Thursday, August 29, 2013

Babes in the wood

It's that time of year when the adult birds are looking a bit the worse for wear.  A hard time feeding the youngsters and the annual moult combine to increase the tattiness


although the nuthatches seem to remain ever dapper.

But it's the youngsters who have appeared who draw the attention - not least through the incessant begging:
Nuthatch



chaffinch


great spotted woodpecker



the slightly jaundiced looking great and blue tits



robin


dunnock

and a new one - goldcrest.

A few more new woodland visitors:

Chiff chaff

wren


and at our table top 'pool' a treecreeper.

A few more snaps - can you tell which of the snaps in this post were taken at ISO 1600?  


My new toy is a canon 5DIII, and so far I am distinctly impressed, much as I still love my 1DIII.  The latter is just not the right camera to have on holiday, the 5D does seem to have good low light tolerance (although perhaps the in-camera standard noise reduction is a bit heavy) so complements the set and the full frame does actually allow a fair crop for use on the web at least.  Imagine what the 1DX must be like - better than both combined.  Where did I put that lottery ticket?

Friday, August 16, 2013

Surely not Welsh ...............

Finally getting around to a bit of gardening when I caught a glimpse of some hot pink undergarments.

The hawkmoths are stunners at the best of times and the elephant is the one probably most likely to impress people not into 'bugs'.  It just looks so tropical.  A few years ago a South Wales  media story ran about an exotic insect that had been found.  Red faces I guess when the truth was out.




A reminder - I need to try some moth trapping.