Right of Way Dispute

There's me quietly minding my own business giving the lawn a short back and sides when this little frog with a death wish leaps out in front of me:



As I had the Nikon in my shirt pocket I took a quick snap and waited for Froggy to move out of the way. That was going to be some wait as it had no intention of moving. Froggy even stayed put while I got the camera closer and closer. It was determined it had the right of way in its garden.





In the end I had to walk round to the back of it and give it a gentle push. That got it leaping though to start with it aimed for the mower. In the end I persuaded Froggy to find somewhere safer and got on with the job in hand.

Sun Day

With clear skies last Thursday it was a good opportunity to take a new photo of the Sun:

Canon 70D  400mm with Orion Safety Film Solar Filter   f5.6  1/160 sec cropped

About ten Sun Spots were observable. We are now near or just past the peak of the Sun's eleven year cycle of activity.

Do remember never to look directly, or point a camera, at the Sun without the correctly designed apparatus. The special solar filter I use on the 70D can be seen in my post 'There is a Sun Up There'.

Little Green Pests

I noticed that the leaves on my plum tree were suffering some sort of attack as many were curling round. A quick examination of some leaves soon showed the cause. Aphids, greenfly by the score:





You wouldn't think such tiny creatures could cause so much damage but when there are hundreds of them sucking the sap out of a plant it soon becomes weakened. Where are the ladybirds now they are needed?

Friday at the Flicks - After the Rain + Woody Returns

Some birds were unsure how to proceed after last Monday's heavy rain shower. Some, like the Stock Dove went in for tentative paddling. Starlings, of course, took advantage of a giant bird bath and the Blackbirds collected the worms driven to the surface:



Fortunately with temperatures reaching the mid 20s C it didn't take long for the surface water to evaporate though the ground is still very soggy under foot.


Woody keeps making regular visits. I notice he doesn't seem to eat the peanuts but flies off with them so I guess he has a hungry brood not too far away.



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

ISO 12800 Experiment

One dull afternoon when the Birdy Bistro was in total shade I decided to take a couple of photos at ISO 12800 with the Canon 70D to see what the results would be like. That gave me a chance to get a reasonable hand held speed:

ISO 12800  400mm  f8  1/500 sec

ISO 12800  400mm  f7.1  1/500 sec

Much better than I expected. There is grain in the background but not nearly as much as I thought there would be. There is a drop in contrast ratio which is to be expected in such dull conditions but I gave the photos a small amount of cropping, a sharpness boost and a boost in definition with iPhoto. No attempt was made to reduce the grain.

Wet, Wet, Wet + Woody Returns

No, not the Scottish band, my back garden. Teatime yesterday started with distant thunder but so strong it could be felt through the concrete floor in the kitchen. Fortunately the electrical storm passed over without any local problems apart from the electricity supply flickering off from time to time.

That wasn't the worst though. Suddenly the heavens opened with such stair rods of rain and hail the like of which I last saw decades ago as a child. According to my new weather centre the rate of rainfall reached 65mm / hour (2.5 inches / hour). Thank goodness that didn't last for an hour. As it was, 27mm (just over an inch) of rain was recorded in less than an hour.

The lane was a river with water flowing rapidly down from the main street and my back garden ended up about 3/4 under water. That lot was just rainfall and overflow from the gutters which couldn't cope. Normally it takes several hours of persistent rain to flood that much. Fortunately the building, garage and sheds are well above that level.





It had only just dried out after the last rainfall.

Once the rain had moved out to the North Sea Woody made his second visit of the day:



He is becoming quite a regular at the moment.

A bit of very shaky hand held video which iMovie did its best to stabilise:



It really cheered me up to see such a magnificent bird visiting the Birdy Bistro.

June Moon

As the sky looked reasonably clear late yesterday evening I set up the 70D on a sturdy tripod to take some shots of the Moon:

ISO 800  f7.1  1/400sec

ISO 160  f5.6  1/125 sec

EF 100-400mm lens set at 400mm. Different settings on the camera gave different coloured tints.
The yellowish tint in the first is nearer to what I could see.
Both photos were cropped, sharpened and detail enhanced in iPhoto.