Friday at the Flicks - Damselflies - Cartoon Style Pheasant

Several Damselflies have emerged from the garden pond. This mating pair of Blue-tailed Damselflies spent the best part of an hour mating which, fortunately, gave plenty of time to get a bit of video. Male at the top, female below:



Another old video clip given the cartoon style treatment in Celling Video. This time a Pheasant which used to make daily visits for some peanuts:




Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

The Return of Mr P?

Of course this may not be the same pheasant which visited a few times last year. He was doing a grand job of clearing up the seeds scattered by the smaller birds. It must have stayed well over half an hour which gave plenty of time for some still and video shots:









Pheasant and Blackbird - which gives a good idea of their relative sizes:



Finally some silent video, shot hand held with the Canon 70D fitted with 100-400mm zoom lens:

Friday at the Flicks - Apples, Pheasant

No sign of any Winter visiting thrushes here as yet but the local Starlings and Blackbirds are tucking in to the apples I put out. The apples are fixed on a bolt so they stay in place:



The cock Pheasant seems to have become a regular morning visitor. As I thought, Penny doesn't exactly welcome large birds to her garden but, ungainly as it is, the Pheasant can take off faster than Penny can reach it. Here it is cleaning up the seed scattered from the feeders by the Starlings:




Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Friday at the Flicks - Wet Feathers

During last Wednesday's persistent rain a group of Goldfinches came to the Birdy Bistro. Also spotted, first time since last Spring, was a Cock Pheasant which sat on the top of the fruit cage for hours in the pouring rain. I often see Wood Pigeons taking advantage of rain to have a shower. They lean over and lift each wing in turn to have a good wash. The Pheasant just sat there looking thoroughly miserable:



During part of the video you can hear a noisy group of House Sparrows which were sheltering in a nearby evergreen bush.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Wings on Wednesday

A Friend For Life
Most days the Pheasant visits the garden. He always keeps an eye on the kitchen window. If he sees me I can guarantee that within seconds he will be outside the back door waiting for me to scatter some peanuts.



Mrs Great Tit
I have seen the female Great Tit visit the Birdy Bistro a few times. Not only had she lost many head feathers but also many on one side of her face. From the latest nest box views she seems to be growing new feathers so it won't be long before it will be difficult to tell which is which.



Soggy Ladybird
As I was checking for wildlife in and around the pond I saw a tiny ladybird which was struggling on the surface of the water. I managed to fish it out and after photographing this tiny two spot ladybird I set it down in the sunshine to dry out its wings.



A Fuzzy Moth  (which turned out to be a Fuzzy Fly)
Was it a bee or was it a moth? It looks like a bee. It's bee size. It behaves like a humming bird. I guess it was a Hummingbird Hawk Moth. I spent ages trying to photograph it. I only had the Lumix with me and that doesn't have manual focus. The moth seemed to be playing games with me. It would often hover a couple of feet from my face as if waiting to be photographed but zoom sideways or backwards as soon as I pressed the shutter. So - the best I managed was this fuzzy photo:

My grateful thanks to Pete Smith and Jan for correcting my erroneous identification. What I had spent about a quarter of an hour trying to photograph was a Bee Fly (Bombylius major). They are amazing in the way they can hover in one place and dart around in any direction in the blink of an eye.



Blackcap
While I was sat in the garden on Monday enjoying the unseasonal 18C sunshine I spotted the Blackcap visit the Birdy Bistro. That may well be the last time I will see it. No sighting at all yesterday.

Friday at the Flicks - Chaffinch Song, No Hands Bread Eating, Pheasant

A bit more birdy activity captured this week. To begin with, after days of trying to find a Chaffinch which had spent many hours singing I managed to capture this bit of video:



Yesterday I was laughing out loud as I watched a Wood Pigeon with a piece of bread which had fallen from the feeder where I put it for the corvids. In its energetic tries to pull small pieces to eat the bread was flying all over the place: A corvid would have stood on the bread to hold it still.



I think I have a friend for life. When I see the Pheasant in the garden I go out and throw a few peanuts on the grass for it. Yesterday I did that twice and each time it moved a short distance away from me. On a third occasion I took some stuff out to put in the recycle bin. This time the Pheasant came rushing over to me expecting more food.  In this clip it is swallowing one of the peanuts. I have seen it do this in the past when a peanut is only just big enough for it to eat. (no sound on this clip)



All this week's video were shot using an Hitachi DVC Cam.

