Young Robin

I was fascinated watching a young Robin as it spent a while investigating the feeding area of the garden. It looks to me as though it hadn't long fledged. To begin with it just watched the other small birds deciding what it should do next:







It didn't take long to work out what the peanut feeder was for ...



... before dropping to the ground to see what might have been scattered by other birds:

 



It then investigated some of the planters before moving on.

Guess What

Congratulations and the virtual Midmarsh Gold Star this week go to Adrian who sussed out that the mystery photo was a close view of the whistling part of a whistling kettle.



Getting close with mention of hot water and tea was ImaBurdie who gains a virtual Midmarsh Silver Star.

   

On to this week's close view of an everyday object.
Guess What:


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

A Splash of Colour

A couple of days ago I had a wander round the garden to see which plants were in flower:






Either hover over the centre bottom of the above to find the play button
or
Click on the part of the next photo which sticks out behind the  front one.




Colour popping done using Color Accent Studio Pro which converts the picture to grey scale and then you 'paint' over the parts where you want colour to show. Slide show made with 3D Gallery. (Both are Mac apps) Border added using the old version of PhotoScape X.

That and This

That is the first of my Living Stones (Lithops) to flower ....



... and this is a Speckled Wood butterfly which spent a while landing on various plants around the garden. It didn't land on any flowers so maybe it was seeking places to lay eggs...

Friday at the Flicks - A Hive of Activity

As I mentioned a while ago the nest box in the village churchyard had been taken over by bees. A few days ago I took a bit of video - until the nest guardians decided to investigate the investigator!



Have a great, and safe, weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Red Admiral

Along with all the bees which have been visiting my globular buddleia bush there has been the occasional Red Admiral butterfly. This one was very reluctant to open its wings to show off its colours:













I didn't blame it. 'Twas a little on the warm side at 26C and I could feel the back of my legs burning after a quarter of an hour trying to get some decent shots.

Not Many Sunspots

As the Sun is making its presence felt at the moment I thought it was time to take a few photos. Yesterday's high here was 26C.


29th June - one Sunspot at 11 o'clock:



30th June - one Sunspot at 9 o'clock:




A gentle reminder that you should never point a camera, telescope or binoculars directly towards the Sun without using a filter made for that purpose. The Safety Film Solar Filter I use cuts down the light from the Sun by about 10,000 times. Also it should go without saying that you should never look at the Sun with the naked eyes.