Identifying a Garden Plant Using Google Images

This is one of my favourite plants at this time of year. A very hardy ground hugging succulent with a cascade of bright yellow flowers which open in Sunlight.  I have had some growing in a concrete planter for years. It has survived being without water for months, torrential rain and temperatures from -10C to +32C. In drought it will shrivel back a bit but a bit of water and Sunshine and it bursts back into life. It prefers well drained soil.



For the life of me I couldn't remember what it is called. Then I read about using Google Images to try matching my photograph. A facility I didn't know about.

Go to Google Images. Click on the camera icon in the search box (search by image). Choose either a URL with the photo you want to identify or to upload from your computer. (Plants, places, people, almost anything you want to identify)

When I uploaded the above photo I was presented with hundreds of pictures of yellow flowering plants. In the search box at the top it allows you to add text detail so I put 'succulent yellow flower'. This refined the search and I soon found a matching photo. Clicked on that, then off to its website and yippee, name found. Job done.

It turned out the plant is Delosperma nubigenum 'Basutoland' commonly known as the Ice Plant.

In this case I could have just used the normal method of putting a description in Google and might have found the answer just as easily but for some subjects like insects it is harder to describe them. I will have to test the image upload method on a few insect photos I need to identify and see how well it works.

Let There Be Sound

I've tried all sorts of possibilities to get sound on the computer recordings of birds and Hedgehogs. The bird table camera has sound but cabling it through to the computer picked up more mains hum than bird song.

I had a very cheap wireless microphone which almost worked but the distance was near its limit and the sound wasn't too clean. Luckily I managed to pick up a cheap, unused, UHF wireless microphone working on licence free channels. Setting that up yesterday gave much better results. As usual I modified things a bit. The base receiver is mains powered but the microphone unit uses two AA batteries which is fine for occasional use but no so convenient if it's left on for long periods.

A quick think and a Goole explore session gave me an idea. Cut down two dolly pegs (just the right thickness to replace AA cells), attach wire to contacts screwed to the round head of them and use a 12V gell cell with a bit of electronics to give the 3V needed.


Receiver:



Microphone listening through hole in Summerhouse:



Voltage control: (measured output is 2.99V)
Under £4 on Amazon UK.  4-40V in, adjustable 1.25-37V out up to 2A.



Transmitter set up:



A short recording, Sparrow chirping and Blackbird singing:



A bit of 'noise' but as I have 80 channels to choose from I'll have to do a bit more experimenting. Some background noise was probably local grass mowing.


Dolly peg, a traditional shape of clothes peg (clothes pin) made of wood:

Abraxas grossulariata

Spotted next to my side gate yesterday:

     

Abraxas grossulariata  (Magpie Moth) caterpillar



I took this photo of a Magpie Moth in 2009:



This is a Summer daytime flying moth. The caterpillars may be found feeding on Blackthorn and Hawthorn but can also cause widespread damage to the leaves of currant and gooseberry bushes.

Friday at the Flicks - Bird Table, Hungry Sparrows

Some of the regular visitors to the bird table:



It may have been wet and breezy but the youngsters still needed feeding:



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Woody Comes Visiting

A rare visit from a Great Spotted Woodpecker:

Taking Advantage of the Wet Weather.

The blackbirds love it when the back lawn get saturated with so much rain. That drives the worms to the surface so they make easy pickings:



I had to smile as the Blackbird wrestled with this small worm which kept curling round his beak.

It's Rude to Spit .....

.... unless you're a Frog Hopper producing what is colloquially known as Cuckoo Spit.
This is the way the nymphs protect themselves:



Now, what is this just poking its head out of the spittle?



A cropped closer look:



I do believe it is the head and front legs of a Frog Hopper.

Correction: After Adrian's comment that t might be a spider I checked today. It was in exactly the same place so I fished it out. Then I could see that it was a small spider which had perished in the sticky spittle.

Macro photos taken with Canon 50D + 70-200mm zoom + Raynox macro lens.
1st photo is 2 stacked shots and the 2nd is 4 stacked shots using Zerene Stacker.

A good description of the life of a Frog Hopper can be found on this BBC site.
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