Raynox MSN-202 Super Macro Lens

Yesterday I added the Raynox MSN-202 to my collection of macro conversion lenses. I spotted it available on Amazon about half the price I could find it elsewhere. The DCR-150 has a diopter of 4.8, the DCR-250 a diopter of 8 and the MSN-202 a diopter of 25. These lenses are designed to clip on the front of telephoto lenses.

Obviously I had to have a little play to see what the latest one would produce. I started with a piece cut from my corkscrew hazel bush which had fully opened catkins and the remains of a flower, now fading rapidly.





The MSN-202 has to be closer to the subject, about 32mm and really gets in close. These are the results of a focus stacking session.

Close in on a catkin, un-cropped:


Very close view of the flower, again un-cropped:


Part of a Muscari flower, un-cropped:


As can be seen, especially in the first two stacks, there is a limit to the depth of field as the focus range has limits on the 70-200mm zoom lens I use on the 50D otherwise I am delighted with the results. I don't think this one will be very easy to use hand held, to say the least.

There is a MSN-505 with a diopter of 32 but with its subject distance of 18.5mm I don't think I will be tempted!

Determination

I was having a close look at the pond to see whether there was any more frog spawn when I heard loud splashing near me. I looked round and there, not much more than a couple of metres away, was a female Blackbird bathing in the pond waterfall:



We looked at each other for a short while and then I slowly took the Nikon out of my shirt pocket, gently pointed it in the general direction of the bird and manage to get a shot.



Most birds would not have come down to the pond with me standing so close but she was determined it was bath time and once I stopped looking at her she carried on bathing.

Spring Jelly Babies Under Attack

I've been checking my pond daily for a while on the look out for the first sign of frog spawn. None this morning but on returning from our afternoon walkies there it was. The first batch this year. I could see movement nearby and what looked like a webbed foot. I though it was a frog and fetched the 70D to take some shots and maybe some video:



Imagine my surprise when I eventually made out the shape of a newt:



After observing the activity for some time it became obvious that the newt was attacking the frog spawn as it probably thought it had found an easy meal:



To me that appears to be a female newt and she looks fairly fat so she may have seen the frog spawn as a rival to any she may be ready to lay. I will have to keep a sharp look out as I have never seen any newt spawn in the pond though there are at least five residents.

It is easy to tell which spawn is which as that from frogs makes a tightly packed clump in shallow water as in the photos above. Toads lay their spawn in strings usually wrapped around vegetation in slightly deeper water and newts lay individual eggs on submerged plant leaves.

I have never noticed this activity in the past though it could well have happened every year. It looks as though the spawn was quite a difficult meal to grab hold of and as the pond usually ends up with several batches of frog spawn there should still be some tadpoles and froglets later in the year.

Night Visitor

No. Not a spiky visitor yet. Just a little furry one having a quick look at the diamond nestbox:

Nestbox Shuffle

We seem to be near the final stage where the Great Tit will make her mind up whether to use the camera box as a nesting site.  The nestbox shuffle always looks like a test to make sure it is strong enough, or maybe big enough for a brood:



This might happen a few more times before any material is brought in to build a nest.

The Waiting Game

For much of the Winter I moved one of the cameras to watch half of the back garden to see whether anything visited at night. I had hoped to glimpse a fox as they do visit nearby. Results - nil, zilch, not a sausage.

As the weather has warmed up a bit I moved the camera back to watch out for any spiky visitors. I would imaging one or two Hedgehogs will have woken up briefly on warmer evenings but so far it is still a waiting game:



The Great Tit is still roosting every night and makes a couple of short visits most days but still no sign as yet of nest building. Yesterday I cleaned out the Hedgehog House and put some fresh straw in. Occasionally I leave some food but the only takers have been a couple of mice. I haven't seen any recent activity near the diamond shaped nest box either.

A Day of Flutters

It took a while to get going but today was glorious and lived up to the forecast with my weather station recording a high of 19.7˚C with wall to wall Sunshine:



All the miniature Narcissus were in full bloom.



The highlight for me was seeing dozens of butterflies emerging from their Winter shelter spots.

Mainly Small Tortoiseshells:






and Peacocks:




The only other type I saw were five Brimstones but they would not settle anywhere near to be photographed. That is more Brimstones than I saw in the whole of last year. So far it is looking good for a decent year of flutters.

Also emerging from various cracks and cavities were more seven spot Ladybirds.

A different view for a change.





It looks as though today was a one off with temperatures forecast to return near the seasonal average of 7-10˚C in this part of the country.