Again this morning a Great Tit was giving the nest box the once over. A long way to go but here's hoping for another nesting pair next Spring:
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Monday, 10 September 2012
Cleaning up the Sunset
The view from my front garden gives a good view of the sky but the telephone wires and the support pole do tend to get in the way. Last evening most clouds in all directions were coloured by the rays from the setting Sun.
This was the view towards the South East:
By judicious use of the Wireworm plugin in Photoshop Elements it was possible to eliminate the objects which were spoiling the scene, plus a little extra tweak with the ReDynaMix plugin. The wide angle setting on the camera causes the apparent lean of the house on the left of the view.
The view directly toward the setting sun only needed cropping and a bit of tweaking, again with the ReDynaMix plugin:
Borders were added with one from the Border Mania plugin. Both views taken with the Lumix TZ7 with the Sunset scene setting.
Camera Nest Box: Less than 48hrs since I cleaned it out and it has already been visited by a Great Tit. Early days yet but maybe it will get used next Spring for the third year running.
This was the view towards the South East:
By judicious use of the Wireworm plugin in Photoshop Elements it was possible to eliminate the objects which were spoiling the scene, plus a little extra tweak with the ReDynaMix plugin. The wide angle setting on the camera causes the apparent lean of the house on the left of the view.
The view directly toward the setting sun only needed cropping and a bit of tweaking, again with the ReDynaMix plugin:
Borders were added with one from the Border Mania plugin. Both views taken with the Lumix TZ7 with the Sunset scene setting.
Camera Nest Box: Less than 48hrs since I cleaned it out and it has already been visited by a Great Tit. Early days yet but maybe it will get used next Spring for the third year running.
Sunday, 9 September 2012
A Dragon at Last
Recently there have been a few dragonflies visiting the garden. A male Common Darter and a Male Southern Hawker made a couple of visits but wouldn't stay in one place long enough to focus on them. Yesterday a female Common Darter did decide to take a rest several times in the same place giving me a photo opportunity at last.
It would be lovely if they would pair up and use the garden pond.
It would be lovely if they would pair up and use the garden pond.
Saturday, 8 September 2012
A Bit of a Clean Up
The Hedgehog House has been in the same place for over two years. In that time a Hedgehog used it for a few nights but it hasn't had a visitor for over a year. It was hidden under other things but very close to the Birdy Bistro so may not have been ideally positioned. Today I decided to move it. Moving the house is easy but re-routing the wiring for the camera is a slightly longer job. First thing was to test the camera was still working. Next bring the house into the open and clean out all the old straw. Amazed to find a crisp packet (I don't eat them) and a couple of pieces of gravel amongst other things.
This time I have not hidden it but it is in a secluded spot immediately behind the shed. Some fresh straw was put inside and a pile under a nearby bush. Also added as an inducement was a sprinkling of dried mealworms. Once the wiring had be re-routed and tested all was ready for any passing Hedgehog to investigate.
Of course what was expected to be no more than a three quarter hour job ended up taking a couple of hours while the outside temperature climbed to about 27C
Camera eye view of the inside of the Hedgehog House under UV LED lighting:
A few video clips of a visit by a juvenile Hedgehog last night:
Another job which has been on the Round Tuit pile for ages was cleaning out the camera nest box ready for any Autumn investigations. The box is easy to maintain as the front is in two section which unscrew. Once the old nesting material had been removed and the box brushed out it was given a thorough spray with Ark-Klens and then left to dry.
Next the camera wiring was checked over and the glass lens cover given a clean.
Finally the front panels were replaced and that was another Winter / Spring home ready for any prospective occupier.
This time I have not hidden it but it is in a secluded spot immediately behind the shed. Some fresh straw was put inside and a pile under a nearby bush. Also added as an inducement was a sprinkling of dried mealworms. Once the wiring had be re-routed and tested all was ready for any passing Hedgehog to investigate.
