On Wings of Reflection

On our afternoon walkabout down a narrow footpath I spotted a Southern Hawker which obligingly landed on a nearby stalk for a while. The colours were blown out in the direct sunlight but on viewing the photo I could see the nearby green vegetation reflected on, or maybe refracted through, its normally transparent wings.

Friday at the Flicks - Moorhen, Rainy Weather

I don't see the Moorhen every day as sometimes it arrives while I'm still in the land of nod and leaves before we get up. On the whole I am pleased it doesn't stay all day. Since it arrived and decided water lily flowers were delicious I am lacking some colour in the pond.

Here an early morning visit:


The Moorhen may be smaller that a fat waddling Wood Pigeon but it is the only bird I have see attack one and drive it away from food.

Here the Moorhen went walkabout on the frame that supports the feeders and even spent a short while on the wires above. Unfortunately I missed recording it walk along the wires:


Finally another time when a Wood Pigeon took advantage of a rain storm to have a thorough shower. At one stage the rain was so heavy I thought it would knock the pigeon over.

Have a great weekend obsering the wildlife around you.

Bobby Says Hello

to a Hedgehog. (The meeting has been slowed down as it was so short.)


Hedgehogs have been arriving singly for a few nights now so I assume the mating was successful at some stage last week.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Congratulations and virtual gold stars go to Adrian, Jan and Keith who identified the close shot of a raspberry. The one fruit which has done astonishingly well in my garden this year. Unfortunately the same can't be said for my blackcurrants which, though large, are hard and crunchy this year.

   


On to this week's puzzle picture.

Guess what:


 Clue:  "Avez-vous un cuppa?" 

No prizes, just for fun.


Garden Wildlife Update

The juvenile Moorhen continues to visit early mornings, breakfasts on seeds scattered from the feeders, has a swim in the pond and then disappears for the rest of the day. Hopefully I managed to take some video of it performing a tightrope walking act on the cables to my shed. Quite a feat with oversized feet.

The Blue-tailed Damselfly season has started in the garden pond. I spotted three males and one couple yesterday. This short heat wave seems to have brought them out.

Friday at the Flicks - Snuffling Hedgehogs, Juvenile Moorhen

Hedgehog mating is a very long winded process. It takes days of snuffling for hours on end each evening for the male to persuade the female to lower her spines so he can mount her. This is very short clip from the first night taken with the Lumix TZ7. The only lighting was a hand held LED torch. The original video for this episode and the next were very dark so I had to do a lot of processing in the video software.



On the second night I didn't have the torch as Bobby and I watched for about 20 minutes. The hedgehogs were under a set of four LED lamps. We were about two metres away and the Hedgehogs took no notice of us at all.



They were much later arriving on the third night so this was captured by the video camera. The result has been speeded up and you can see how the male spends all his time going round in large circles and returning to the female while she just carries on eating. No sound this time. You will see that at one stage it is a case of two is company, three is a crowd.



The same activity was still going on last night, the fourth, even in the pouring rain.

Yesterday's visit by a juvenile Moorhen was more than a bit of a surprise. I had had an adult visit a year or so ago but that didn't stay very long. This youngster is different. It spent a long time investigating every part of the pond, even walking up and down the little waterfall. It was another surprise to see that it is still here this morning joining the other birds at the Birdy Bistro. I did manage to take some video yesterday as can be seen here.



 Shirl, Shirl's Gardenwatch, asked me about the LED torch. Here it is next to a pound coin for size comparison. Instead of one bulb it has about thirty LEDs, works on three AAA batteries and gives quite a bright light, to the human eyes anyway. Its main help at night is allowing the TZ7 to focus faster and more accurately in dim light. It doesn't help much with video but was better than nothing



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you - no knowing what will turn up.

Another Juvenile in the Garden - Moorhen

I don't know where they are all coming from but it is getting more interesting in my garden by the day. This afternoon it was what I am pretty sure is a juvenile Moorhen. According to my reference books it should be as it is lacking the bright red to the top of the beak.

At first it was wandering round the bottom end of the garden.



Then on two occasions I spotted it going for a swim in my garden pond:



I tried taking the video recorder outside but it decided to go and hide. I don't know what Bobby is going to make of it when he goes outside but I guess he will scare it away.

Juveniles - Great Spotted Woodpecker and House Sparrow

A few days ago when I looked at John's site (Hedgeland Tales) and read about the Great Spotted Woodpecker I left a comment that I had only seen one in my garden, at least a year ago and only a quick glimpse. Well - an hour or so later you could have knocked me down with a feather. From my kitchen window I can see the top of a telephone pole which is just past the end of my garden. There are foot rests near the top for workmen to rest on and I saw a bird fly to one of those. Most birds will land on the metal bracket but this bird landed on the wooden pole. Gradually it made its way to the top and stayed long enough for me to get my second look at a Great Spotted Woodpecker.





Update: My thanks to Adrian and Jan for pointing out that this was a female not a juvenile. I must learn to turn the music volume down when trying to identify things, maybe I'll concentrate then!

From time to time some of the seed scattered from the feeders self sets like this corn. Some I let grow to see if any birds will eat the seeds. This morning it was an adventurous juvenile House Sparrow which decided to investigate it.





You can make out the 'baby' yellow at the back of the beak, especially in the first photo.