AnnMarie's Blog

This spring we added a new feeding station for our wild birds. It seems to have been quite a hit, especially with the youngsters. Some of them are very quick to get to grips with things, like the sparrow fledglings; others aren’t too sure at first, like a certain little blue tit.

Anyway I’ve pieced together a short (~3min – 10Mb) video for you to take a look, just click the link below & then the play button …

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The greater Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is the most common woodpecker in the British Isles. In fact there are thought to be about 25 million of them living in Europe.

Image Details: Focal Length 700mm 3 exposure mosaic Juvenile – note red cap Click image for a larger view …

I have a particular fondness for ‘woody’ and so I’m very pleased to have spotted at least 3 families nesting with us this year. They are real characters and it is fun watching the parents bring up their young. They are fairly nervous birds and don’t seem to like close human attention but with patience its surprising how much you can observe.

To identify the family members look for red markings on the head and neck; the male (3rd picture) has a red nape to his neck, whilst the female (2nd picture, below) has no red on head or neck, the juveniles (top picture) have a red cap, the young male’s often being brighter & larger than his sister’s.

Image Details:Focal Length 1400mm Female – note no red head markings Click image for a larger view …

They are resident all the year around across much of Europe and eat insects, seeds & nuts. They are also rumoured to take small birds eggs / chicks, if times are hard. Happily our families seem to feast on the peanuts that we put out, the many conifer cones in the woodland and of course our bountiful insect harvest!

They are well known for their rapid drumming on hollow trunks, which can be heard from quite a distance and have a specially adapted beak & skull to avoid injuring themselves whilst drumming. It seems that wooden electricity poles are especially good for drumming on, as many a frustrated engineer will tell you Their tongue is long and sticky enabling the recovery of insects from holes in wood or even choice peanut fragments from a feeder.

Image Details: Focal Length 400mm Male – note red nape Click image for a larger view …

For more on that tongue, can you make it out in the picture below? The barbs are just visible pushing the peanut chip up against the juvenile’s top beak. This picture isn’t ideal & I’m working on taking a sharper one but it’ll have to do for now.

 

To find out more about woodpeckers, try following some of these links:

RSPB page with sound & video

Wiki article on the Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Birds of Britain article on same

or try these two sources for more general Woodpecker articles Britannica or How stuff works.

 

Oh and if you like my images don’t forget that many are available as prints from my business sites; in fact I hope to have a woodpecker poster out this autumn (08).

 

We took a quick trip to our local RSPB reserve this week. Just a quick afternoon trip but very enjoyable none the less, if you’re in the area please do consider visiting this fantastic resource. You can find out more by clicking here.

Whilst there are many different species to spot, from squirrels & songbirds to a variety of birds of prey, it was the geese that caught my attention on this beautiful February afternoon.

From this lovely Greylag Goose (above) who was fairly determined to stand with its back to me until it heard me rustle in the reeds, up popped its head whilst I froze for fear of scaring it off; but this picture was the result To the goose that I shared my school playing grounds with (see below):

Yes the Canada Goose and this one decided to have a lovely stretch of the wings in the evening sunshine. There really wasn’t a goose shortage today. As the sun set, we were right down on the river estuary the river waters turning a fiery orange as the sun met the horizon.

Swans, Mallard, Pochard and more, came flighting in as dusk fell; but true to the day it was geese who dominated the evening too, with hundreds coming in from the neighbouring area.

Ynys Hir, definitely somewhere to spend some more time.

The last few days I’ve been testing some new photography equipment. The weather has been fairly damp & murky, until today, which was beautiful. Anyway I decided that one of my test subjects should be some of the birds in and around the garden / hedgerows. Amongst others that includes:

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Here are a few images, be sure to click the link at the bottom to view the interactive image of a Dunnock:

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As I said today was a distinct improvement and I could do some winter hedgerow shots:

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Have you ever looked really closely at a small bird? Their fine feathers and exquisite colours are so beautiful. Click here for high resolution image of a Dunnock. The image is scrollable & zoomable and having been taken at a focal length of 1000mm, there’s quite a bit of detail (more detail downloaded each time you zoom, so give it a little while).

I’m really looking forward to spring now! Lots of photography opportunities.

BTW: Shameless plug here – if you’d like to purchase prints of my images, many are available for direct purchase from my business site: Celestial Galleries

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Technorati tags: Birds, Ornithology, Twitching, Photography

Popped out to Dolgellau last week, late afternoon was dull cloudy & wet, yet within a little over an hour, a beautiful but fleeting sunset developed.

Typical changeable autumn conditions for us. The picture above is of the old bridge over the Afon Mawddach, between Dolgellau & Llanelltyd. A  fly fisherman stands in front of the bridge enjoying the evening. These days the bridge is closed to motorised traffic and it is very peaceful despite being only just off the A470.

At home in Aberllefenni, the autumn colours have been richening up. This image shows some of our horses enjoying the autumn grass. The paddock is bordered by deciduous woodland, mainly oak, ash and hazel. Beyond that, the mountain is planted with spruce, larch and pine. All the trees have their own distinctive autumn shades, with the spruce & pine remaining green.

Even some of the horses are trying to blend in!

Have you ever wondered why the leaves change colour in autumn? It’s due to the range of pigments that are in the leaves. Chlorophyll is the main pigment that plants use to help them harness sunlight to produce carbohydrates. Chlorophyll appears green, it isn’t very stable though and plants have to continually synthesise it. It’s production falls when temperature & daylight levels drop.  This happens in autumn allowing other pigments to become the dominant leaf colouring agents.

