Monday Montage

Last Monday I posted this WidsMob Montage modified photo



Adrian, Ragged Robin, The Weaver of Grass, Wilma and Roy had no problem identifying



a tank.
This Chieftain tank resided at the entrance to Manby Showground for many years.


For this week's montage have a look at



What is going on here?

Want to have a guess?
Please leave it in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Monday.

New Lamps For Old

Either side of the front doors I had a pair of traditional looking lanterns. Not for the amount of light they gave out but for their effect. Each contained an artificial candle illuminated by flickering LEDs. The batteries were solar charged. After surviving quite a few storms and torrential downpours they were becoming erratic in their performance.

A grotty video grab:
 

Recently I spotted a new type. A cylinder containing several LEDs which give a more realistic flickering flame effect. These are also solar charged and have more modern higher capacity batteries.

As one of my security cameras caught much of the action of me installing them I decided to make a video. That took more effort than I anticipated as there are 13 short video captures. Not too much of a problem except the camera is 16:9. When the videos were copied from the recorder they ended up the wrong shape and iMovie refused to recognise them. Eventually I found MovieMator Pro would not only load the files but also allowed me to restore them to 16:9 and adjust the speed to 10x. Each clip had to be altered individually.

The resulting movie file was saved and loaded in iMovie where I added a sound track and title.



Of course most of the time the four legged supervisor kept an eye on what I was doing.

Worm or Suet for Breakfast?

This Blue Tit was investigated a worm dropped by another bird



but decided on having a traditional breakfast of suet ball.



There were two Blue Tits visiting together.
Maybe a pair which might be interested in the camera nestbox.

Busy Bee

As the weather has turned a bit milder a few bees can be seen visiting late flowering plants.

This one has been slowed down to half speed.



It still amazes me how close I can get to things with the Nikon Coolpix S9050.
The font used for the title is AlphaBizzyBee

Monday Montage

A reminder of last week's Widsmob Montage modified photo



which Adrian, Alison Miller and Wilma all worked out was



a photo of cricket players.

This week's montage



was a photo of what?

Please leave any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the original photo, next Monday.

Ready For a New Resident

As at least one Great Tit is visiting the garden it was time to give the camera nestbox a bit of a clean. Last Spring a Great Tit had spent ages building a nest only for it to be taken over by a bumblebee.

Once I had removed the front sections from the box the full depth of the nest could be seen:



I managed to take it out in one piece.
Notice how the materials used start coarse and gets finer as it nears completion:



I had hoped to see some remnants of the bumblebee nest but when I parted the construction all that could be noticed was a greasy, waxy coating to the materials. That surprised me as there had been plenty of bee activity with frequent comings and goings for several weeks.

Anyway, the nestbox is empty and clean once again ready for a new occupant.

Some You Capture, Some You Don't .....

.... photographs that is.

I suspect this photo of a Peacock butterfly taken about a week ago will be the last flutter I will capture this year now night temperatures are regularly down to single figures.



On our mid morning walkabout I had an Alice in Wonderland experience. I had decided that, despite the low temperature, as the Sun was out and the sky blue we would take the extra detour through the back of the village churchyard. Just as we arrived near the back of the church I spotted something brilliant white bounding through the unkempt older section of the graveyard. By its general shape and the way it moved I could swear it was a white rabbit. As is usual with many sightings like this it was in view such a short while. Penny hadn't noticed it at all.

As we ambled past the church building there was something we both saw and watched. A female Muntjac deer was slowly walking across the far side of the newer graveyard section. I suspect that was the first one Penny had ever seen. She just stood still, her gaze following its every move. Unfortunately as soon as I decided to get the little Nikon out from under two warm layers of clothing it had vanished from view.

With the colder mornings and freshly filled bird feeders more varieties are visiting the garden. A couple of Starlings have discovered the fat balls. How long before they invite the rest I wonder. A Great Tit is once again a regular along with dozens of House Sparrows. I noticed a Coal Tit making frequent visits to grab Sunflower hearts to take and hide in various parts of the garden.

Finally a couple of hurried shots of a Wren:





Time to put up a couple more feeders and see what we can attract.