Showering in the Rain

I got up about a quarter of an hour earlier than usual and had a quick peek through the kitchen window. There was a tight group of five Stock Doves feeding on the spillage from the seed feeder near the bottom of the garden. Fortunately they stayed there long enough to get some video which I will save for Friday.

The morning started well at about +5C and with fairly clear skies and plenty of sunshine it climbed to +10.6C in the shade though with a cool breeze it didn't feel all that warm. Mid morning I made a trip to Focus (top up with bird seed) and then on to Wyevale Garden Centre (suet treats, dried mealworms and a couple of orchid plants).

Needless to say the fine weather didn't last all day as once it was near afternoon walkabout time the rain arrived. Fortunately we found a short lull and managed to stay fairly dry. When we returned the rain came down even harder but that didn't put off some hungry birds. For the first time I saw two Stock Doves on the lawn in the afternoon. Normally they only appear early morning and are usually gone soon after 7 a.m..



Their waterproofing must be good as the raid drops stood on top of their feathers. After a short while a Wood Pigeon slowly ambled across the lawn. If I hadn't seen it move normally I would have thought it was injured by what I saw it do next.



It slowly lifted and stretched first one wing then the other, leaning its body to expose the body feathers under the wings to the rain. It seemed to me it was obviously having a shower. After letting some rain fall on the feathers it would then give them a quick preen.



I managed a short piece of video through a window which was well and truly rain soaked.



Noises off are the local House Sparrows, rain and Bobby crunching his tea! I can't say I can remember ever seeing a bird take a shower in the rain before today. Even just watching the local wildlife in a back garden brings interesting and surprising behaviour.

Three Finches

Believe it or not I could actually feel the heat from the Sun for a short while this afternoon. A bit of bright light also made some difference to the photos I took. All are quite small crops from the originals.

Greenfinch


Goldfinch


Male Chaffinch


As you will probably gather I have been taken by the border I have started adding to my photos.It is one of twenty customisable choices in a free plug-in called BorderMania which will work in programs such as Paint Shop Pro and  Photoshop. It can be downloaded from HERE.

Friday at the Flicks (A Flurry of Activity)

After virtually ignoring the nestbox for three days there was a short flurry of activity yesterday afternoon. Both birds visited the box and several trips were made to take out more of the dried grass stalks. This is a small part of the action.



The entrance hole to this nestbox is quite deep as it goes through two thicknesses of wood. The bird usually deposits the bits of material in the hole as it goes out and then comes back to take them out from the outside. Sounds are of other birds in the vicinity - Blackbirds, Starlings and the occasional Collared Dove.

The garden is almost deserted this morning. Just a couple of Blackbirds where there are normally a dozen or so. I guess the overnight rain has made them think twice about getting up early. No signs of any doves at the moment.

Not One, Not Two, Now there are Six

I looked cautiously through the kitchen window first thing this morning in the hopes the pair of Stock Doves were there. Yes. There they were, but what's this I see. Another .. and another. In the end I counted six of them busily feeding on the lawn. I grabbed the camera and started to photograph them when two in particular caught my attention.









They spent a couple of minutes performing synchronised movements,  bowing, slow wing stretching and circling round each other before one decided it had had enough and flew away. Love is in the air. Spring is just around the corner.

Not One but Two

While I was getting Bobby ready for our morning walk, and I was still on auto-pilot at 7 a.m., I spotted not one but two Stock Doves on the lawn. Needless to say the camera wasn't handy at that time and by the time I had fetched it they had both flown away.



The photo is from the batch I took the first time I saw one. My main program for processing photos is PaintShopPro X2 and I have only recently found out that plugins designed for PhotoShop are also suitable for use in PSP so I have been gathering a few free ones to experiment with. For the above photo I emphasised the lighter and darkened the darker parts and added a border.

Another program I have found is a free version of  PanoramaPlus by Serif.  The new header was made using that. (The text being added later in PSP) The original photos were taken years ago. I forget which camera I used and it is not recorded in the photo files. I know it was a very low quality camera I used to put in my shirt pocket. The free version of PanoramaPlus has a fixed, fairly low size for the finished panorama which it produces very quickly and even works out the right order to stitch the photos. v2 of the program, which I now have, has more facilities and a choice of size for the final panorama which can take a while to produce if a large size is chosen and there are many individual photos to join together. The few times I have taken shots for panoramas I have worked hand held and PP soon sorts out any differences in horizon position or tilts in camera angle.

A Trip to the Vet

It is three months since Bobby started the medication for his deteriorating back leg joints so he was due for re-assessment. His progress has been very varied depending how active he has been but on the whole is doing about as well as can be expected. We agreed to add in a pain killer as Bobby can get quite uncomfortable by the end of the day. Also he has an old injury to one front leg which occasionally plays up.



When I first collected him from the Ark (rescue and rest home) I had him checked over by the vet and was told he had the beginnings of a cataract in one eye. I have noticed this cloud over more over the years so I asked the vet to look at that as well. Poor old Bobby not only has a cataract but probably retinal damage as well. The pupil in that eye doesn't respond to light but does respond when light is shone in the other eye. Unfortunately there is nothing which can be done for that.


In spite of all that Bobby still manages to enjoy life, still goes bonkers when it is walkies time and keeps a good appetite.

AudioBoo replaces eSnips for me

This is just by way of a test.

Regulars may remember I had problems uploading the recording I had made of a birdsong to eSnips. Their automatic checking kept refusing the file as a possible copyright infringement. I emailed their techinal department at the time but they have never been back in touch.

This morning I discovered another site, AudioBoo, which is free to use and so simple to create an account and upload files. I uploaded the same mp3 file as a test.



Once the file is on the site it is just a question of copying and pasting the code for their player into my blog. Job done.