Birds, Hedgehogs and a Newt

What a miserable morning yesterday. Just started to rain as we got back from the morning walk and it continued until just after midday. Not heavy rain, just enough to gently water the garden. It needed it as large cracks were appearing in some areas. Once the rain had stopped I set about changing the camera I had used to observe the Hedgehogs. After a bit of experimenting I ended up using a black an white one with built in infra red lighting. The cover says colour but the camera is b/w. Also I took the opportunity to mount it closer to the place where the Hedgehogs have been appearing.



If you want to see the results then read on or scroll down.

In the garden the birds have been grabbing food as though it is going out of fashion. Several times I have seen blackbirds with beaks filled with grubs. Often they will put the whole lot down while they get another tasty morsel and then pick all the originals up again.

How many grubs can you get in one beak - there are still a couple to pick up.



It is not often I see both Blue Tits at the same feeder. Here the one at the back is holding a Sunflower heart with both feet and pecking pieces off.



As usual the Starlings cause mayhem continually barging in. Here a couple are changing over.



Another has decided it is bath time. Yes - that is my nursery pond but who am I to argue with a determined Starling. BTW I was right about the Frog Spawn. It was not viable and not one started to develop. Oh well, better luck next year.



Nobody can convince me that House Sparrow numbers are decreasing but why, with a large area of lawn to choose from, so many feed in such a small space I'll never know. There were more out of shot.



In the pond the Common Newts continue to make an appearance from time to time. The best time seems to be around midday.



Finally back to the Hedgehogs. For a while I thought there would be no appearance last night but suddenly two appeared together. At first they seemed to be feeding quite happily together but before too long a Hedgehog jousting match started. It was all one sided as the larger hog kept pushing the smaller one away from the food. The small one was not to be put off though and kept returning. This went on for well over fifteen minutes. In fact it only stopped when I went out to take a couple of still photos.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

This time I managed to get a face. After a couple of shots the little hog ran off and the large one disappeared soon after that. Hopefully here is a piece of video. This is the first time I have used YouTube as Flickr have a limit of 90 seconds for video files. I can't work out whether the smaller hog is younger or appears so much thinner because the larger one stops it from eating. In that case why do they appear together? A bit of a puzzle at the moment.



This morning I have moved the camera even closer so it is now about 3 to 4 ft away. I want to see what these two are really up to.

Shadows in the Night

Yesterday I moved the video camera which was monitoring the outside of the nest boxes as there has been no activity in either of them for weeks. If the hedgehogs are investigating the seeds which the birds scatter from the feeders I thought I would put the camera where I could see when they arrive. At dusk I scattered some well ground peanuts (bird feeder type. not human salted type) and put out a bowl of water. Soon after 9pm there was some activity. A single large hedgehog had arrived and seemed to be tucking in to the peanuts so I started the recorder.

Here is a piece of the recording - very grey and shadowy as it suffered from the various processes getting it from the PVR to the PC and then to Flickr and it wasn't a great piece of video to start with. I will have to see about improving the lighting. The hedgehog is right in the centre of the frame.



This week is Hedgehog Awareness Week. If you are interesting in finding out more about hedgehogs then two sites worth a visit are The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Epping Forest Hedgehog Rescue. A blog I like to visit is My Hedgehog Diary 2009.

If you are thinking of putting out some food for hedgehogs and are not sure what to use then have a look at the Epping Forest site and choose Diet from the Navigation list.

P.S.
If anyone knows of a good composite video to USB input device for the PC please let me know. I have tried a few over the years but have yet to find one which is reliable.

And Then There Were Two

Very variable weather here yesterday. Bright start soon followed by light rain followed by cool winds all day. During the periods of sunshine Bobby made the most of it and lazed on the lawn with an occasional back rubbing session followed by a good shake all over.



Just before bedtime Bobby again heard our spiky friend only this time there were two. Of course by the time I had a camera ready they would only show a pair of posteriors.





I waited a while but they stayed in ostrich mode with their heads hidden from view. Later, after I had finished clearing up indoors, I nipped out for another look. I could hear such a loud snuffling and it took a while to trace it. It was one, or both, hedgehogs sniffing and rooting around on the other side of the fence. I could see both amongst the weeds.

For a couple of nights I had put down a tray with some peanuts behind the shed but they were untouched. On both occasions we had seen the hedgehogs they were under the bird feeders no doubt gathering the scatterings of marauding Starlings.
Tonight I will try leaving a bit of dog food in a bowl under the feeders and see if they eat that. They had better get to it before Bobby does.

A bit of Moss

Yesterday was a pain computer wise so today could only get better. I had decided to replace my old LCD monitor with a new wide screen one. It duly arrived and I followed the instructions and connected it up. It worked OK but the graphics card would not give me a wide screen choice so everything was stretched sideways. It took three hours to find the correct up to date driver from the manufacturers site and even that took a tortuous route to get working but in the end all was well. Come back Atari, all is forgiven.

Some days ago when I was pottering round the garden I spotted moss growing on the rotting remains of a wooden post in a 2"x2" Metpost.



