Friday at the Flicks - Great Tit Sitting on Eggs

Just a short video clip this morning as the electricity meter is being changed some time today and that will interrupt the supply for a while.  I had a feeling there was one egg in the Great Tit nest a couple of days ago but when she leaves the nest she covers everything up so well only the nest can be seen. Fortunately last night I was able to get a quick glimpse of two eggs as she leaned over to have a good scratch.



A snapshot from the video:



She doesn't appear to be incubating them as yet and often leaves the nest leaving the eggs well covered up. She does return from time to time to check that everything is all right. I assume incubation starts when they have all been laid and that leaving them cooler slows down the development so they all hatch at about the same time.

At tea time today I could see there are now three eggs in the nest box:

Bath Time for a Song Thrush

Looking through the captures from yesterday's session looking at the garden pond waterfall most are of Blackbirds, House Sparrows and Starlings. There is the odd Wood Pigeon, Blue Tit, Goldfinch, Tree Sparrow and Greenfinch. Best of all was to see a Song Thrush as I rarely hear one and even more rarely see one so it was great to know at least one visits for a wash and brush up.





The camera set up is shown below. Canon 350D with EF 70-200mm f1.4 lens on a tripod on the left of the photo. PIR (passive infra-red) detector on a tripod on the right near the green water barrels. It looks down on the waterfall. The PIR triggers a radio shutter control so there are no wires trailing between the sensor and the camera. The camera was set to a fixed 1/500 sec with manual focus and auto exposure.



Of course the supervisor had to get in on the act.

Bath Day

As we had got rid of most of the cold wind and the Sun was out I decided to set up the automatic system for taking photographs of any visitors to the garden pond waterfall. Even while I was setting up the camera at the opposite end of the pond several House Sparrows carried on bathing. By previous experience I hadn't expected much but by the end of the day there were well over 600 shots to examine.  About half were consigned to Dusty Bin and many of the rest are similar but I will have a sort through tomorrow. For now I will leave you with this one:

Macro on Monday - Guess What

While I was sat outside one sunny day a few weeks ago several flies landed on my arm. I brushed them off and thought little more about it. Later in the day a lump and bruise started to appear which I treated with hydrocortizone cream. The lump and bruise grew for several days and each time I touched it I could feel something which felt like a stiff hair. I didn't think much about it until one day when it was itching I gave it a scratch and pulled out last week's mystery object. The pointed end on the left is the business end and an opening in the side like the eye in a needle can be seen near the tip.



My own theory as to what it is: I assume at least one of the flies was a blookd sucker and I think that the process of knocking the fly off my arm broke its proboscis while it was still inside my arm. Once I had removed the offending object the healing process speeded up a lot.

On to more pleasant things for this week's puzzle. Guess what.



Clue: Think back to some very sticky sap.

Nest Building Obstacles

Great Tit Resumes Nest Building

Every day I have checked the camera view from the nest box and nothing had changed for weeks - until this morning. Things looked different and it wasn't long before I saw a Great Tit arrive with some new moss.



Since recording that a short while ago she started to bring in some softer material to add to the nest. I wonder if it is the same bird that started the nest three weeks ago.

Friday at the Flicks - The Amorous Hedgehog

A few evenings ago I was able to take some video of a pair of Hedgehogs as the amorous male was attempting to mate with a female. All she was interested in was eating and drinking.

The automatic monitoring system caught some of the action.



At the same time I happened to be watching from the kitchen window so I was able to video from that angle as well.



The male seems to have had no success that time and I have heard them snuffling together on several evenings since then. They are usually under one of the bushes in next door's garden.