Monday Mystery

Last Monday I showed:



All those cheerful looking berries are on a self seeded plant which has been allowed to grow on.



I am pretty sure it is a catoneaster. They seem to seed all over the place. My thanks to all who had a guess.

I am absolutely sure what this infra red photograph of the new mystery object is.



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

Rook

It has been some time since I last saw a Rook visit the bird feeders. This morning one was trying to look innocent when he saw me watching as it attempted to get near the suet ball feeder.

Stymied by the Weather

One of those non photographic days. While out for our morning walk the Sun was clear of cloud. Great I thought. I wanted to photo the latest large Sunspot. The new Solar cycle seems to be gathering pace as there are three new Sunspots facing the Earth at the moment. By the time we reached home the Sun was nowhere to be seen, sulking behind thick clouds. Teatime I kept an eye on the West for any sign of a colourful Sunset. Nope, none, zilch. Just grey sky. On our final walkabout, just as the gloom of night was decending, I could see a clear Moon. That will have to do I thought. I think you can guess what happened next. Yes. By the time we reached home the Moon had decided to go all shy and hid behind thick cloud.

Another Sunset

Yesterday we went out early enough in the evening to catch the Sunset over the fields. As usual I took lots of photos. These are about the best of the bunch. I tried a few different setting on the Canon G5X. First a normal single shot:



I didn't realise I had chosen the HDR setting for the next one so it was surprisingly good considering the camera was hand held while it took the three shots which are mixed to make the final HDR photo.



Both photos are cropped to remove some of the less interesting foreground.

Turneresque Sunset

J. M. W. Turner is one of my favourite painters. He recorded many magnificient Sunsets in the 1800s. When we went walkabout yesterday evening the bold reds and oranges of the Sunset brought Turner's works to mind. Looking back to the West as we set off:



About half way down the lane I looked back again:



I was annoyed as I had forgotten to take a camera with me so I had to use the iPhone 6S and the Camera+2 app. Photos are cropped slightly to reduce the amount of dark foreground and the overhead telephone cables were 'inpainted' out using Affinity Photo.

Monday Mystery

Last week I showed



which was a close view of



an LED headlamp - literally a light to wear on your head. Listed as a lamp for fishing or camping. It has a central spotlight with an angled floodlight either side. They can be on individually or all together. For cyclists it can be worn on the back of the head as it also has a flashing red light. As is usual these days the battery is recharged through a USB connector. Listed as lasting 4 to 6 hours on one charge. I bought it for the occasions we go walkabout down our lane on Winter nights. There are a few dimish street lamps but no lighting once past the bridge to the cricket field. The lights are quite powerful and do a great job. (£8.50 on eBay)

Ellen D. it could be useful to keep in the car for emergencies. Kris - not sure whether you were thinking of something like this or a vehicle headlight. Dave - it certainly counts as a torch.

This time can you identify which plant produces these beautiful berries?



Please leave any guesses in the comments. They will be shown, along with the answer, next Monday.

Moon at 800mm

Having read the reviews which were reasonably good I invested all of £102 in a JINTU 420-800mm zoom lens. Obviously at this price it is very basic. Manual focus, fixed apature which varies from F8.3 at 420mm to F16 at 800mm. I wanted it for photographing the Moon or Sun. Here it is fitted to my Canon 70D on its first try out photographing the Moon.



I took severa photos as the manual focus is tricky to get spot on. This is a full frame shot (no cropping)



That wasn't the best focussed shot but the one with the Moon nearest the centre of the shot.

A crop from a slightly sharper photo:



Obviously not as sharp as the Canon £1000+ 800mm lenses but I think it's very good for the price. It has a standard M42 thread and comes with an adapter to match your camera. Needless to say it has to be on a sturdy tripod and the camera operated by a remote of one sort or another. The slightest movement will blur the image.

Intelligent Rook

I was reading The Weaver of Grass' blog entry about watching Rooks and it reminded me of this bit of video I took eight years ago.



Why struggle to get at the suet ball when a little effort makes the job a lot easier in the long run. A few days later I noticed all the feeders in a neighbour's front garden were on the floor. I guess it was putting its new skill to good use.

