Sunrise

Autumn can be a great time to see colourful Sunrises and this morning was no exception:





We were out walkabout at 7 a.m. this morning. I hadn't taken a camera with me so those shots were taken with the iPhone4 looking across the village school playing field. It's a pity such sights are so short lived but that helps to make them even more special.

Froggy Encounter

One night recently I encountered one of the garden frogs and decided to compare the lighting with the Nikon built in flash and one of the miniature LED flood lights. All the photos are cropped and auto enhanced in iPhoto, mainly for exposure:

Taken with the Nikon's own flash:



Taken with the mini LED flood:



As you can see the flood light illumination is on the orange / yellow side. Something I had noticed with the photo of the pupa I took a few days ago. This is not really surprising as the flood has 16 LEDs, 8 appear to be brilliant white and 8 what is often called warm white:



Not a real problem as a tweak of the temperature and tint settings in iPhoto pretty well brings things back to normal. This one started out like the last but has been 'adjusted':

 

Friday at the Flicks - Waterfall Bathers

I managed to sneak the camera and tripod just outside the back door, about fifty feet away from the waterfall. The birds hardly noticed me behind the tripod. Mainly House Sparrows with Starlings soaking everything in sight and a fleeting visit from a juvenile Collared Dove:



It was unfortunate I had to change the soundtrack. For some reason the natural sound recorded at the time has a lot of background noise.

Soundtrack:  Eternity by Positively Dark
A free download from:  http://www.entropymusic.com/

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Autumn - The Fall

 

There are far more evergreens than deciduous trees around my part of the village but I did spot a couple of signs as to why Autumn can also be known as Fall:



This is one of the village Horse Chestnut trees ....



where it's not just leaves falling ......





but also the seeds (conkers):



We were lucky one day when about half a dozen conkers all fell at the same time. Fortunately on the road and not on the path where we were walking as they really hit the road at quite a speed.

Waiting For Spring

 

I was changing the PIR lamp on my summer house and what should I spy right up under the overhanging roof?  A chrysalis in a well sheltered spot waiting for the return of longer daylight hours and warmer weather next Spring:



I had just taken delivery of a couple of tiny (38mm, 1.5in) LED flash / flood lights I spotted advertised at a reduced price on AliExpress. It has taken a month for them to arrive from China. I used one as a hand held flood light for this photo instead of the harsh built in Nikon camera flash. At £3.95 each, postage free, they were worth the wait:

   

They plug in the speaker socket of a smart phone and are said to work as flash lights with iOS and Android phones but I haven't downloaded the software to try that yet. Alternatively they can be used separately and switched on at three different levels of brightness manually. Ideal pocket lights for close work. Each has a built in battery which is rechargeable through USB ports.

Also waiting for Spring:



I turfed out some dying Summer bedding plants and this old planter now contains about 100 spring bulbs, a mixture of dwarf narcissus, crocus and dwarf iris bulbs. It should make a colourful show which I will be able to admire from the kitchen window.

The Spoilers

A rasping bird call caught my attention. There it was, a Magpie, helping itself to an apple:



It was not alone. Nearby was a Jackdaw with the same intention:





In fact, not one but two Jackdaws:



It wouldn't be so bad if they concentrated on one apple but they have a habit of taking a few pecks at each and end up ruining a lot of the crop.

Monday Mystery - Guess What

A good start to the new style mystery photos. Virtual Midmarsh Gold Stars and my congratulations to the ladybird spotters: Wilma, Adrian, Roy and Ragged Robin.

   

Here is another creature for you to spot among the pretty patterns.
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 possibly a virtual Midmarsh Gold or Silver Star.