Birdy Bistro Mk2

The old wooden home made frame for holding the bird feeders is being dismantled. It has to go as it is in the way of a small summer house I hope to erect next week - if it doesn't snow. I wanted to replace it with something which wasn't so spread out so on the way back from my annual check up at the hospital I called in the local Wyevale Garden Centre. I didn't expect to find anything so was pleasantly surprised not only to find something ideal, but also at a reasonable price.



There are hooks for hanging up to 12 feeders. The feeders were not included. It hadn't been put in place for very long before a Blue Tit was brave enough to investigate. A Robin thought about it but bottled out. Of course it didn't take long for a few Starlings to try out every feeder.



To me it looks a tad overcrowded but the birds don't mind and it is for them.

The hospital check up went well again this year so it will be another 12 months before I start fretting again.

Email Account Hacked

It looks as though my Yahoo account has been got at and some spurious messages have been sent today. Please ignore and delete them. My apologies for any inconvenience. I am in the process of trying to secure the account and stop any other messages going out.

John

Wings on Wednesday - Robin

So much for the BBC weather forecast saying that yesterday promised to be the warmest day so far this year. Got out of bed to -2.5C and it eventually reached +6C for a short while. What kept the temperature down was sea fret which kept drifting in from the North Sea. The sea temperature is a couple of degrees below normal for this time of year, somewhere around 4C, so any weather coming from that direction is chilly to say the least.

There seems to be a pair of Robins visiting the garden. Seeing two in close proximity without scrapping is almost certain to be a mating pair. I hope to catch some video of the mating ritual where the male feeds the female but for now I'll make do with this solo shot I took in the morning:

Macro on Monday - Guess What

First the answer to the last Guess What. Guesses of hail and sleet were close. Actually it was snow - that fine powdery stuff we get from time to time. The air temperature was high enough for it to start melting as soon as it landed.





On to this week's Guess What:

iPhone4 fitted with miniature microscope lens

Ignore the bright circle. That was the LED lights illuminating the clear plastic of the microscope.

Clue: Actual size about 5mm. Only seen in parts of the village when the temperature is around freezing, or lower, but it won't melt when the temperature rises.

No prizes. Just for fun.

Heavenly Photo Opportunities

For those in the Southern Hemisphere Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011-L4) is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. By 12th and 13th March it will have passed its closest point to the Sun and reappear in the Sunset sky to be visible in the Northern Hemisphere not far from the crescent Moon.

Information from Spaceweather dot com.

I hope we can get a few cloudless times for photographs as the comet should be pretty bright by then.

A Sunny Day - for a change

Saturday was a lovely sunny day though with a cool breeze. There are only a few flowers showing as yet but the extra warmth from the Sun should encourage more.





What was nice to see was the first bees of the season busily visiting the crocuses:



Surprisingly I didn't notice any bumble bees.

Of couse, madam was making the most of the sun:



For our lunch time walk we took a tour round the edge of the cricket field. From the bottom of the field I could see part of one of the rookeries. The rough piles of sticks which pass for nests are easy to spot:



Most of the trees in that area are deciduous and exposed to the cold winds so there isn't much sign of new life yet:

 

Hidden amongst the trees are some outbuildings which serve as stores and shelter for the sheep which usually graze nearby:



Next to one of the Poplars is an older tree which has been shaped by the prevailing westerly winds:



For our afternoon walk we went to have a look at one large field which is usually arable but this year has a large flock of sheep grazing. Amongst the usual all white sheep were a few with black faces and about four brown sheep. A type I haven't noticed before in this area:



Maybe several people are sharing the cost of hiring the field for grazing. Most of the sheep are heavily pregnant so it won't be long before there are Spring lambs frolicking about.

Toon Time + Impressionist Video

We have managed to get one and a half days of sunshine recently which gave me the opportunity to test out yet another iPhone photography app. This time it was "ToonCamera" which caught my eye. This app has many different settings to create photos and videos in the style of toons. Usually such things are done as a post processing activity but this app does it in real time, even with video. The only down side is that the results are of a lower quality than those taken with a standard camera app and each photo has to be manually saved before another can be taken but it still has it uses as a novelty, fun camera. Certainly worth the 69p charged.

A few still results exactly as taken by the app:

Lunch at the Wagon and Horses

Walkies - Impressionist Style
iPhone4 hand held:



I seem to have got well behind following other blogs so will have to try catching up over the weekend.