Attacked from Above and Below

This large suet log has been hanging in the garden for weeks without any takers.

 

All of a sudden, now there are hungry youngsters to feed, it is being attacked from above and below.

As well as the inevitable Starlings there has been the occasional visit from a Rook to attack it from above:



A bit of jittery video, hand held looking through the kitchen window which was in full sunlight:



The attack from below is from a Blackbird:

 

He flies straight up, grabs a beak full and drops down again.



I have watched Blackbirds use the same tactic to grab the berries from ivy hedges when there is no place for them to land on the plant.

Not Long to Wait

for a display from



my Callistemon (bottle bush) plant.

Last year it had a few flowers. This year it looks like having 25 or more.

The flowers grow directly from the new growth on each branch



Lots of buds nearly ready to open to give a brilliant red bottle brush display.

Walnut Orb-weaver

On moving an LED candle lantern I spotted this spider which had been sheltering underneath.



The shape and markings made it easy to identify - for once.
A female Walnut Orb-weaver spider.
Information can be found on the UK Safari site.

Busy Blue Tits

2nd attempt as, believe it or not, YouTube removed the first attempt for ' violating the guidelines'!

Lots of activity at the nestbox on the back of the workshop.
Unfortunately no camera in the box this year.



I set up the 50D on a tripod and left it filming for a few minutes and edited out the waiting times.
The first clip shows both parents visiting at the same time.

P.S. On appeal the original video was re-instated. Then I deleted it anyway.
No point in having two identical videos, albeit with slightly different titles.
The original had the same title as this post so I guess a YouTube bot assumed it must have been 'rude'.

Monday Mystery

Lots of correct identifications for last week's close view:



It was indeed a



frog (rear end)
Well done Adrian. Rob, Kris, Kev, Simon and Ragged Robin.



As I was moving the hose two of them jumped out of the long grass and across my shoe.
Made me jump a bit.

Here is new cropped shot



for you to identify.

Please leave any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

My County Flag

The flag for the county of Lincolnshire is:



Each part has a significance.

The red cross with the Fleur-de-lis is from the coat of arms of Lincoln, the county town.
The green rectangles represent the agricultural nature of the county.
The blue rectangles represent the sea and the long coastline of Lincolnshire.
Finally the yellow lines refer to Lincolnshire's golden crops and to the fact that Lincolnshire born folk have been known traditionally as 'Yellerbellies'.

When the original idea of having a county flag was discussed it was decided to have a competition so residents could put forward their designs.

The full story about the flag can be read HERE.

 Lincolnshire day is 1st October.

BTW. The animation is not my work but came from HERE.

Colourful Walkies

After sharing a meal of lamb chops, peas, boiled spuds, green beans and carrots we took advantage of the eased rules for exercising outdoors. First time in what feels like years we went for an after tea walk down the lane. To finish off a welcome, though definitely chilly, walkabout there was a beautiful rainbow.



Lovely scene to end the day.