Quite a combination of clouds for this morning’s photo, but the two vapour trails set it off brilliantly!
Cloudscape Combination
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Monthly Archives: August 2016
Hunting for Insects
It’s not me hunting for insects, but a Wren in the garden – standing near the kitchen window, I suddenly spotted this little bird sitting in one of the shrubs in the garden.
Wrens don’t eat “human food”, preferring insects and aphids, so by the time little little one has finished, I think that shrub should be free of greenfly at least!
Soggy Sparrow in the Saucer
The sparrows have returned again, not only for food, but also for a bath! Three sparrows were in the main bird bath, so this clever youngster decided to have a bath all to itself in the plant saucer instead.
Artistic Photo Day
It’s not the clearest photo, but spotting some raindrops hanging from the edge of the window, I thought I’d try and be creative….
….so here’s my photo of a raindrop, with the (upside down) reflection of the clouds.
They didn’t forecast this!
The thunder rumbled about for ages, and although there was no visible lightning, there was plenty of rain!
The rain was so heavy, it started splashing on the steps, leading to some interesting photos.
Bright Blue Skies
A complete contrast to yesterday’s grey, murky weather – today was really warm with clear blue skies!
You wouldn’t think that was taken less than 24 hours after yesterday’s photo, would you?
Mobbed by Seagulls
Not the most inspired of days weather-wise today – the cloud is still there, but by 3pm the fog had started to clear a little on the hills. Not the best of days for birdwatching either, as the Army have been flying around the area, which tends to put most of the larger birds off.
One strange sight though, was a couple of gulls that looked like they were ‘mobbing’ the helicopter! I’m sure this was just an illusion given the angle and distance away from me, and that they weren’t as close as they appeared, but they did seem to circle the area where the helicopter was flying, and only flew off once the intruder had moved on.
Can you spot the seagulls to the top and right, appearing to mob the Apache helicopter?
Do you leave water for the birds?
With the hot weather that’s been forecast, we’re making sure to keep the bird bath topped up. Not only do the birds enjoy a cooling bath, but they also can drink from it.
For the smaller birds, we also have a water-filled plant saucer with a pebble in – the pebble helps to stop the pigeons from tipping it over, but also means the very small birds can get some shallower water to bathe in.
It’s not just the birds that use the bath though, I’ve seen a fox come into the garden at night and take advantage of some drinking water! We also have had numerous visits from a badger (we haven’t spotted it recently, but we have seen the ‘deposits’ that it’s left behind), and I’m guessing that the badger is also making the most of the water.
A Meal Fit for a Crow
When you think of a garden house-style bird feeder, you think of small birds flying into it to get the food. The local larger birds have other ideas,with a seagull sitting on the top of the feeder, trying to figure out how to get in!
The gull didn’t manage it, but the local crows proved brave enough (or hungry enough) to squeeze in and grab some food.
Taking it on top of the feeder, the crow then started to pull the food apart to eat…. the few pieces it dropped were quickly gobbled up by a second crow sitting on the grass below – that one obviously knew that would be the easy way to get the food!
Can you spot it?
Flicking through my photos from a recent walk, I came across this shot, and suddenly noticed something I hadn’t spotted originally….
Can you spot it? The bird on the left-hand side? It’s a young Bluetit which either had just had a bath, or got caught out in the rain!
It’s one of those photos where I could hear the birds, bit couldn’t actually see a bird in the tree, so I just aimed the camera on the off chance. As luck would have it, he came out in focus too 🙂