilly areas. They need water to lay their eggs. They come out at night or when its raining to eat,Fire salamanders eat slugs,worms and insects.
They can also eat newts and young frogs!!!. The Fire salamander can grow up to 25 centimetres long.
Some are potentially dangerous to human life!!!!

Some baby Fire salamanders I found

Some baby  fire salamanders I found in a puddle about 2 years ago

Winter Is Here

When I woke up one morning I saw there was lots of snow outside, I ran down side with excitement to find out that there was no internet or electricity ;(. We phoned the internet people and they said it won't come back for a week!!! So, then we decided to phone the electricity company they said it won't come back for 3 or 4 days. I said to myself, "WTH!? That means I can't charge my tablet and I can't play on it for 4 days!!!!" but then I went on to think that maybe I can get away with not going to school.   The snow was 1 metre in depth and there were quite a few snow blizzards. So just when I was thinking about not going to school, I heard mum say , " I don't think Dylan should go to school tomorrow " I felt like the most lucky man on earth.  At dinner, it felt as though we were living in the stone age because we cooked on our life saving fire.  We had spaghetti for dinner. That same night, every now and then there were huge blue flashes coming from the sky and apparently they were electrical surges due to damage caused by the blizzards.  The next morning we saw how much damage the storm had done, loads and loads of the trees had fallen down and when I say loads, I mean literately thousands of pine trees had snapped from the mountain!!!!!!! That was one of the worst storm I've seen, but it wasn't quite as bad winter 2012 when our roof fell off!!

Top 5 Favourite Birds In My Garden

Great tit - Parus major
They feed on insects and spiders
during the breeding season, the tits prefer to feed on protein rich caterpillars to there young
for more information on the great tits click here










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Blue tit - Cosmopolitan foragers 
The yellowness of a male blue tits breast is an indication of the number of yellow-green caterpillars he has eaten, and a brighter breast is more attractive to the females.











Chaffinch - Fringilla coelebs
Chaffinches are known to live for 14 years!!!
Curiously, its typically the females that migrate as the males prefer to remain in northern Europe.









Bullfinch- Pyrrhula pyrrhula
They have an appetite for the buds of fruit trees
and can can cause severe damage.
This problem was so serious that at one time they were
trapped. With bullfinch numbers declining in recent year,this can now only be done with a licence.

Green Wood Pecker- Picus viridis 
One of there favourite foods is ants
they return day after day to their favourite ant hill
I saw a green woodpecker today eating our grapes

How I Met SkilleR

I went to the Uzana festival again, about a week ago and i meet SkilleR (a very famous beat boxer). So now I'm going to write about how i saw him.

I was sitting on a chair when I heard some sounds that sounded like beat box after about 20 seconds of hearing the sounds i realized that it was defiantly beat box. Then I thought to my self amagian if that was SkilleR so I went to ask a lady  who was doing the beat box? and she said SkilleR (lol) I think that was the coolest thing that had ever happened to me so  ran and ran to the stage and shore enough there he was doing his breath taking beat box!!. So after that I went running to my brother and  tripped over a stick and fell over :) I got back up and told my brother the good news and we went back to the stage to watch him, he was only on the stage for 10 minuets because he was practicing for tonight. The reason i knew that was because i was talking with SkilleRs  girl friend :) SHE CALLED SkilleR  OVER TO TALK WITH US!! :) :) :).
SkilleRs girl friend  said he will be on the stage at 11:00pm tonight! :) (ofcorse we were going to watch him)

7 HOURS LATER

Finally it was 11:00pm and SkilleR came up the stage With another guy called pavel ( by the way SkilleR is an Bulgarian) So we listened to there Breath taking beat box for about 2 hours and went to bed :)

THE END  

My top 10 favourite snakes

10.  Long nosed vine snake-
the long nosed vine snake has a green tongue!!!
It manly eats frogs and lizards.
although they are venomous they cant do any serious threat to humans.




9.Tentacled snake-
they are aquatic snakes from south-eastern Asia
It can move slowly on land.
more info -  here



8. Feathered tree viper-
It is a highly venomous snake
its known of its huge eyes and bristle like scales, they grow up to 75 cm long

7. Leaf nosed snake-
this is defiantly one of the weirdest snake on the planet it manly  feeds on lizards these breath taking snakes are only found in Madagascar.



6.Burrowing asp-
This snake can borrow down in the ground
this snake is from Africa it feeds on rodents.




