Friday at the Flicks - Night Activity, Chaffinch, Wren

There is usually plenty of Hedgehog activity most nights. They don't stay for long on their travels and some may return several times. This is all the visits the camera captured a couple of nights ago, speeded up to keep the length and file size down.



A male Chaffinch sat on a tree next door singing in the sunshine. Some wind noise unfortunately.



When I took the still shots of the Wren building its nest in a roosting popcket I was also able to take some short pieces of video. You will have to look hard at times as only the beak can be seen. Sorry the last part was out of focus.


Have a great weekend observing the wildlife where ever you are.

A Wren in the Pocket

Several times I have tried, and failed, to capture any photos of the Great Tit at the nest box. Each time I have gone down the garden and found cover to observe the box I have noticed a Wren in that area. Today I saw her fly up to one of the roosting pockets which hang on the side of my shed. You could have knocked me down with a feather.



Can you see what I could see?
Have a closer look.



Lots of moss.  The Wren had disappeared inside. I waited patiently and after a short while she appeared at the entrance.





After making sure the coast was clear she flew down to the area behind the greenhouse where I keep all my garden junk.



It is right next to the shed and the grass round there has plenty of moss so she doesn't have far to go to gather more material.





I'm looking forward to future developments. The beauty is I can see that roosting pocket from the kitchen window so I can keep an eye on things without disturbing her.

Feathered Visitors to the Pond

As it was a dry day, mostly, on Monday I again set up the 350D and the home brew IR detector to automatically photograph any birds which visited the garden pond waterfall. The IR detector goes near the waterfall and the camera on its tripod is set up at the opposite end of the pond. Once they have been in place a short while the birds carry on visiting as usual.

Wood Pigeon


Collared Doves


Male Blackbird


Starlings can be guaranteed to have a good splash about


My favourite of this batch:
Female Blackbird - shall I have a drink, have a bath or continue nest building?


Slightly out of focus range, a male Chaffinch looking dapper in his mating plumage.


Wet and windy today so the auto setup will have to wait until the weather settles for the next attempt.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Late in the day - been busy - playing. (Thank you for enquiring Adrian) Finally made my mind up what to buy me as a belated b'day prezzy. Anyway on with the show. Me thinks last week's clue was a tad on the difficult side, sorry. It was based on the type found in the Daily Telegraph when I used indulge in crossword puzzles many years ago. Maybe they get easier after a few bevies.

The clue was:
Confused race amongst part of the hive.
It was a hidden anagram using the underlined letters.
The result being echeveria. Glo was on the right track thinking it was a succulent of some sort so deserves a silver star. Thanks to all who gave it a try.

   

Maybe this week's puzzle photo will be somewhat easier:



Clue: Rimsky-Korsakov

Just for fun, no prizes.

Bath Time for a Wren

For the first time this year I set up the 350D and the home brew IR sensor to take some photographs of any birds visiting the waterfall on the garden pond. Lots of false triggers and many of the birds it did capture were in deep shadow but one lovely surprise was to capture a Wren visiting. Being such a small bird it used the shallowest pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Unfortunately most of this area was not seen by the camera but here are some shots. (All small crops)

Just arrived, thinking about a quick bath:


A couple of it in the water:




Looking a bit wetter than it started:

Tadpoles Galore

It was only 22nd March when I photographed the newly laid frog spawn. All told 6 lots were laid and, as last year, I moved 4 of the lots to the 'nursery' pond so any hatching tadpoles wouldn't get eaten by the fish in the main pond.  Today when I first looked at the spawn I thought it had failed as it was just a flat mass of jelly but on closer observation there they were - scores of tiny tadpoles.



I hope they thrive as well as last year's batch did when I was able to return scores of them back in the main pond when their back legs were beginning to appear and they seemed big and strong enough to survive in there.

A short piece of video taken today. The tadpoles are about 11mm long:



Still and video taken with the Panasonic Lumix TZ7

Friday at the Flicks - Great Tits, Rook, Hedgehogs

The nest box is still in use every night as a roost for one of the Great Tits. During the day one will visit a few times and occasionally they can both be seen in there, usually for a second or two as they swap places. This visit was slightly longer and I am wondering if the gentle pecking is part of a mating ritual.



Rooks are among the earliest of the visitors to the garden and during the day there will be one or more sat on a nearby television aerial surveying the surrounding gardens.



When the surveillance camera automatically recorded one Hedgehog dumping the other in a water bowl I was also filming from the kitchen window. The auto recording missed the first part of the charge so here is a different view of all the action.



Taking into account the body language of the 'attacker' and the snuffling which can be heard right at the end of the clip this could well be part of the hogs mating ritual. Before they can mate the male has to 'persuade' the female to lower the spines on her rear end otherwise he will end up with a close encounter of the prickly kind.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.