Aurora

We must be heading towards the high period of Sunspot activity which peaks approximately every 11 years. A caronal mass ejection from the Sun hit the Earth's magnetic field this morning. As far as I can gather it was a glancing blow so any resulting Aurora will only be seen from high latitudes.

There are two sites I have found which have live cameras where you can check for any Aurora activity.

The first is at the Canadian Space Agency site AuroraMAX where the picture is updated every 10 seconds. Wait for the page to load and then click on connect,

The second is in Alaska - The Aurora Live - run by the International Arctic Environment Research Project Group, National Institute of  Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo. There the picture is renewed about every five minutes.

Of course live pictures can be seen only at times when the sky is dark in those areas.

House Sparrow

Monday was a cool but brilliantly sunny day. Several times when I went out of the back door there was a House Sparrow perched on the end of the gutter just above my head. He was chirping away so busily he hardly took any notice as I help up the TZ7 to take a few shots. The camera must have been less than four feet away while he stood out beautifully against a clear blue sky. I took a lot of shots - you wouldn't believe how many times he turned his head away just as I pressed the shutter!



He even allowed me to take a piece of video. A bit wobbly as I was holding the camera above my head to get as close as he would allow.

New Growth

The Sun actually stayed in view all day yesterday which gave a chance to have another look round the garden to see what was showing signs of life and what had succumbed to the harsh Winter. Quite a number of plants were showing signs of new growth.



Japanese Tree Peony  - background

Raspberry canes -  top left
Blackcurrant bush - middle left
Prunus cerasifera - bottom left

Pear tree - top right
Rose - middle right
Japanese Acer - bottom right.

Amongst the casualties it looks as though I have lost three out of the four lavender bushes which is a shame as they attract so many bees and butterflies in the Summer.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Last week it was certainly a photo of a worm and Glo deserves the gold star for suggesting a red worm. They are also known as tiger worms because of the coloured banding.  Eisenia Fetida are used in wormeries for turning kitchen waste into a rich compost and the specimen I photographed came from my wormery. I was surprised that they had survived the winter. When I looked near the beginning of the year I couldn't see any but there are now scores of them enjoying what they like most - rotting vegetable matter.




On to this week's puzzle picture: Guess What.



Clue: not the part to attract butterflies and bees.

No prizes - just for fun.

Brief Encounter

Last night H the hedgehog was feeding as we were getting ready for bed. When I let Bobby out he had a quick look at H and lost interest when the Hedgehog didn't move.

H scampered off as soon as he felt it was safe to move but soon came back - several times. As I checked the night's redcording I was amused to see H had moved the food dish a couple of times to make sure he wasn't missing any tasty nibbles.



It has been another damp, cloudy day here with no sight of the Sun. I guess it's part of the ConDems cut backs.

Friday at the Flicks - Goldfinches, Greenfinches

There have been plenty of Chaffinches here all Winter but other finches have been much more scarce this year. Usually there has been the occasional single Goldfinch visiting and even less often there has been a couple so it was very pleasing to see a little group of five arrive one day.



Even scarcer this year has been the sighting of Greenfinches and it was quite a surprise to spot this pair quietly digging in to some free food.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Hungry Hedgehog

H continues to visit the feeding area several times every night. This from one of last night's captures from the video camera:



At the moment s/he has all the food to itself as I haven't seen any others about. The dish has kibbled peanut, crushed unsalted peanuts and dried raisins. Also available is a dish of water.

The Great Tit continues to use the nest box as a roost every night and most days I spot both birds making a brief visit during daylight hours.