5. Horn nosed viper-
I saw this viper today!!! it is defiantly one of my favourite snakes
it has a small horn on its head and a zigzag marking on its back just like an adder (i didn't have a camera :( so I cant show you the snake I saw)



4.Sea snake-
They belong to the same family as the cobras and coral snakes.
there found in the pacific and the Indian ocean. They are extremely poisonous.


3.Worm snake
A full adult is 15 inches long!!
this snakes digs down to the ground
they only come out of the ground at morning  and night.

2.Spider tailed viper-
this epic snake has a tail which, when wiggled,looks enticingly
spider- like to its arachnid - guzzling pray.


1.Yellow bellied sea snake-
This is defiantly my favourite snake i love the colouration on it
they are helpless on land
it is an poisonous snake.

My Top 10 Favourite Reptiles

10-  Jesus Christ lizard (Basiliscus vittatus) -
 Its my favorite lizard because it can run on water and can burrow down in the sand  to hide from predators!!!!






9- Frill-necked lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingil) -
this lizard is quiet a vicious animal when fretted, it is well know by its breathtaking defense mechanism .








8- Flying dragon - (Draco volans)-
 This type of lizard can glide tree to tree, it eats arboreal ants, this amazing lizard can lay up to 1-5 eggs only. They don't glide when its raining or when its windy.





7- Flying snake- (Chrysopelea ornata)-
This snake is not venomous, it eats lizards, frogs and bats. It lives in India, Sir Lanka.







6- ( Brookesia micra)-
This chameleon can grow up to 29mm it is small enough to stand on the head of a match!!! they climb up into the tree branches at night to sleep in Madagascar. 





5- Thorny devil- (Moloch horridus)-
This marvelous lizard can live up to 20 years. The Thorny dragon also features a fake head on the back of its neck, and the lizard presents this to potential predators by dipping its head.






4-  Mexican mole lizard-(Bipes biporus)-
This strange looking lizard lives underground for most of its life and is usually found  in sandy areas.

  



3- Satanic leaf tailed gecko- (Uroplatus phantasticus)-
This astounding  gecko mimics  the appearance of a dead leaf. From their perfectly shaped tale to their amazing colors, veins and texture, when these guys are on a leaf they are very hard to spot.





2-  Red eyed crocodile skink - (Tribolonotus graciilis)-  This lizard is one of the few types of lizards that can vocalize. The males will fight for females.







1- Pinocchio lizard- ( Anolis proboscis)-
This lizard was thought to be extinct for the past 40 years. They're apparently meant to be very slow lizards, no one knows the use of there long nose at this point. The female Pinocchio lizards do not have a big nose.

Male

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Injured Balkan Green lizard

I was walking down the path when I spotted an injured Balkan green lizard. One of its eyes were damaged and it had big cuts on its mouth and body. I  decided to keep it until it got better, so I made it a nice place to live in.  I tried to feed it, but it wouldn't eat or drink so I left it in there.  The next morning it died  ;(  I felt very sad, I tried to dissect but it didn't work.  Interestingly,  it had 2 big grasshoppers in its stomach!

Balkan Green Lizard

My Friend's Ball Python

Yesterday my friend brought his Ball Python to our house, her name is Slug :) She opened her mouth and tried to bite my brother! She is a very small python in length but quite fat because she was fed last week. She is going to shed her skin in 2 or 3 days. Did you know that when snakes are shedding their skin they are blind? My friend feeds her every 2 weeks with frozen rats.

Ball Pythons are from Africa but are common pets due to the fact that they are not aggressive.  Here are some facts about the ball python:

- Their life span is 20-30 years (record 48)
- They can lay up to 10 eggs
- Average incubation time: 56 days
- They eat small rodents like mice and rat

Getting ready to strike  

Me and Slug

The Warren

I went to the Warren beach again about a day ago.  I have written a post before about this place which you can see here. I found lots of fossils and breathtaking stones. My Grandad and I are planning to polish the stones and turn them into jewelry.  Here are some pictures of the fossils and stones that we collected that day.

The Warren is a county park and is recognized for having lots of different habitats and wildlife. Here is another link I found about the place.