The Difficulty of Predicting Auroras.
Yesterday the strong CME (Coronal Mass Ejection / Solar flare) from the Sun did hit the Earth's magnetic field. It did not spark off the possible widespread auroras we had hoped for. Why? There is a good explanation on the NASA site.
Imagine the Earth's magnetic field as a bar magnet. The cloud of charged particles from the Sun also acts like a bar magnet. If both of these imaginary bar magnets are the same way round there is a small disturbance to the Earth's magnetic field resulting in some aurora activity near the Earth's poles. If they are the opposite way round to each other then there can be a large effect resulting in magnetic storms and auroras over a much greater area of the Earth. Although the strength of a solar flare can be measured as it leaves the Sun, the direction of the magnetic field (which way round the bar magnet will be) is not known until it arrives here so it is difficult to predict how widespread auroras will be.

There may be a chance tonight - strong magnetic variations have been detected by the Lancaster University magnetometer in Crooktree, Scotland since about 06.30 GMT Let's hope they continue until tonight.

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.

Wings on Wednesday - Pheasant + Tree Sparrows + BGB

The cock Pheasant continues to be a regular visitor to the garden.



Another regular Winter visitor is the Tree Sparrow. They spend most of the year in the hedgerows of the local fields but in Winter will often join with the House Sparrows to visit garden feeders. They seem to have bred well last season as I now get up to a dozen visiting at the same time.



BGB  (RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch)
For those in the UK the weekend 28th / 29th January is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch weekend. The idea being to watch for any one hour period on one of those days to record the maximum number of each species of bird which visits a garden. Full details can be found on the RSPB site HERE.

AURORA:
Apparently the last aurora was one of the most spectacular seen in the Artic regions. Unfortunately none has been seen this far South but I did see a report that the previous display was seen at Tan Hill in Yorkshire.
A picture can be seen in The Telegraph HERE.
Also some photos on the BBC News site HERE.
Plenty of orange sky here but that was just the street lights reflecting from mist and low cloud!

Friday at the Flicks - A Pheasant Morning

Once again the cock Pheasant made a brief visit to the Birdy Bistro but this time there was no room for it to get at the feeders.




When it went for a walk across the garden I threw some peanuts on the grass. It didn't take long before he was gobbling them down and didn't even mind when I sneaked out the back door with the Lumix TZ7 to shoot some video.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Friday at the Flicks - Pheasant at the Birdy Bistro + Mobile Food

One of the fat feeders was on a string which meant it revolved every time a bird pecked at it but that was no problem for a Starling which learned to peck in the direction the food was rotating.



The other day when I photographed the Pheasant visiting the Birdy Bistro I managed to take some video at the same time.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Bobby was a bit perkier yesterday and had a shot session of barking at passers by for the first time for several days. He even managed to race up and down the garden a couple of times.

Where Have all the Fat Balls Gone?

I thought the fat balls had suddenly become very popular. Normally I need to add one to the feeder each day. Today I saw the culprit.



The idea of the 4inch (10cm) wide plank was for the smaller ground feeders to get at the seeds. As I had taken down one of the feeders a couple of days ago that obviously left just enough space for a determined Pheasant to have a seat at the Birdy Bistro.



...........

Bobby went for his X-ray at 9 a.m. this morning but I don't collect him another three hours yet so nothing to report. We were both woken at 4 a.m. this morning as the strong wind was blowing a tropical downpour straight at the front windows. I couldn't get back to sleep so we went walkabout at 5 a.m. - the rain had died down quite a bit by then.  A very peaceful walking time is that with no selfish speeding motorists throwing excess spray over the footpath.

Friday at the Flicks - Merry Christmas + A Pheasant Visits

Best wishes to all:



Background images found as public domain animated GIFs on the web;
Sound Track: Carol of the Bells by Mykola Leontovych arranged by William Wallace and produced using the app iSequence on the iPad. That was only my second attempt at creating music with iSequence.
Animated GIFs needed to be converted to AVI files. For this I found a very useful free open source utility VirtualDub which can be found HERE. Animated GIFs make very short AVI files so they need to be added many times to the time line in video editing software to build up a reasonable sequence length.

The site mp3skull has access to many different performances of Carol of the Bells.
This is one of my favourites (to listen click the play button)
01 - Carol Of The Bells

Powered by mp3skull.com



Earlier in the week a Cock Pheasant made one of its occasional early morning visits to my garden. In the second clip you can see how large a Pheasant is when a male Chaffinch can be seen feeding in the same area.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Friday at the Flicks ( Pheasant, Rook, Dunnock)

It was quite a surprise to see the Pheasant helping itself to the fat ball I had placed in the ground dish for the Blackbirds. Two different views from different cameras.



