Still Investigating

A few mornings ago a Great Tit investigated the camera nestbox. An hour later these Blue Tits spent about four minutes checking it out.



Nothing more until this morning when a pair of Great Tits made a short visit. No sign of a 'nest box shuffle' from either species. That is when the female spreads her wings and shuffles round the bottom of the box as though checking it is the right size for nest building.

Frog Spawn a Plenty

A short video. There are lots of frogs and heaps of frog spawn in the overgrown garden pond.

Monday Mystery

Last Monday's close view was:



part of:



an ornamental LED garden lantern. There is a solar panel on the top. At night the glow from a single LED shows through the cut out sections. Not a bright light, just an illuminated ornament. Ellen D got it correct with Wilma also close. My thanks to all who had a go.

This time here is a small part



of a rather rusty ..... what? If you would like to have a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, together with the answer, next Monday.

Light Stacking

In the past I have taken macro photos using a technique called focus stacking where several shots are taken at different focus points. Those are added together in a focus stacking program. This time I though I would try something a bit different.

Orchid flowers on a window sill indoors taken while mainly lit from the back with daylight through the window:



The same set up but with added flash lighting from the camera:



The result when they are added together in Helicon Focus then tweaked a little in Affinity Photo:



Light Stacking? That's what I call it anyway. Photos taken with a Canon G5X, tripod mounted.

A Bit of Colour for a Grey World

A couple of colour popped blooms from the garden this morning to brighten up a grey world:





Taken with added flash to help the subject stand out. Subject colour popped and background blurred using the Mac Ap ColorStrokes.

Monday Mystery

The first mystery ought to be be 'when will the Great Tits make their minds up about the nest box?' They have explored it singly, or together, quite a few times over the past few weeks.

Now for the picture mystery. Last week I showed:



which was correctly identified by Dave, Adrian, Wilma, Ellen D and Ragged Robin as being part of:



a fire guard / screen. Well done everyone.

All week I have been trying to find somethig for the new mystery object. At almost the eleventh hour I spotted:



which is a close view of .... what? If you would like to have a guess please leave it in the comments. They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.

Monday Mystery

Oh dear, another week flown by. Last Monday I showed:



which was a corner of:



Very well done Kev Scott, Adrian and Dave who correctly identified it as a bath / shower mat. Ragged Robin and Wilma - I used to have a soap dish which looked something like that. I had forgotten all about it.

For the new mystery I have photographed part of .... what?



Like to have a guess? Please leave it in the comments which will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.