The Warren Cliffs

were scared of jellyfish

We went to the black sea for 3 days with my cousin, we slept in a guest house that had a pool in it :) As soon as we got to the guest house my cousin brother and I  went to have swim in the swimming pool witch had allot of chlorine in it, we stayed in the pool for about an hour and then went up in our room to sleep

zzzzzzzzzz

We got up had some breakfast and went to the beach when we got to the beach we ran in the sea and swam for about an 1 hour when my mum came in the sea and said she saw a jellyfish  we ran out the sea like baby's and waited until it went after about 10 mins of waiting it finally went and we went back in the sea, we were still very scared and keeping a good look out for jellyfish we saw 3 more, 2 small ones and one big one. We got back to our guest house and went for a swim in the pool again we played in the pool for half an hour then we got out to play on our tablets, after we played on our tablets we went to bed 

ZZZZZZZZ

We got up, ate donuts for breakfast ;) and went back to the sea, this time the sea was really ruff but fun we jumped and dived in the huge waves and then we went on our 4 hour journey back home

Agile frog

My friends and I went on a walk for snakes.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any. However we did find a beautiful Agile frog. I brought it back home to put in the pond and as soon as I put the frog  in the pond my turtle came up and grabbed the frog by its leg and started to rip the frog apart. I grabbed the turtle to try to save the frog but it was too late. The frog was dead! I ran inside to get the video camera and made a video of the dead frog after I made the video I put the turtle back and it finished eating the frog up

Here is the video a made of the dead frog.

WARNING THIS VIDEO IS A BIT GRUESOME!!!!!!!!

My top 10 favorite youtube channels!

Hey guys today I'm going to write down my top 10 favorite YouTube channels!


10. Miroslav Ivanov- Wild life channel (5 subscribers)
9.  Philip Vanbergan - Wild life channel (37 subscribers)
8.  HERPINGHERPSTV- Wild life channel (102 subscribers)
7.sanya- gaming channel (3935 subscribers)
6. Thailand living- Wild life channel (10163 subscribers)
5. Epic wildlife- Wild life channel (193,810 subscribers)
4.  Creature Quest- Wild life channel (1434 subscribers)
3.  Jack Nailor- Wild life channel (65 subscribers)
2.  Snakes1000000hd- Wild life channel (1534 subscribers)
1. Herping With Dylan- Wild life channel (5167 subscribers)
Its my favorite channel because he explanes allot about reptiles and i learn allot of interesting things about them from him, also because his name is Dylan too :)

Scarabs

This is a post about scarabs. Scarabs are insects from the Scarabaeidae family and there are about 30,000 species of scarabs. Here is a video i made of some scarab grubs i collected from my compost pile.  

All Scarab larvae are C shaped, they're called grubs and are pale yellow or white. We have lots of grubs in our compost and i pick them and feed them to our chickens. The grubs i find are Stag beetles, Rhino bugs or June beetles. Most adult beetles are nocturnal and sometimes I go on the street at night and catch lots of male stag beetles. The scarab larvae normally eat plant roots, Scarab beetles eat fruits,fungi and carrion.
The life cycle of a scarab is egg,larvae,pupa and adult. They're really hard to identify as grubs so you have to wait until they've hatched to find out what they are.

If you will like to see my other post about the rhino bug which is in the scarab family then click here http://prayingmantisworld.blogspot.com/2014/06/rhino-bug.html

Rhino bug

Me and my friend found a European rhino bug. Its Latin name is Oryctes nasicornis. Here is a video i made of the European rhino bug we found.

The Rhino bugs can be found on every continent except Antarctica. These beetle are in the scarab family, For more on scarabs click here.

Here are some interesting facts i found out about Rhino bugs in general. 

1. Q. What color are the Rhino bugs?
    A. Most are black,grey or greenish in color.

2. Q. What do Rhino bugs eat?
    A. The adults eat fruit,  nectar and sap, the larvae eat decaying plant matter. 

3. Q What is the life span of an Rhino bug?
    A. The life span of a Rhino bug is normally one to two years.

4. Q. Where do the Rhino bugs live?
     A. They live in leaf litter, plants and fallen logs.

5.Q What is the size of a Rhino bug?
   A. Rhinoceros beetles can grow up to 6 cm making them some of the largest beetles around.

6. Q.What do the Rhino bugs use there thorns for?
    A. The male rhino bugs use there horns in mating battles against other males. 

My coolest school trip ever

At first we got on the bus at 7:00am and started our long 5 hour trip to a zoo park. As soon as we got to the zoo park, my friends and I went running in to see the animals. The first animals we saw were the bears.  I felt sorry for them 'cause they were in a cage. Then we saw the leopards and the tigers they were very beautiful.  After that we went to see the birds and the monkeys but unfortunately the monkeys weren't there ; At last we went to see my favorite animals which are the REPTILES. We saw some HUGE pythons there and some lizards. After we left the zoo we went to a beautiful church and ate doughnuts. I found a dead baby grass snake someone had chopped its head off ;( The next few stops were really boring. Finally, we got to the hotel and man, did it look awesome! My friend and I went into our hotel room which was as great as we thought it would be. We got dressed up to go to dinner.   I ate 3 slices of chicken and some potatoes (which were really tasty). Next thing I did was go and play pool with some friends and the team I was in lost because my friend potted the black ball in the hole!!! Afterwards, we had a disco party. We went up stairs to our rooms and my friend and I watched a scary movie until12:00am then we went to bed because we had to be up at 6:00am. So we got up at 6:00am and went to have breakfast. Before we went to the bus my friends and I played hide and seek which was fun because it was a huge hotel. We got on the bus and went straight to MacDonald which was 3 hours away. As soon as we got there, I bought 2 mac chicken burgers which were really tasty. We got back from the trip around 9pm and I said goodbye to my friends because I wasn't going to see them for 3 months. I  said goodbye and then I got in the car and drove home.

Alexander Nevski church in Sofia. My friend Gaby took the photo.

Our loud frogs

I have a pond in my garden and there are lots of frogs. All day the frogs are croaking in my pond ,at the moment our frogs aren't croaking for a mate. I know that because they are fighting whilst they're croaking. I think they are croaking for territory. We also have a grass snake in our garden and when he comes in the pond they all stay quiet which is good. Some of our neighbours are complaining about the noise that the frogs are making, so we caught some and put them in some other ponds. I think the frogs in our pond are marsh frogs, common frogs, pool frogs and edible frogs. The marsh frogs make the loudest croak in our pond.

Some frog facts

Q.What do frog eat?
A. Flies, crickets, spiders, beetles and all sorts of insects.
Q.Why do frogs croak? (there are 2 reasons):
A.1. Frogs croak to attract females.
2.The croaking is done in order to declare territory and inform other frogs to stay away.
Q.What eats frogs?
A.Snakes, birds, hedgehogs and many more.

Here is a video i made of the frogs croaking in our pond. It also has a turtle in it.

Baby slow worm part 2

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Baby slow worm Part 1

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Loads of toad spawn in a puddle!!!!

Me and my friend went for a bike ride,and on the way back we saw a big puddle. I went to see if anything was in it and sure enough there were 3 or 4 toads in it.   After that I looked at the water even closer and I saw loads of toad spawn!. I looked up and  saw what looked like a green spotted toad mating with a common toad!!!. I was concerned that they laid their spawn in a puddle, so I went home and asked dad if we could take the toad spawn out of the puddle and he agreed.  So my Dad and I went to the puddle and we got most of the toad spawn . Toad spawn is always in lines and frog spawn comes in clumps.

This is what frog spawn looks like

 

This is what toad spawn looks like

I went back to the puddle to take a picture of the toad spawn but they had all hatched. Below are the photos that i took.

Tadpoles of a common toad

Trip to a river

The River

We went out for a family day of fishing but the lake we wanted to go to was closed so we decided to go to a humungous river in the lowlands.  When we got there we saw some huge puff balls which are mushrooms so we collected them and went down to the river. As soon as we got there me and my mum saw loads of  beautiful baby frogs. My favourite one I saw was a little pool frog (Rana lessonae) .It has a green stripe down its back. I was looking for more small frogs when I heard a huge splash. When I turned around, I saw my dog trying to swim across  the river and the strong currents were dragging him downstream but thankfully he made it to the land. Then my dad suggested that we cross a  huge tree trunk in the river! At first I was a little nervous,  but when I saw how easily my dad crossed it, I crossed it too.  Then me and my brother went rock climbing  it was so much fun, but the hard part was how to get down! Finally, after 10 mins, we got down safely.

On top of the Rocks

 Then we had a very boring picnic.  After the picnic my dad realised  that he had left the car windows open and the keys were in the car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we had to go all the way back to the car - thankfully the car hadn't been stolen. I got my 2 favourite frogs there and took them home with me and  put them where the plants are. We put them there because at night the slugs come out and eat all the plants. But this time the frogs will eat the slugs!

Here is a close up photo of some thing we found in the woods. Can you guess what it is?  Put your guesses in the comments and I'll post the full picture soon.

Mystery object??