This Rook had spotted me watching and spent a while in a tree waiting to see if I would go away before deciding to try elsewhere.



This clip of a Dunnock was taken a while ago and then forgotten about until I found it again a couple of days ago.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Determination

Every now and then a Blackbird decides it wants to eat from one of the seed feeders. The problem is that the ring perches are too small for them to balance and get their head in the hole so they have to flap like mad to maintain their balance.



The Pheasant continues to make the odd appearance. This time it was interested in a fat ball I had placed in the ground dish so the Blackbirds could get their share.



Whoops - clumsy!


There should be a video clip of this action on Friday.

As far as the Collared Doves are concerned Spring must be round the corner. This morning I spotted one breaking a thin branch off one of my dwarf trees and flying off with it into the large Leylandii.

A Bit More of the White Stuff and a Resident Pheasant

For once the weather forecasters got things correct. We did get one session of prolonged snow. It didn't stop the bird visitors from eating. In fact they became even more frantic to stock up.

Tree Sparrows and a Chaffinch


The usual Starlings and House Sparrows


Most unusual, in my garden, to see two male Blackbirds so close to each other.


Just as the light was beginning to fade I noticed that the pheasant was sitting in a tree at the bottom of the garden. Even when Bobby went for a stroll round it stayed there with just its head following Bobby's every move.


For the moment it seems to have adopted my garden for there it was at daybreak ignoring the squabbling Blackbirds on the snow covered lawn.


 It even strolled over to the ground feeder and helped itself to a free breakfast.

Friday at the Flicks (Early Pheasant, Wet Pigeons, Singing Robin)

It was too dark for the Canon but just about light enough for the camcorder when this pheasant visited early one morning.



The Wood Pigeon shown a couple of days ago feeding in the rain was joined by two more. I was fascinated by the way the one on top of the feeder kept trying to persuade the one below that it was time to change places.



One dull day, as the light was fading, a Robin stayed on one of his favourite perches while I sneaked the camcorder outside to capture a bit of his song.



Once the distant dog had finished barking I could also hear a Coal Tit in the background.

Big Garden Birdwatch

It was great to see the BBC have been promoting the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend. I have no doubt that many thousands of British gardens will be carefully watched and bird visitors counted, It only takes one hour on either Saturday or Sunday. Details can be found by following the link on the RSPB website HERE.

Little and Large

I went through to the kitchen and glanced out of the window to see if there was anything interesting in the back garden. There, feeding on the lawn was a group of birds - the usual - Collared Doves, Pigeons and Chaffinches. In the middle of the group was a Pheasant. The last time I saw a pheasant in the garden was in November last year and I was beginning to think it had ended up as part of some ones Christmas dinner. I dashed through to get the camera and hurriedly took a few hand held shots which, considering the poor lighting conditions, ended up better than I expected.

A lot of the time it was a picture of Little and Large as the Pheasant and a Chaffinch were feeding so close together. Every now and then the breeze would get under the feathers of the Pheasant.





I was hoping to get a shot of the Pheasant taking off but had to make do with this shot of it stretching a wing.



Also visiting were a couple of Long Tailed Tits. I only ever see two together these days. Before the snowy and frosty days there were always six or seven together. I hope the reduced number means that they are a mated pair and not that we lost some in the bad weather.



Yesterday I went to visit a friend and only managed a couple of photo opportunities - one of the five sailed windmill in Alford, Lincolnshire. At least it can be seen while the tree branches are bare. This is a working mill and is open to the public for much of the year.



The other stop was to photo some rain clouds over the Lincolnshire Wolds. Here there are three photos, taken freehand looking through the open car window, which have been stitched together using the demo version of Autostitch. As usual a larger version can be seen on Flickr by clicking on this picture.

Bird Visitors to my Garden

One of the things I like to do is to watch the birds which come to feed at my bird table and bird feeders.



Birds which regularly visit include Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Great Tits, Long Tailed Tits, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Robin and Starlings.

Here is part of the group of Long Tailed Tits which visits briefly from time to time.




A juvenile Great Tit enjoying a piece of peanut.




Birds like shallow water to bathe in like this group of Sparrows cooling off on a hot Summers day.




Even when the temperature was zero and it was snowing birds were looking for water to drink and to bathe in.




Some birds prefer to eat on the ground including this cock Pheasant which visited a few times a short while ago.