Macro on Monday - Guess What

It looks as though the virtual Midmarsh Stars are mine, all mine, mine mine....
No correct guess for last week's mystery photo which was a close shot of part of my pipe:

  



Oh well - better luck with this week's close photo of an object.
Guess what:


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

Bombylius Major

Better known as the Bee Fly.

While clearing up in the garden, I spotted something land nearby. A quick look and I could see it was a Bee Fly:



I don't often see one resting. They are usually hovering in the Sunshine. What is nice is that they often return to the same space to hover which makes it easy to get a camera close to them though not necessarily easy to get one in focus. They have a habit of darting rapidly just a few inches. Fortunately they don't seem to mind being photographed. In fact sometimes I think they actually invite it as they often move closer to the camera:

 





As can be seen from the above one of the characteristics which makes them easy to identify, along with the habit of hovering, is the long proboscis sticking out in front.  I am quite pleased with these flight shots as it took over an hour and 20+ photos with an old Canon 350D fitted with a Sigma 28-80mm zoom macro lens set to manual focus. Why the 350D when I have better cameras? That combination is very light weight and the lens will focus down to about 3 inches though I never managed to get nearer than about 12 inches.

Occasionally the Bee Fly would land which made life a little easier:

 



I think there were several about in the front and back gardens. No doubt looking for somewhere the leave their eggs. The female flicks eggs near or into the nests of other insects or sometimes lays them on plants visited by the host insects.

Friday at the Flicks - Tadpole Gills + Hedgehog

At the time of making this video it had been 16 days since the frogs spawned. Many of the tadpoles were at the wriggly stage. They were free of the spawn but not yet swimming.

 

I collected a few in a dish to have a closer look under the microscope. I hadn't expected to actually see through the gills and watch them working, circulating the blood with each heart beat to extract oxygen from the water.  I am still amazed how well the video camera is working on the microscope:





Once filmed the tadpoles were returned to the pond.

A last minute video clip from last night. Just as I was about to turn everything off I spotted a Hedgehog helping itself to the crushed, unsalted peanuts in the Hedgehog House:



Obviously it wasn't the least bit bothered by the six white LEDs as it had a good close sniff at the camera.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Another Grand Day

Not quite so warm yesterday but plenty of Sunshine and a top temperature of 13.8C. Just right for getting things done. I had finally made my mind up about the camera inside the Hedgehog House. Instead of permanently replacing one of the other cameras why not automatically switch between cameras at dawn and dusk. I already had a 12V supply in the shed which worked some LED lights over the shed doors at night so I jigged a little circuit with a relay to switch the feed between the bird table camera in the daytime and the Hedgehog House camera at night.

Daytime views:



Night time views:



Still no signs of any takers in the camera nest boxes this year.

Did a little clearing up in the garden and had just decided to call it a day when a Hardy Phoenix Palm Tree I had ordered from Amazon turned up. Re-potted it in a slightly larger and better pot and buried that in a raised bed next to the pond:

 



As today promises to be another good one I will move things around and do a bit more tidying up. That's the theory anyway.

Relaxing in the Sunshine

Tuesday morning the Sun broke through at last to give a very pleasant Spring day reaching nearly 17C so we both made the most of it:



While I got the Summerhouse ready for use madam made the most of the Sunshine to give some very unlady like poses:

 

 

 

 

A Vortex in the Garden Pond

Well, to be precise a Vorticella. A microscopic creature which looks a bit like an upside down bell. The top, the mouth opening, is surrounded by cilia which rapidly wave up and down in turn. This helps to suck minute food particles towards the opening. On the video they are moving so fast that at first glance I thought the top was rotating. From the bottom of the Vorticella is a stalk which it can use to attach itself and also coil it like a spring to rapidly move out of the way of danger.




By photographing the slide scale at the same size as the video view and making the background transparent it was possible to add the scale on the video.  I tried for ages to get the background transparent in Affinity Photo but the result was poor so ended up going to my old copy of Elements which did it in three quick operations. Magic Wand to surround the black markings, hit delete to make the background see through. Save as .png. Job done!

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Congratulations and the virtual Midmarsh Gold Star go to TexWisGirl, Wilma, Adrian and Glo who all recognised the close view of a melon. Yes, it was a Honeydew and very tasty too:

   

Now to see how you get on with this close view.
Guess what:


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