Macro on Monday - Guess What + What a Difference

Hard to make my mind up what to award for last week's guesses. No one said exclusively that it was a digital watch though all hedged their bets (lol) - hence the clue 'handy to know when' so I guess it is silver stars all round for Keith, Wilma and Jan.

(slightly different displays as these were taken at different times)
   

I hope this week's puzzle photo, taken today, will be easier
Guess what:


I know, I know - there are lots of yellow coloured flowers so....
Clue:A very prickly customer. (clue was revised as I had completely mis-identified the plant!)

No prizes, just for fun.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday was the 13th consecutive wet day with 13 continuous hours of rain though only half an inch was recorded by my weather station.  Enough for my back garden to start disappearing under water...


Fortunately that had already started to recede by this morning.
What a difference today brought.
Wall to wall warm Sunshine and beautiful blue sky all day.


Panorama taken with the iPhone.

Foul Weather but Lovely Sunset

Only a few very short showers on Saturday (the eleventh consecutive wet day) but a cold breeze blowing in from the North Sea was gradually strengthening with dark clouds drifting across the sky. In spite of this, for a brief period there was a lovely Sunset which I just happened to notice when I went through to the kitchen to make a cuppa. Grabbing the TZ7 I fired off a few shots across my fence:

An LTT in the Garden - at last

It was starting to rain, nothing new there then, and the feeders needed topping up. Once that task was completed various finches and other birds started to arrive. The first visitor to the fat ball feeder was a lone Long Tailed Tit. It must be about two years since the last time I saw any at the Birdy Bistro. Stood well back in the kitchen and managed a few hurried shots before it left.

All these are taken with the 50D at 400mm zoom, cropped and then tweaked in Photoshop Elements 10 using the Guide, Saturated Slide Film Effect.








Great Tit Nest:
Mrs GT continues to incubate her seven eggs with occasional excursions out of the nest box and Mr GT makes occasional visits with food for her.

Friday at the Flicks - Collared Dove + Safe Cage

A while ago some Wood Pigeons found they could scrape through a gap through the wire mesh to feed on the Bird Table so I made the gap smaller. It didn't take the Collared Doves long to work out that the gap was still large enough for them to gain access.



About two years ago I looked at the commercial ground cages which allow smaller birds to feed but keep out the larger ones. I decided to throw together my own version but the birds didn't take to it when it was on the ground. A few days ago I decided to give it another try out. This time it is about a yard above ground and next to bushes.



It took a very short time for a Chaffinch to investigate and it has been constantly visited since.




Next job, if it ever stops raining, (10 continuous days with rain so far) is to rebuild it to fit the size and shape of the plastic tray which should raise the base where the camera can get a better view of the visitors. So far only finch size birds have entered, usually in the side and out through the top. Wood Pigeons have tried to get their heads in but the food is in the middle. At last the small ground feeders can get their share of the food in peace.

Wings on Wednesday (2) - Levitating Chaffinch

Couldn't resist this:

Wings on Wednesday - Great Tit Nest + Busy Bees

Mrs Great Tit continues to incubate her seven eggs with brief visits to the outside world. Every so often Mr Great Tit arrives with food for her.



The nest box is in a secluded space in the garden, fixed to the back wall of my shed. It is facing virtually due North and there are high thick bushes nearby.



For the past few days one of my weeping bushes which is full of catkins has been attracting scores of bees. When I walk past it the buzzing is so loud it sounds as though I am walking past a bee hive. They are so busy they take no notice when I put the lens of the Lumix a couple of inches away from them. They all depart with their pollen sacs fully laden.

iPhone4 Panorama 2nd Trial + Now We Are Seven

While we were out for our afternoon walk, dodging the showers, I took a 180 degree panorama shot with the iPhone4 using the free app Photosynth. The resultant panorama was tweaked in Photoshop Elements 10 as the ground was very dark on the original. It gives a good view of the cloudy conditions over the Lincolnshire Wolds which are about four miles away. My biggest disappointment is the overall lack of sharpness though that said the iPhone4 cameras are not the best in the world, especially when compared with those used in Sony Ericsson phones. In this day and age 5 Mpixels is a bit on the stingy side and is the thing which put me off buying an iPhone for a long while. (the iPhone4S camera has 8Mpixels which should give better sharpness)

Another 'problem' which shows is the change in brightness which can occur in the individual shots which make up the panorama as the camera is using auto exposure. Interesting to note that the stitching is done at an angle to the vertical. These are particularly noticeable on the left hand side of this panorama.



Clicking on the photo will take you to Flickr where larger views can be seen.


Great Tit Nest

It looks as though the final count is seven eggs this year (six last year, of which only four hatched). Mrs GT has been spending long periods out of the nest leaving the eggs uncovered but incubation seemed to start late yesterday and is continuing today with Mr GT bringing Mrs GT food.

Now we are seven as can be seen in this snapshot from the video feed: