Friday 3 February 2012

Friday at the Flicks - Rook - Pheasant - Tree Sparrows - Bug

Although they have been mainly regulars, for once it has been a good week for shooting video of some of my garden visitors. First the lone Rook which perched for a while on top of the bird table. From its general looks I got the impression it was one of last year's brood though I could be wrong. (No sound on this clip)



The Cock Pheasant continues to visit. This was the first time I had seen it drink. It is using my 'nursery' pool which I use to put the frog spawn in until it has developed enough to stand a chance of surviving the fish in the main pond. After drinking it had a quick preen and then wandered across to see what seed had been spilt from one of the feeders.



The Tree Sparrows continue to visit the garden.



We have finally reached some cold weather - nowhere as bad here as the media would have people believe. To see some of the headlines you would think the whole country was covered by Arctic conditions. In face here it dipped below 0C, to -4.5C, last night. First time for ages.  Anyway, like last Winter, there has been an explosion in the number of Blackbirds visiting the garden. Thursday morning I counted fifteen milling about looking for scattered seed.

Finally a bit of experimental video. A few days ago there was a small bug / beetle / weevil / whatever on my kitchen windowsill. It had been there, upside down, for a couple of days and I assumed it was dead. I decided to photograph it before disposing of it but to my surprise, once under the iPhone4 fitted with the cheap microscope (see HERE) I could see its legs were moving. This was a chance for a bit of macro video, first while it was upside down and then to try and follow it when I put it the right way up. The app used was Camera+ which I zoomed in a bit. The resulting files were zoomed in Corel Video Studio Pro 4. The bug was on my Union Flag tea towel and each weave is about 1mm wide so the bug was a little over 4mm long. Needless to say I was delighted with the result which is pretty clear even on full screen.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you, no matter where you are or what the weather.

8 comments:

  1. The rook looks cold.
    A great Friday....the weevil is brilliant.

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  2. great selection of flicks today, John. The macro of the weevil is impressive. Stay warm!

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  3. Hi John ~ Enjoyed the flicks today ~ the pheasant is such a beauty with his glossy and colourful plumage. Although he is busy eating, he seems to be constantly taking note of his surroundings.

    Interesting about the previous corvid post and how it was trying to figure out the workings! Today a very large raven landed on the topmost tip of a tall evergreen. I was surprised to see it in the neighbourhood and then realized it was following the 'beans to bones' recycling truck that was making its weekly pickup on our street. Crafty corvids is right!

    ...and

    Wee weevil warped and weaved twill it weft! ;)

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  4. The Rook looked very contented sitting there John.
    Macro video. No end to your talents. Excellent clip.

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  5. Thank you Wilma. We are nice and cosy in here.

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  6. Pleased you enjoyed them Glo.
    How do you make bones out of beans? lol
    When our household rubbish / garbage used to be put out in black sacks the Rooks used to rip them to pieces looking for scraps of food.

    You will get your tongue in a knot one of these days ;>)

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  7. Thank you Keith. Macro video makes a change as well as quite a challenge keeping up with tiny moving objects.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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