Bracket fungus

 

Ladybird Business

Three days ago my dad told me that for every ladybird I collect,  he would give me 20p.The reason dad wanted me to collect them is because he wanted to control the amount of aphids on his young plants.  My mum said she knew a great place where I could find loads of ladybirds and I screamed, ' where??!!!' My mum explained where the place was. After she explained  where to go, I went, and for the first 2 mins I found four ladybirds which is 80p. Then I started to look in the grass and I hit the jackpot when I caught  approximately 10 ladybirds, so all together I found 14 ladybugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which is 2.80£. When I got back my dad regretted that he had ever told me about the ladybirds. Also all the ladybirds that i collected flew out the window but of course i got the money lol ;).  There are 5000 species of ladybirds.  The ladybirds are best know predators of Sternorrhyncha which is a type of aphid and also scale insects. The ladybirds i caught were the (Coccinella septempunctata) 7 spotted ladybirds. It is the most common ladybird in Europe.

One of the ladybirds i found

Breakfast time on the bird feeder!

Here are the videos of the birds on my feeder:

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Meeting a bat in my school!!!

I was at school having a 5 min break when my friend came running in the class saying there was a bat in school so I went to have a look and for sure it was a bat. It was very small and it just about fitted in a crack.  I decided I was going to get it out then a teacher came and asked if  I wanted a glove to prevent biting.  Then I asked for a chair so they gave me one.  At first I was quite scared, but when I saw that it didn't want to bite me I just picked it out.  By now there was a huge crowd so I looked at the bat then put it in a bag and I went to let it out and the crowd followed me which was about 40 - 50 children and I felt like I was the most famous kid in the school! But I didn't want 40 - 50 children to follow me, so I ran out as fast as I could and me and 3 friends got it out of the bag and got out our phones to take photos and videos. Then we saw that it wasn't moving so I pushed it gently and then it twiched so we knew it wasn't dead (lol). Then we put it in a crack of a wall and it crawled into the side were it was safe and as far as I know it hasn't moved for 4 days. We were thinking of keeping it as a pet for a while.

I think the bat is (Nathusius pipistrelle)

My Bird and Worm Comic

I made a comic, its about a bird and a worm.

My comic

How to make a very simple bird feeder!

 Every year we make bird feeders. This post is gonna be telling you how to make a bird feeder.

1. First you have to get fat and put it in a pot and get it really hot. It stinks!!!! :)

2. Mix lots of seeds such as sunflower seeds, rye and wheat.

Seeds and fruit from our garden

3. You can also add dried fruit, we put in dried apple slices and sultanas

4. Get a length of wire or string, tie a knot in the bottom and get a plastic cup and put the string or wire in the middle.

5. Poor the fat with the seeds and fruit  in the cup.

Me pouring the seeds and fruit in the cup

6. Then you just wait for the fat to cool down for like an hour or two (depends how hot the fat is).

7. Then you get the bird feeder out of the cup.

8.And finally you put it on a tree and in two or three days your garden will be full of birds.

The bird feeder waiting for the birds

We do this so the birds don't starve to death in the winter and for us to see the amazing birds. We sometimes put a plate of fat and seeds right next to our window and watch them from close up. I think its awesome. The birds that visit the feeders in our garden are: Great tits, Blue tits, Haw finch, Chaffinch, Wood Peckers, Blackbirds, Sparrows and Song Thrush

Here is a video that I made of Great Tits and Syrian Woodpecker (i think) feeding in the winter.

Pine Processionary Caterpillar

The Pine Processionary (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) is a moth of the faimly Thaumetopoea. It is one of the worst pine pests. They build their nests in Pine trees. The nest is made out of silk, definitely the strongest silk I've ever seen. They are active in the winter but they only come out at night to eat the pine leaves.

Nest of the Processionary caterpillars and in the back ground even more

They do have some  predators, Eggs can be eaten by a Cricket (Ephippiger ephippiger),  Larvae can be eaten by birds such as a Great Tits and Adult Moths can be eaten by Bats
The Processionary has lots of stinging hairs that can give you a rash and cause eye irritations.
The reason i am writing about them  is because me and my dad have seen many in the pine trees around where we live, more than last year. We think its because last winter it was quite warm. I am looking forward to the spring when the Processionary caterpillars march out  of the trees to find places to pupate.   Check out my Pine Processionary video!!

 

The Processionary caterpillar!! ;)

Another nest

The Processionary caterpillars that we found