Friday at the Flicks - Moorhen, Rainy Weather

I don't see the Moorhen every day as sometimes it arrives while I'm still in the land of nod and leaves before we get up. On the whole I am pleased it doesn't stay all day. Since it arrived and decided water lily flowers were delicious I am lacking some colour in the pond.

Here an early morning visit:


The Moorhen may be smaller that a fat waddling Wood Pigeon but it is the only bird I have see attack one and drive it away from food.

Here the Moorhen went walkabout on the frame that supports the feeders and even spent a short while on the wires above. Unfortunately I missed recording it walk along the wires:


Finally another time when a Wood Pigeon took advantage of a rain storm to have a thorough shower. At one stage the rain was so heavy I thought it would knock the pigeon over.

Have a great weekend obsering the wildlife around you.

Friday at the Flicks - Snuffling Hedgehogs, Juvenile Moorhen

Hedgehog mating is a very long winded process. It takes days of snuffling for hours on end each evening for the male to persuade the female to lower her spines so he can mount her. This is very short clip from the first night taken with the Lumix TZ7. The only lighting was a hand held LED torch. The original video for this episode and the next were very dark so I had to do a lot of processing in the video software.



On the second night I didn't have the torch as Bobby and I watched for about 20 minutes. The hedgehogs were under a set of four LED lamps. We were about two metres away and the Hedgehogs took no notice of us at all.



They were much later arriving on the third night so this was captured by the video camera. The result has been speeded up and you can see how the male spends all his time going round in large circles and returning to the female while she just carries on eating. No sound this time. You will see that at one stage it is a case of two is company, three is a crowd.



The same activity was still going on last night, the fourth, even in the pouring rain.

Yesterday's visit by a juvenile Moorhen was more than a bit of a surprise. I had had an adult visit a year or so ago but that didn't stay very long. This youngster is different. It spent a long time investigating every part of the pond, even walking up and down the little waterfall. It was another surprise to see that it is still here this morning joining the other birds at the Birdy Bistro. I did manage to take some video yesterday as can be seen here.



 Shirl, Shirl's Gardenwatch, asked me about the LED torch. Here it is next to a pound coin for size comparison. Instead of one bulb it has about thirty LEDs, works on three AAA batteries and gives quite a bright light, to the human eyes anyway. Its main help at night is allowing the TZ7 to focus faster and more accurately in dim light. It doesn't help much with video but was better than nothing



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you - no knowing what will turn up.

Another Juvenile in the Garden - Moorhen

I don't know where they are all coming from but it is getting more interesting in my garden by the day. This afternoon it was what I am pretty sure is a juvenile Moorhen. According to my reference books it should be as it is lacking the bright red to the top of the beak.

At first it was wandering round the bottom end of the garden.



Then on two occasions I spotted it going for a swim in my garden pond:



I tried taking the video recorder outside but it decided to go and hide. I don't know what Bobby is going to make of it when he goes outside but I guess he will scare it away.

Back Garden Visitor

Just in the middle of potato peeling when I glanced out of the kitchen window to see an unusual, for me, visitor peeping round one of the planters. It was already looking very wary so I reached for the camera and took my time bringing it into view.



Slowly the Moorhen came into full view and showed off its enormous, for the size of body, feet. No wonder their walk is so ungainly.



After a brief look round it moved over to the lawn and found a few tasty bits of seed left over from the lot I had scattered first thing this morning.





After a short while it noticed me and gathered speed as it strode off to the far corner of the garden.



This is only the second time I have spotted a Moorhen in the garden and the first time to get some half decent photos. That red beak with its yellow tip is so brilliant, especially against the duller colours of the rest of its body. I had never noticed before that the legs are yellow / green. A while later it was wandering round the front garden.