Odds & Sods 2024

Kicking off this year's odds and sods with Starlings in a rainbow on that extreme rarity: sunshine.

It was early morning, with the sun barely cresting the tree line. We were able to get out for our morning walk as it wasn't raining. This photo is my trusty Canon 80D and Sigma 18-300mm lens zoomed in at 300mm.

Pulling back a bit.

And finally all the way back.

Oh, 2024 got off to a good start with this.

So far my cat, perhaps two neighbouring cats visiting our garden, a local fox and Tawny owl, and this trap have accounted for at least five of the beasties. Sightings of rats in our garden are getting rarer, so I think I'm winning. Two rather timid and wary rats, that I know of, are proving more elusive to catch. I've resorted to buying a lethal trap. The trap was triggered, yesterday, but no rat, sadly. Though a mouse might have triggered it, and was small enough to be within the kill bar.

90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.

  • OK, this is a test. I have a long hiatus (due to house decorating and wet rubbish weather preventing me from walking), and when I finally come back I am met with the dread phone app style interface with my most hated of buttons: 'View more'. It took me a while to spot the 'Oldest' and 'Newest' buttons, hidden away, greyed out seemingly. Whatever happened to the great User Interface design principles developed from places like Xerox Parc and Apple?

    Anyway, I'm hoping the big blue 'Reply' button is for this topic as a whole. Again, bang goes any sense of decent UI design.

    A Redwing, battling with worm, horse field, Moor Green Lakes nature reserve, in watery sun.

      

    That was yummy. Now, what else?

    I'm going to press the small blue 'Reply' button. I can't remember what it said pre-upgrade. I'm sure it was the old, familiar, friendly, sensible 'Submit'.

    90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.

  • Lummy! That worked! There's still life in the old IT dog yet.  Though I just remembered the random nature of the 'View More' button. Scroll too far and it retrieves more items automatically, leaving you bewildered as to what it did.

    Still, I have all I need to post and reply and navigate in one step to the end of threads. Just need some decent weather to enable me to venture out. Decorating almost done. Waiting for SWMBO to decide on vinyl floor tiles so they can be fitted, and then I can get on with painting woodwork.

    90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.

  • Good to see a Redwing Angus Slight smile

  • Nice set of redwing photos there. Good job

  • Should be a lot easier from now on Angus, hope you have seen update from 'official rspb' to confirm that they are working on favourable changes! Fingers crossed Lovely Redwing captures!

     

     2013 photos & vids here

    eff37 on Flickr

  • A few quick pics from Sunday taken near home 

    One of 6 cygnets which were part of a successful brood that all survived 

    Mrs Mally looking very elegant in her smart breeding plumage 

    Not quacking but just opening and closing bill 

    _________________________________________________________________________

    Regards, Hazel 

  • Aw ... Those are Gorgeous. The little ones are so cute ... Hugging

  • Morning all. Glad you liked my Redwing photos. I think I got lucky that day.

    My back garden resembles a marsh, with all forms of gardening banned; as is the case for large swathes of the country. The safest place to be is in an oak tree, at back of garden, which this Great Spotted Woodpecker frequents. Though given the amount of wood it was able to probe, I'm beginning to wonder if our oak tree is suffering from too much water.

    Photos taken early in morning, through manky double glazing. I really must get out an clean them. Though, it rains shortly after I do and promptly they're dirty, stained and manky again.

    Thought I'd crop the beastie out so it is framed more.

    The blighter then started to climb further up the tree, making it more difficult to photograph.

    90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.

  • Can’t remember what I last uploaded so here are a few from this week. been very very wet until today. Long may it continue.