Monday Mystery

Not too much of a problem identifying this close shot from last Monday:



as being part of:



an old cast iron trivit. Very useful to get air circulation all round things which need cooling down or defrosting slowly. Well done to Ellen D., Adrian, Ragged Robin, Dave, Kris and Kev who were close or spot on.

Another close view for this week:



Whatever can it be? Please leave any guesses in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Fishy Request

No, Not fishy as in dodgy but a request from John Going Gently for a clearer look at the fish ornament from my More Wrens post. This is a water fountain type ornament of Chinese make I bought some years ago and never got round to connecting up to a water pump. Now I have set up a small raised pond I will experiment a bit to see how well it works.



From the front you can see the inlet at the bottom and the outlet through its mouth.



I think it's cast resin, measures about 13 inches long by 8 inches high and is fairly hefty weighing in at 4lb (1.8Kg).

More Wrens

I see a Wren dodging around the garden most early mornings. A couple of days ago the lighting conditions were a bit better for taking a few photographs.







A couple of mornings ago, for the first time ever, I saw two Wrens in the garden at the same time. I understand they often roost together in groups during the Winter.

Fallen

As we made our way through the back of the village churchyard we were greeted with a carpet of fallen Autumn leaves:





As we left I turned my thoughts to those villagers who had fallen in two world wars:

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

I have mesh and bars on the birdtable to keep Wood Pigeons out. They tend to sit in there and scare all the small birds away. The local Magpie wasn't going to let any of that get in the way of a free meal.



No sound. Video automatically captured by one of my surveillance camera.

Monday Mystery

Last week's close view



was identified as being part of



a 'feather' duster. It is thin enough to clear out cobwebs from behind radiators and has an extendable handle making it easy to reach ceilings. Well done to Adrian, Ellen, Ragged Robin, Kris, Kev and Debby.

Another close view this week


(Not as clear a photo as I would have liked) If you would like to guess what it is please leave your guess in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Autumn

A great time for some beautiful Sunsets:



and a time for misty mornings:
Just about able to make out my new wooden planters in the front garden:


The Sun trying to dispel the mist:



and with the temperature rapidly dropping to 1.4C giving an expected frost:

Sunspot AR2781

Last night the Moon gave me a photo opportunity (see previous post). Today it was the turn of the Sun. I particularly wanted to see whether I could capture an image of the first decent Sunspot of the new solar cycle.



You can see it at about 7 o'clock on the above photo. To give some idea of size - the Earth is smaller than the top dark blob. Photo taken with the Canon 70D fitted with 100-400mm zoom and, most importantly, a solar filter to cut down the light from the Sun by something like 10,000 times making it safe to point the camera directly at the Sun.

A closer crop:

Moon

When I went outside to clear a spider's web from a video camera I could see the Moon was clear and glowing orange. Just had to take a photo or dozen of it. Took lots. I think this one came out best after cropping and processing in Affinity Photo:

Hello Jenny

As I looked out of the kitchen window I could see the familiar darting motion of a small Jenny Wren. They don't spend much time in the open, usually moving rapidly from cover to cover while searching for spiders and insects to eat. I only had the Nikon, hand held, set to full zoom as I tried several time to get a snapshot. Luckily the Wren spent a short while in the open.





Even with full zoom I had to make small crops. As far as I can gather the Wren is the third smallest British resident bird weighing about the same as a £1 coin.

Monday Mystery

Last week's close up



showed part of



which was correctly identified by Adrian, Dave and Kev as an oven glove. Thanks to all who had a go.I first discovered Coolskin® at least a decade ago when they were on sale on a well known satellite shopping channel. I liked the idea of having a fingered glove rather than a mitten for better grip and control. They were advertised as being in use by several fire brigades so I gave a pair a try. Excellent. After taking a hot dish out of the oven the outside of the glove can be too hot to touch but the inside is barely warm. Just watch out for scalding steam as that can penetrate the glove.

Once again a close view



Want to have a guess as to what it is? Please leave any guesses in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.