Of course what was expected to be no more than a three quarter hour job ended up taking a couple of hours while the outside temperature climbed to about 27C
Camera eye view of the inside of the Hedgehog House under UV LED lighting:
A few video clips of a visit by a juvenile Hedgehog last night:
Another job which has been on the Round Tuit pile for ages was cleaning out the camera nest box ready for any Autumn investigations. The box is easy to maintain as the front is in two section which unscrew. Once the old nesting material had been removed and the box brushed out it was given a thorough spray with Ark-Klens and then left to dry.
Next the camera wiring was checked over and the glass lens cover given a clean.
Finally the front panels were replaced and that was another Winter / Spring home ready for any prospective occupier.
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Deaf or What?
Obviously small birds will hear sounds differently to humans or cats. On the end of the shed facing the bird feeders is a cat scarer which sits in a small shelter to keep the worst of the weather off the electronics.
It came as quite a surprise when I saw a Coal Tit investigate right inside the shelter when the unit was running.
I had to check that it was actually working. The red LED could be seen so it should have been. The only way for me to 'hear' it was to get the bat detector which tuned in to it OK and all was well.
Next was to get some idea of how loud it was that close to the unit. For that I used an iPhone app to measure the sound level
Peak 84dB and a maximum of 103dB.
84dB equates to city traffic noise inside a car,
103dB to being about a metre away from a power mower.
So obviously it was either a deaf Coal Tit or, more probably, high pitched as the sounds are for us they may well have been too low pitched to worry the bird.
Penny's First Visit to the Vet
Madam went hurtling down the garden after some creature or other first thing this morning. I know she couldn't turn a corner fast enough as I hear her crash in to something. She came back with several cuts and scrapes to her back legs and feeling very sorry for herself. This is not the first time she has had the odd scrape as greyhounds have thin skin which is easily damaged. One cut looked worse than usual so I phoned the vets and she was checked over this morning. While there she had her booster jab and we came away with some concoction to bathe her wounds as nothing was serious enough to need stitching, just to keep infection out. She was fit enough for a short, slow walk at lunch time.
Uploading to Flickr and YouTube
Even with the change of router I still had problems from time to time with uploads stopping part way through until I found Firefox Universal Uploader (FileUploader), an extension for the Firefox browser. It is not perfect in that it always shows 100% as soon as the upload starts so I cannot tell how fast things are going. It does show a green tick once the upload is finished and the site returns a confirmation and it has never failed to upload a file for me.
It came as quite a surprise when I saw a Coal Tit investigate right inside the shelter when the unit was running.
I had to check that it was actually working. The red LED could be seen so it should have been. The only way for me to 'hear' it was to get the bat detector which tuned in to it OK and all was well.
Next was to get some idea of how loud it was that close to the unit. For that I used an iPhone app to measure the sound level
Peak 84dB and a maximum of 103dB.
84dB equates to city traffic noise inside a car,
103dB to being about a metre away from a power mower.
So obviously it was either a deaf Coal Tit or, more probably, high pitched as the sounds are for us they may well have been too low pitched to worry the bird.
Penny's First Visit to the Vet
Madam went hurtling down the garden after some creature or other first thing this morning. I know she couldn't turn a corner fast enough as I hear her crash in to something. She came back with several cuts and scrapes to her back legs and feeling very sorry for herself. This is not the first time she has had the odd scrape as greyhounds have thin skin which is easily damaged. One cut looked worse than usual so I phoned the vets and she was checked over this morning. While there she had her booster jab and we came away with some concoction to bathe her wounds as nothing was serious enough to need stitching, just to keep infection out. She was fit enough for a short, slow walk at lunch time.
Uploading to Flickr and YouTube
Even with the change of router I still had problems from time to time with uploads stopping part way through until I found Firefox Universal Uploader (FileUploader), an extension for the Firefox browser. It is not perfect in that it always shows 100% as soon as the upload starts so I cannot tell how fast things are going. It does show a green tick once the upload is finished and the site returns a confirmation and it has never failed to upload a file for me.
