Sunset

With the clocks changing last Sunday we were just in time to catch a short lived Sunset on the way back from our after tea walk.

Monday Mystery

Last week's mystery object



was correctly identified by Kev Scott, Kris and Dave as a feeder designed for woodpeckers. Well done. The wooden 'steps, are to give something to grip on to and the long depth under the feeder is to give support when they press their tails to aid grip. My thanks to all who had a go.

Back to a close view this week



If you would like to guess what it is please leave your guess in the comments. Any will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Then and Now

Remember when I had the enormous Leylandii cut down and left a tall stump? Here it is as it was in April 2018 when I planted a couple of Virginia Creepers and wondered how many years it would take before I got a decent Autumn colour show from them.



and how it looked today



Pretty good for two years growth considering some of it was accidentally cut down when I had someone in to do some strimming in that area of the garden! I need to do a bit of re-training to get it to cover some areas. Strange, most of the growth seem to be on the North facing side. Maybe I should plant another one of the South facing side.

Monday Mystery

It looks like I won with last week'e mystery object



which was



an Oxo stock cube. My thanks to all who had a go.

Another full view this week. A new feeder



but what is it designed to attract?
If you know or would like to guess please leave your answer in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Smart Roadster

Initially I hadn't a clue what this rather swish sporty looking car is



Can't say I have ever noticed one of these before, especially in the village. A search of the number plate at least told me it is a Smart Roadster 80 though who makes them and where I haven't a clue.



Not my idal car nowadays but 50 years ago I would have been happy to own one though I would probably have struggled finding the money to insure it.

HDR with the Canon G5X

A quick test using the built in HDR effects of the Canon PowerShot G5X. When taking HRD photos the camera takes three shots in quick succession. One normal exposure, one at slightly less and one slightly more exposure. It then processes them to give the HDR result. Processing seems to take about 5 to 10 seconds. Can be useful when there is a very large difference in lighting over shadow and well lit sections of the scene. There are a few different HDR effects to choose from. I tried a couple. As I didn't have a tripod with me I rested the camera on the hand rail of the footbridge leading to the cricket field.

First a normal single shot:


This is HDR Art Embossed


Finally HDR Art Bold


There are a couple more variations to use but I was blocking other people wanting to use the footbridge so I'll have a further experiment another day.

Monday Mystery

Last week's close views



were parts of



a glue stick. Well done to Kev Scott, Ellen D., Dave and Kris. My thanks to all who had a go.

This week you can see the the full view of something to identify



If you would like to make a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Spotted Visitors

Just missed taking some still views of a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers visiting the feeders. This is a bit of rather grainy surveillance video. I had to zoom in to see the birds. I can't work out whether the first one is a juvenile or female. The adult comes in right near the end just before the automatic recording cut off.

I uploaded the video direct to Blogger instead of using YouTube.

Goldfinches

The morning started with an adult and juvenile making a brief visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  A short while later six adults came to try out the new seed feeder:



First time for a few years I have seen more than an occasional lone Goldfinch visit.

Autumn Brood

I was surprised to see a juvenile bird this late in the year.





It took me a while to work out what is was. Eventually I was able to briefly see the tell tale yellow of a Goldfinch on its wings. The photographs were taken a day apart so there may well be more than one.

Monday Mystery

Last week's close view



was part of



what I suppose could be called a candle lantern. I bought that many years ago when there were several long power outages during bad winter weather. It's not been needed for quite a while but looks as though it could be in use agin in the near future if the recent increase in power cuts continues.

It was difficult from the close view to tell exactly what it was. Well done Adrian, Ellen D., Dave and Ragged Robin for either being spot on or very near in their guesses.

Two close views of parts of this week's mystery object:



These are parts of ..... what?
Please leave any guessses in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Ellen D. wondered how I pick the objects each week. My instant answer wouls be - with difficulty. I am always on the look out for something I think may be suitable. Sometimes I will spot an object when wandering round my home, sometimes when out dog walking. Other times it's a scrabble at the last minute searching for anything I can find.

Feeders at the Ready

With the change in the weather there have been more birds visiting the feeders so it was time to check them over and top them up. A new(ish) feeder is this one:



It holds jars of peanut butter specially formulated for birds. Peanut butter for human consumption can have too much salt for feeding to birds. I get the pots from CJ Wildlife:



I did have it set up under the bird table over the Summer but it was ignored there and the contents went mouldy. I though I would try it on the side of the shed not far from the traditional feeders.

Black Minibeast

As I took down my weather satellite aerial and was about to move the base off the lawn I spotted a black beetle:

A small crop of a quick photo with the iPhone:


At least it stayed in view while I fetched the Nikon compact camera and managed to take a few more photos. These shots are all small crops from the originals.







I am pretty sure this is a diving beetle going by the size (about 8mm), colour, shape and the length of the back legs. I wonder what it was doing out of the pond. I understand they are good fliers so it probably fancied a change of environment.

Storm Alex (NOAA weather satellite)

The wind crculating round Storm Alex as seen by NOAA 18 this morning:



Although Alex will move southwards a new low developing over the UK will drag in high winds and rain over the weekend. The Met Office site is now showing amber warnings for some areas.