Friday at the Flicks - Clouds + Two's Company

A few days ago I set up the Ipod Touch running LapseIt to shoot some time lapse of the clouds through my bedroom window. I then promptly forgot it was there so it ended up taking over 3000 shots, one every two seconds:



A couple of nights ago two hedgehogs met up. One was in its house when the second arrived. It ran out and charged the other. A while later they both met up in the Hedgehog House:



No sighting the following night and still no sightings of any activity in either of the camera nest boxes. Will this be the first time in four years there won't be a brood to watch?

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife and nature in general wherever you are.

Emmelina monodactyla

To you and me - a plume moth:



Spotted on the back door to the garage.
Easily recognised by its rolled up wings.
Wing span about 20mm

Feeding in the Sunshine

I went out in the front garden to photograph a couple of self sown plants but ended up taking photos of insects instead.  First there was a lone Peacock butterfly finding plenty of nectar:










Plus lots of Bee Flies about with males occasionally landing on a flower to feed. Even when feeding they are still partly hovering as those spindly legs are not designed for holding on to petals:



 

We All Have To Eat

A bit of a surprise on glancing out of the kitchen window to see a Sparrowhawk on the lawn near the building at breakfast time yesterday. It was only just far enough away to be able to photograph it by standing on tip toe and aiming at a very awkward angle through the double glazing.







Now there is one Starling less to scatter the bird seed all over the place.
All that was left after the incident was a pile of feathers:



I assume from the lack of rusty colour on its front that this was a female.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

It looks as though the virtual Midmarsh Stars are mine, all mine, mine mine....
No correct guess for last week's mystery photo which was a close shot of part of my pipe:

  



Oh well - better luck with this week's close photo of an object.
Guess what:


Please leave any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.
No prizes. Just for fun and maybe a virtual Midmarsh Gold or Silver Star.

Bombylius Major

Better known as the Bee Fly.

While clearing up in the garden, I spotted something land nearby. A quick look and I could see it was a Bee Fly:



I don't often see one resting. They are usually hovering in the Sunshine. What is nice is that they often return to the same space to hover which makes it easy to get a camera close to them though not necessarily easy to get one in focus. They have a habit of darting rapidly just a few inches. Fortunately they don't seem to mind being photographed. In fact sometimes I think they actually invite it as they often move closer to the camera:

 





As can be seen from the above one of the characteristics which makes them easy to identify, along with the habit of hovering, is the long proboscis sticking out in front.  I am quite pleased with these flight shots as it took over an hour and 20+ photos with an old Canon 350D fitted with a Sigma 28-80mm zoom macro lens set to manual focus. Why the 350D when I have better cameras? That combination is very light weight and the lens will focus down to about 3 inches though I never managed to get nearer than about 12 inches.

Occasionally the Bee Fly would land which made life a little easier:

 



I think there were several about in the front and back gardens. No doubt looking for somewhere the leave their eggs. The female flicks eggs near or into the nests of other insects or sometimes lays them on plants visited by the host insects.

Friday at the Flicks - Tadpole Gills + Hedgehog

At the time of making this video it had been 16 days since the frogs spawned. Many of the tadpoles were at the wriggly stage. They were free of the spawn but not yet swimming.

 

I collected a few in a dish to have a closer look under the microscope. I hadn't expected to actually see through the gills and watch them working, circulating the blood with each heart beat to extract oxygen from the water.  I am still amazed how well the video camera is working on the microscope:





Once filmed the tadpoles were returned to the pond.

A last minute video clip from last night. Just as I was about to turn everything off I spotted a Hedgehog helping itself to the crushed, unsalted peanuts in the Hedgehog House:



Obviously it wasn't the least bit bothered by the six white LEDs as it had a good close sniff at the camera.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.