Monday, 3 September 2012
A Cloudy Day
Only a bit cloudy from time to time really. The video was a test to see how long the battery in the 350D would last taking a medium quality jpg every 5 seconds while I made sure the Dream Hammock was still in good working order. It was. Result 1632 shots in 2hr 16min..
As before ImagesToVideo was used to convert the single shots to an animation.
Soundtrack produced using the Korg IMS-20 app on the iPad:
At the end of the day there was a nice Sunset along with some nearby swirly cloud patterns:
Both the above were tweaked using ReDynaMix in Photoshop.
As before ImagesToVideo was used to convert the single shots to an animation.
Soundtrack produced using the Korg IMS-20 app on the iPad:
At the end of the day there was a nice Sunset along with some nearby swirly cloud patterns:
Both the above were tweaked using ReDynaMix in Photoshop.
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Harvest Time
Not a lot been going on here as far as nature photography goes, especially with a fumbling operator. A few days ago I though I had managed some good video of an adult House Sparrow feeding three youngsters. They all stayed out in the open and sat beautifully in shot for ages. When I went to check the video - nothing, zero, zilch, I either didn't press the start button far enough, or twice. Either way there was nothing to show. #@*$& or words to that effect!
Better luck today on the video front. While we were enjoying some chicken thighs, etc. for tea I could hear at least one combine strutting its stuff in a nearby field so we went walkabout in that direction. I could see one field had been started recently. Of course the combine was at the furthest end of the field where I couldn't get near it . The crop, wheat I think, was standing well after the heavy rain. In past years that sort of rain has flattened much of a field.
We had a gentle stroll up and down the lane while I waited for the combine to come back in my direction. With luck it was going to pass very close to my chosen spot. Penny is learning fast and waits very patiently when I want to use the camera. The combine was kicking up an almighty dust cloud. Fortunately the worst of it seemed to be blowing away from us.
I stood on the opposite side of the lane to keep away from the worst of the dust and managed some stills and video as it reached my end of the field. As soon as it had turned the corner we beat a hasty retreat to escape the worst of the dust. At first I thought it would be dry, dusty earth being sent up by the combine but what was landing on us was just like the fine ash you get from a bonfire so it must have been from the wheat itself. Of course, when I think about it, what was blowing about was the chaff from the seed husks which were being ejected from the back end of the combine.
The video will be a bit noisy as there was a fair breeze blowing and trying to keep the view still was difficult as most of the time the Sun was in my eyes and I couldn't see much on the LCD screen:
I won't be surprised if they are still combining well past my bedtime. Once they start they tend to keep going until the job is finished.
Better luck today on the video front. While we were enjoying some chicken thighs, etc. for tea I could hear at least one combine strutting its stuff in a nearby field so we went walkabout in that direction. I could see one field had been started recently. Of course the combine was at the furthest end of the field where I couldn't get near it . The crop, wheat I think, was standing well after the heavy rain. In past years that sort of rain has flattened much of a field.
We had a gentle stroll up and down the lane while I waited for the combine to come back in my direction. With luck it was going to pass very close to my chosen spot. Penny is learning fast and waits very patiently when I want to use the camera. The combine was kicking up an almighty dust cloud. Fortunately the worst of it seemed to be blowing away from us.
I stood on the opposite side of the lane to keep away from the worst of the dust and managed some stills and video as it reached my end of the field. As soon as it had turned the corner we beat a hasty retreat to escape the worst of the dust. At first I thought it would be dry, dusty earth being sent up by the combine but what was landing on us was just like the fine ash you get from a bonfire so it must have been from the wheat itself. Of course, when I think about it, what was blowing about was the chaff from the seed husks which were being ejected from the back end of the combine.
The video will be a bit noisy as there was a fair breeze blowing and trying to keep the view still was difficult as most of the time the Sun was in my eyes and I couldn't see much on the LCD screen:
I won't be surprised if they are still combining well past my bedtime. Once they start they tend to keep going until the job is finished.
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