Battle for Ownership of the Nestbox

I am now wondering how many different Great Tits have been visiting the nestbox. A Great Tit had settled down for the third night running and I went to prepare a meal. Later I glanced at the monitor and saw the most almighty squabble going on in the box. At first I thought maybe a Blue Tit had unwisely gone in but it soon became obvious they were both Great Tits. It was a really vicious winner takes all battle with feathers flying everywhere. After a short while one decided it had no chance of taking possession and managed to escape.

This still was taken from the video a while after the victor had settled down again. What was a bare box is now lined with feathers.



I have also uploaded to my Flickr account one still of the birds fighting which can be found by clicking on 'Go to Midmarsh John's photostream' in the Flickr widget near the bottom right of this page.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

As I hoped, last week's puzzle photo was easier. Yes - it was a dog hair - one of the hundreds Bobby deposits on my carpets every day.

  

Gold stars all round to Glo, Adrian, Keith, Emma, Matron and Wilma. Well done all.

Now for this week's puzzle photo. 15 shots taken with the USB microscope camera at about 100x magnification, processed by CombineZP.



Clue: Not part of Mick Jagger's stage makeup.
No prizes for a correct identification, just for fun.


Nestbox News

Not only does the Great Tit continue to visit the nestbox but last night used it as a roost. The nestbox camera caught all the event so I should have some video clips for Friday. It was fascinating to watch how it turned itself into a birdy duvet to stay snug and warm.

Bird Table Visitors

Yesterday I set up my IR passive detector next to the bird table to see what was visiting. The camera was on a tripod in the kitchen. I am always hopeful that it will capture something new - not yet though. Just plenty of the regulars.



Lighting conditions for photography were awful for most of the time and the results grainy so I combined some of the half decent in one collage. The 350D with 70-200mm lens took over 300 shots but most ended up in Dusty Bin..



I was surprised how often the Robin appeared in the shots as I rarely see it on the table.

Friday at the Flicks - Churchyard Chickens, Nestbox Preening

When I saw the chickens in the churchyard a few days ago they were not in the least bothered by our presence and carried on scratching in the deep layer of fallen leaves.



The investigations and inspections of the nestbox continue with the occasional visit from a Blue Tit which hasn't ventured inside as yet and a Great Tit which visits most days. This time it spent several minutes having a good preen in the privicy of the box.



Nothing has used the box as an overnight roost yet but a minimum of around 14C night temperatures has been very mild for the time of year recently.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you. If you are celebrating Guy Fawkes night then please spare a thought for all domestic and wildlife as many pets are terrified of loud noises and various animals may be using a bonfire as a shelter. Some good advice can be found on the RSPB site HERE.

Sparrowhawk Tactics

It is a couple of months since I last saw a Sparrowhawk around the garden and the only reasonable photo opportunity was this one last August.



Mid afternoon yesterday as I glanced round the garden I noticed there were no birds at the feeders. Suddenly a Sparrowhawk came diving in from the side of the garden, shot across the top of the feeders and climbed as it exited the end of the garden. That wasn't so unusual and I thought to myself, another photo opportunity lost.

That wasn't the end of the matter though. Within a few seconds the Sparrowhawk had circled round and performed exactly the same routine - diving in from the side, down over the feeders and climbing as it left the end of the garden. This time though some of the small birds which had been hiding in a tree broke cover and the hunter rapidly followed them until they were out of sight.

What I was wondering was - had I seen a deliberate tactic where the Sparrowhawk attempts to unnerve and scare the smaller birds into breaking cover?

More Autumn Colour

In autumn, when the leaves are brown,
Take pen and ink, and write it down.
[Lewis Carroll]



Autumn hath all the summer's fruitful treasure;
Gone is our sport, fled is poor Croydon's pleasure.
Short days, sharp days, long nights come on apace,
Ah! who shall hide us from the winter's face?
Cold doth increase, the sickness will not cease,
And here we lie, God knows, with little ease.
From winter, plague, and pestilence, good Lord, deliver us!
[Thomas Nashe]



Autumn

autumn is a clocks changing
and dark evening after school

autumn is shiny conkers
and seeing who finds most

autumn is leaves flikering down
into heaps on the roadsides

autumn is birds flying south
to escape the snow

autumn is football
and our team ready to win

autumn is deed leaves and windy walkes
bonfires and hot sausages

[Mehwish Shakeel]



 Once again the poems were found on the Poemhunter site - a searchable place with half a million poems, songs and quotations.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

I thought last week's puzzle photo would be difficult. The clue mentioning thinking digitally put some off as I hadn't even thought of fingers. It was electronic digits, ones and zeros I was thinking about. Also the colours sent others in the wrong direction. The object was hard to illuminate as it was so close, maybe 1mm, from the objective lens and tends to reflect all sorts of colours anyway. So - no gold stars last week though the thoughts of a glove or TV type screen were very good possibilities.

To put you out of your misery here it is - a CD. The pattern you can see are the minute pits burned by the laser when making the music track.

   



On to the new challenge. This should be a lot easier: Magnification about 100X


Clue: It is woofly the correct colour for once.



This one was taken with my new set up. Different microscope which has an adaptor to let me fix the 350D so I can hopefully get clearer photos. Microscope, lenses and camera were all bought s/h on ebay.



No prizes for a correct guess, just a bit of fun to start the week.