Woodpecker Wednesday

Lovely to see at least one of the juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers visits the peanut feeder nearly every day. There is only one at a time so it may be the same one. It is impossible to tell.

Tuesday Twister - Guess What

All seems to be going well with this series of puzzle photos so far. Congratulations and virtual gold stars go to Adrian, Roy, TexWisGirl, Wilma and Ragged Robin plus Alimary who sent the answer by mail. Everyone sussed that it was a twisted snowman. In fact when I looked again at the original I think it may well have been a snowwoman:

     


Now for the new twisted photo.  Guess What:




Please put any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed next Tuesday along with the answer.
No prizes. Just for fun and a virtual gold star.

Orange Ladybird

Nearly home from walkies one afternoon when I saw what at first I thought was a small moth flying towards us. Quite a surprise when it landed on Penny's back.

Poor record shot only as Penny was trying to say hello to a neighbour and wouldn't stand still:



It turned out to be an Orange Ladybird (Halyzia sedecimguttata) which can have between 14 and 16 white spots. They can be bright yellow or orange and feed mainly on mildew though will sometimes eat aphids. They are more a woodland species frequently found around Sycamore trees but are spreading to Ash. There are plenty of Ash trees round here. I don't remember ever seeing this particular variety before now.

Scary Homer

A local entry in the village scarecrow contest:



On first meeting Homer Penny thought it was a person and was wagging her tail as she always does when she meets anyone. That turned to distrust and some anxiety when she found the 'person' didn't move or say anything. Obviously a new experience for her which she found scary. Next time we passed Homer she just ignored him.

Friday at the Flicks - Wren Activity + Juvenile GSW

The Wren spends the occasional night roosting in the roosting pocket. About 10.40 a.m. last Monday morning I spotted activity. The first in daylight hours.  She gave the inside and outside a close look. At one point disappearing behind the pocket. Some of the activity certainly looked like nest building:



Unfortunately there doesn't seem to have been any other activity since then.

As promised here is the video of one of the juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers which visited a few days ago. It sat on the fruit cage for a while, went away, came back and slowly got neared the peanut feeder. The video starts where the GSW is trying to reach the peanuts and finally lands on the feeder. This has been the first time I have seen any bird get the better of the Starlings. A quick thrust with that sharp beak made them choose another feeder:



I have only spotted a juvenile once more in the garden.

A Lucky Escape

Just happened to look in the greenhouse and spotted movement in one of the plant saucers. An inquisitive black ground beetle had fallen in the water and was swimming round trying to find a way out.





With the slippery vertical plastic there was no way it could escape without a bit of help so I scooped it up so it could reach the top:





It stayed there quite a while to dry off and partly opened its wing covers to let some warm air in:



All the above cropped photos were taken with the Nikon Coolpix S9050.

As it looked as though it would stay in one place for a bit longer I grabbed the Canon 50D fitted with a Raynox macro lens and took a few hand held shots which were focus stacked with Zerene Stacker:



I don't know how long it stayed there but by the time I checked again it had disappeared.

Tuesday Twister - Guess What

Congratulations and virtual gold stars to Adrian, TexWisGirl, Wilma and Ragged Robin for successfully identifying last week's twisted face of a clock. In fact my garden clock:

   


An unseasonal twister for this week's Guess What:




Please put any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed next Tuesday along with the answer.
No prizes, just for fun and a virtual gold star.