Having had a long thunk about my automated twitching I came up with lots of work on this hot Sunny Sunday. I decided to move the waterfall away from the overgrown pond and make a water feature with it. Luckily I had a spare water pump tucked away for a non rainy day.
Reservoir on the left with water and water pump. The water goes through a tube under the waterfall to a water filter. From the filter it is then piped through the imitation barrel and hand pump.
Lots to do yet, when I cool down a bit and get my breath back. The waterfall had lots of old rotting wood underneath for insect homes. Got to move those and fill in the boarding behind the feature. That should give a good still background for the IR movement detector. Finally it will be surrounded by some low log rolls I've had stored away for years. Maybe put a planter in front of it.
One other advantage with this set up - it can be seen from the kitchen window.
Lots of blank photos again when the breeze got up.
Having a long think as I like this way of finding out which birds make fleeting visits.
I will probably move a bird bath to a position where it has a solid, still background.
After a bit of judicious trimming of vegetation and re-positioning the IR detector I set things up again to see what wildlife was visiting for a drink or a quick bath.
Here is the IR detector in place:
I was thinking I had built this a couple of years ago and was astounded when I found out I had originally written about building it ten years ago here (Heath Robinson Strikes Again). While the weather is fine I have left the detector in place so the birds get used to it being there.
A few regulars from Tuesday:
House Sparrows
Female Blackbird
Robin
(must remember to set the camera to manual focus)
Wood Pigeons
At least there were fewer false triggers and empty photos to delete.
Yesterday I set up a camera to take some unattended photos of anything visiting the pool on the pond waterfall. Over 350 shots and only one usable. The IR detector was being triggered by background vegetation wafting about in the breeze.
The mystery? In a couple of shots there is an insect, unfortunately out of focus range.
My first thoughts were cricket or grasshopper but having looked at scores of photos on t'internet I couldn't find one with that colouring and more to the point - nothing with what appears to be an ovipositor that long.
Apologies if some mystery close-ups are getting more difficult.
I am finding it harder to think of new subjects to photograph.
I often don't find something until almost the last minute.
So it was with last week's mystery:
Congratulations to Adrian, Dave and Kev for spotting it was
an insect hotel. This one has been up for several years and never seemed to show the result of any activity apart from spiders' webs. The previous weekend I was idly pulling up a few weeds nearby when I heard constant buzzing. I finally located it near the insect hotel. A mason bee was making repeated trips to the same hotel 'room'. I'm fairly sure this is a Red Mason bee.
I also noticed some of the holes were plugged with dried mud and some were partly open. The closed ones should have mason bee cocoons and the partially open ones are probably where hatched bees have made it out to the wild world.
I also took a short piece of video of the bee when it visited the hotel:
One reason it may have become popular with the bees is that I moved it. It used to be somewhat in the shade but I recently read the mason bee prefers South facing sunny locations which is where it is now. They are common in lowland areas of England and Wales. Seen mainly from April to July. They feed on Spring flowering shrubs and particularly on apple and pear tree blossom (several fruit trees next door) as well as cultivated flowering plants. Instead of having pollen bags on their legs the female Red Mason bee collects it between hairs on her abdomen.
And now, as they say, for something completely different
which is part of ... what?
Think you know? Want to have a guess?
Please leave any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed, along with the answer, next Monday.