The beech trees are a particular show at the moment.

So what are these other pigments? Carotenoids are a group of yellowy coloured pigments and they are significantly more stable than chlorophyll. Thus some leaves turn yellow as the green fades. What about the reds, I hear you call. Well they are due to a family of pigments called anthocyanins. As the tree prepares for leaf senescence (dropping of its leaves) the amount of sugar in a leaf may build. Depending upon temperature & light levels, this can trigger flavonoids to be converted to anthocyanins. The exact resulting colour tone depends upon the pH (acidity) of the plant sap.

But eventually they’ll all end up on the floor.

Finally a membrane between leaf stem & tree is completed, it now separates the leaves from the tree. As the membrane joint withers the leaves fall from the tree and carpet the floor.

Any how, it all produces a marvelous sight for us to enjoy.

It’s a dark, wet & windy night outside tonight; last few nights too. No astrophotography then, and I’m almost up to date with my standard photo processing – that means I’ve had a little time to indulge myself in a hobby that I keep meaning to learn but never get around too – computer aided 3D artwork. I had in mind a beautiful woman who comes to save a stranded Unicorn. The image was to be set in daylight with a rainbow background; I did that but then I changed it (fickle aren’t I). This is what I’ve ended up with …

  Click image for larger view …

I  settled on simply calling it “Friends” because that’s what we should be with creatures of all kinds. It’s not a complex image but then I’m only a beginner at this. The Lady represents the spirit of Mother Nature that we all have, somewhere within us.

I hope you enjoy the image. Maybe I’ll get chance this winter to practice my artwork some more; if so I’ll post some here.

I really enjoy macro photography; it can show us worlds that we don’t usually notice. What’s life like for other creatures? A beautiful flower in our garden might be a fast food bar or a solarium for a small insect. Take this afternoon for example, I was enjoying one of my favourite roses.

It has beautiful shades, sometimes looking purple & sometimes blue. The scent is wonderful but you always have to check before smelling it closely, let’s look why …

Inside the flower not only is there a veritable feast of pollen & nectar but it’s also a perfect sun trap. This small fly has found heaven! Hmm I don’t want him up my nose; perhaps I’ll look at a different flower. Nearby is a yellow rambling rose that also has a scent to enjoy but I’m not alone there either. There’s a rather nice hoverfly enjoying the flowers, in fact he’s quite polite and poses for me to take his portrait.

They have the most fantastic compound eyes (click on the image for a closer look) but I don’t suppose that will help him approve of his portrait photo – it’s not sweet & sticky enough.

Yes yes I know poor title choice, I am a Def Leppard fan after all. Anyway this post is really about quartz the rock, you know put a voltage across it and it pulses regularly to keep your wrist watch nice & accurate. Well I’ve always had a thing for it. I used to collect it as a child and Tamsin appears to have inherited the trait.

We have a tumble polisher (Jane’s) and that can produce beautiful glossy specimens. The picture above shows you various samples that we have polished plus a few lumps of ‘raw’ milky quartz from around the farm. You can clearly see different structural qualities within the stones. They are attractive in their own right but can also be used for making your own jewelry with. Manchester Minerals are a great place to find out more info & to buy supplies from.

Quartz is crystalline Silicon Dioxide and is the most common mineral on Earth’s surface. It occurs naturally in many different colours, as you can see from my picture above. It is a fairly hard mineral, rated at hardness 7 on Mohs scale.

Some of the varieties are listed below:

• Amethyst (purple)
• Rose Quartz (pink)
• Rock Crystal (transparent)
• Milky quartz (partially opaque white)
• Citrine (yellow)

We have been watching the woodpecker family on & off, for the last few days. The male appears to be doing much of the work with their juvenile, who has gradually been coaxed out of the tree and down to our feeding station. This evening, a fairly dull wet one, the male was collecting food and passing it to the juvenile; who was sat watching, a mere metre or so away.

 

 

The young one accepts some food from Dad, as above, then waits & watches while his parent fetches some more.

 

 

For those of you who aren’t aware, the male Great Spotted Woodpecker has red feathers in the nape of his neck, the juvenile has a red cap and the female has no red marking on her head & neck.

After some time it looked like the young one wasn’t too impressed with the rain, so off they both flew.

 

 

I am not sure whether or not the female still has another chick in the nest, because she seems very reluctant to come to feed.

Well this seems like a suitable first post. Over the last few days we’ve been hoping for clear skies tonight. Why? Because a lunar eclipse was due to occur. This is when the earth passes between the sun & the moon. They don’t happen at every full moon because the moon’s orbit is tilted and so a perfect alignment only occurs every couple of years or so.

This evening was looking like being a cloudy let down but we hoped for clearer conditions and they duly arrived.

10-27pm 3^rd March

Gradually the shadow of the earth crept up over the moon, as the picture above shows.

As time went on we were dogged by clouds but we all sat outside and persevered. 11-21pm was the time that totality was predicted for, but there’s some leeway with lunar eclipses and our patience was rewarded by the following beautiful clear view.

11-34pm 3^rd March

As you can see, the shadow cast by Earth creates a red hue over the whole moon, which is now very much darker than normal. Those of you with sharp eyes will have noticed two stars next to the moon. Both are in the constellation of Leo, the brighter one being cLeo Magnitude 5 @ 150 light-years and the other is 56Leo Magnitude 5.93 @ 325 light-years.

As with all things, time marches on and as the eclipse passes, the earth’s shadow drifts off the moon, as shown below:

12-50am 4^th March

And so an evening of fun came to a close. I think Tamsin will need a sleep in tomorrow morning J