At first the idea was just to get a photo for the record but then I wanted to get a closer look. A while ago I bought a second hand Digital Blue USB microscope as I had seen reasonable write ups of its ability. It is really classed as a toy but for certain things it works fairly well. For focus the stage moves up and down but as everything is plastic it can stick and suddenly jump past the optimum focus point so you have to keep going up and down until it stops in the right place.



Another annoying disadvantage as far as I am concerned is the way it changes the screen to a lower resolution. Not a problem in itself as it brings back the original resolution when you exit the program - but - in lowering the resolution Windows then shuffles my desktop icons about and I like them in certain groups on the screen.

So, I pulled a small piece of the moss and took a photo with the Canon which shows all the parts which go up to make this particular moss. The moss is about 40mm tall, just under 2 inches. On backyardnature.net I found this drawing which labels the various parts nicely.



Now to the Digital Blue microscope which has three settings for magnification. Here is the leaf section at 60x magnification which shows some of the cell structure.



Here are some capsules at 10x magnification ....



....and a couple of views of a capsule at 60x magnification.





The capsules only appear at a time of year when the conditions are right for the moss to reproduce and contains the spores for starting new plants. The rest of the year only the leaf section of the moss will be seen.

I spent ages trawling the net trying to identify which moss this is - to no avail. My closest guess at the moment is that is may be in the group Dicranella but that was as far as I could get.

This microscope also has a 200x magnification which personally I find gives poor results, especially on 3D subjects like this but may well be better for looking through thinly sliced specimens but I don't think the optics are really up to the job.

Close Encounter of the Prickly Kind

Let Bobby out for his late night jaunt in the garden. Normally he goes through to the front garden at this time but last night something caught his attention as soon as we went out of the back door. I could just make out a dark shape so I nipped in for the camera. I could hear him barking and by the time I got outside again there was nothing in sight. Bobby was listening intently and moved over to a couple of old wooden garden chairs.



I shone the torch in that area and Bobby went in for a closer look.



There, as far into a corner as it could get, was the local hedgehog. I had hoped it had survived the winter as there were baby hedgehogs in the garden last year. Having taken a quick photo we transferred to the front garden so Bobby could do what a dog needs to do before bedtime and left the hedgehog in peace.

Here is a bit of video I took last summer when a young hedgehog was about in broad daylight.

IDCD, Camouflage and Thanks

IDCD
Sunday 3rd May is International Dawn Chorus Day. Many events have been organised across the UK so that people can visit sites to hear the wide variety of our bird life signal the start of a new day. More information can be found on various web sites including Wildlife Trust and the IDCD site.

Camouflage
There are gradually more small moths appearing around the garden. These two are doing their best to blend in with the mortar between the bricks making up the garage wall.

Garden Carpet Xanthorhoe fluctuata

Early Grey Xylocampa areola

Over the decades many moths have changed their appearance so as to blend in with an ever changing man made world. During the days of the industrial revolution, when coal was king, and through to the 1950s when the Clean Air Acts were introduced it was found that some moths had gradually developed darker markings which blended in better with soot grimed buildings and trees.

Thanks
Thanks to Bennyboymothman on Flickr for identifying the above moths.

My thanks to Greenfingers of Cabinet of Curiosities and Beyond the Human Eye who suggested that the flying insect in my Invaded section might be Ichneumon speciosus.



This is a large group of parasitic wasps which lay their eggs in butterfly and moth caterpillars. I looked through many pictures of this group of wasps. Though I couldn't spot the one I had there were several similar and at least one site said that there were so many in this group that it was very difficult to identify an individual.

Also thanks to ShySongbird for suggesting that my unidentified bird in the Walkies entry may be a Willow Warbler.



Once I had an idea where to look in my books I could check through and that certainly seems the best match.

It is so nice when people are willing to help out when I am at a complete loss - which is quite frequently at the moment.

Feeding , Fluttering and My POM

FEEDING

The visiting birds seem particularly hungry these days. By the end of the day there is virtually nothing left over in the seed tray. The pair of Goldfinches continue to visit, sometimes singly but usually together.



A particularly welcome sight which took me completely by surprise was a visit by a pair of Siskins. The first I have ever seen anywhere, never mind in my garden. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of colour as they came in to land. First they landed on the shed cables. One stayed there a little longer whilst the other sampled the peanuts.





After a short while they both moved over to the Nyger seed feeder where they spent several minutes tucking in.



That really brightened up what was ending up as a damp and dismal day. The light was so poor by this time, about 5.30 p.m., that I had to up the ISO speed quite a bit.

Sometimes you get the more unusual view of a bird like this one of a Starling which was determined to reach the bowl of seed without going right inside.




FLUTTERING

The Jackdaws are now regular visitors but like the Rooks are easily scared away, like this one just taking off from the lawn.



The Rooks don't stray far and soon swoop back to try their luck again.



This Crow was making off with what looks like a tasty morsel from somebody elses garden.



Once again I was removing insects from the kitchen. This Bumblebee (I think an Early Bumblebee) is one of the largest I see around.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

MY PICTURE of the MONTH

This is a purely subjective choice. I took a photo the other day just to see what it would turn out like. The Sun was shining on the water running down the pond waterfall and the colours of the old lichen at the bottom of the water were showing through. I really was pleased with the result which looks to me like a piece of amber which has started to melt.