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Nature photos
Re: Nature photos
Met these while out cycling this morning.
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Re: Nature photos
And this fellow, but a bit far off in the distance, and a couple of gulls.
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Re: Nature photos
Today's bug-of-the-day is ... one hefty grasshopper, which I think is a female.
She'd flown inside and got herself well and truly entangled in the filth that regularly escapes my cursory attempts at housekeeping (mostly comprised of an infinite supply of spider webs)
Once I'd indulged in the facebookey tradition of taking pictures instead of rendering aid, I did render aid, pulling off as much of the material as she'd let me, and then taking her out to the picnic table in the garden, where she carried on the cleaning work herself.
Just about done, one last picture before I moved her down into the grass, as I felt she was rather too exposed up there on the table. Then again, if Lenny hadn't already gone to bed, he'd have been delighted to have a meal delivered to him at ground level.
Technical note for those of you interested in nature photography (and purchase of camera for same): those last two pics illustrate the benefit of shooting in RAW. They were taken after sunset, without flash, at a modest ISO (400) but with the exposure turned right down (-2) so as to allow me to use an aperture for sufficient depth of field and a suitably fast shutter speed. The RAW format then gave me the chance to bring the exposure back up to normal to give the images you see. The alternative would be to use a higher ISO, with the risk of introducing (a lot) more noise. You can manipulate the exposure in a JPG image to a certain extent, but with a loss of quality - especially as you push things to the limit.
She'd flown inside and got herself well and truly entangled in the filth that regularly escapes my cursory attempts at housekeeping (mostly comprised of an infinite supply of spider webs)
Once I'd indulged in the facebookey tradition of taking pictures instead of rendering aid, I did render aid, pulling off as much of the material as she'd let me, and then taking her out to the picnic table in the garden, where she carried on the cleaning work herself.
Just about done, one last picture before I moved her down into the grass, as I felt she was rather too exposed up there on the table. Then again, if Lenny hadn't already gone to bed, he'd have been delighted to have a meal delivered to him at ground level.
Technical note for those of you interested in nature photography (and purchase of camera for same): those last two pics illustrate the benefit of shooting in RAW. They were taken after sunset, without flash, at a modest ISO (400) but with the exposure turned right down (-2) so as to allow me to use an aperture for sufficient depth of field and a suitably fast shutter speed. The RAW format then gave me the chance to bring the exposure back up to normal to give the images you see. The alternative would be to use a higher ISO, with the risk of introducing (a lot) more noise. You can manipulate the exposure in a JPG image to a certain extent, but with a loss of quality - especially as you push things to the limit.
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Re: Nature photos
Hmm ... looks like there's a difference of terminology between the French and the Anglophones - what we (in France) call crickets, you (in the Anglosphere) call grasshoppers, and vice versa. We have four different hoppity-scratchy things here: criquet (the one pictured in post #100, sauterelle (saut=to hop/jump) of which that green critter is the classic - but is called the Great Green Bush Cricket in English; grillon, which would appear to be what's called a cricket in English and is mostly nocturnal so no pics yet; and cigale (cicada) responsible for the atmospheric soundtrack to Provençal summers.
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Re: Nature photos
That's what I mean - it's a cricket in English, but 100% grasshopper in French! In contrast to the "English" grasshopper posted a couple of days ago, which is known as a criquet here. All the "what's the difference" texts in French make reference to the size of the antennae, again reversing the categorisation.Plover1958 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 11:26 am What you have there is a cricket. Crickets have long long antennae while grasshoppers' are short. Crickets rub rub their wings together to 'sing' while grasshoppers rub their hind legs together. Interestingly the position of their ears differs too - crickets on their front legs and grasshoppers at the base of their abdomen.
Bring back Latin, I say. Let's get rid of these confusing regional languages and colloquial terms!
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Re: Nature photos
Yes, exactly - sauterelle verte = (green/grass)hopper, but the English translation is Great Green Bush Cricket.Plover1958 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 1:27 pm My wife and daughter are fluent French speakers and they say grasshopper is a Sauterelle and a cricket is criquet. A French book here shows it as La grande sauterelle verte
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Re: Nature photos
Went out to check on my frogs after earlier groundworks (see post in Gardening) and found ... a baby Bufo !
Phone photo this time, as it's what I had to hand.
Phone photo this time, as it's what I had to hand.
Re: Nature photos
Underneath a damson tree in what looked like a large rabbit hole I noticed it was blocked. I thought it was a bee hive but on closer inspection, and your talking 2 foot from hole, turns out it was a wasp nest. I have never seen a wasp nest this big before. Usually they are small lantern type structures. I took two photos and then made my escape. I felt something crawling inside the sleeve of my jacket and took it off but couldn't find anything, probably just a bit paranoid. Maybe they were afraid of my Metallica cap.
Re: Nature photos
Pic tweaked to show his great beautyCelticRambler wrote: ↑Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:14 pm Went out to check on my frogs after earlier groundworks (see post in Gardening) and found ... a baby Bufo !
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Phone photo this time, as it's what I had to hand.
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Re: Nature photos
I saw some weird and wonderful mushrooms on a walk earlier. I will try yo get some pictures for here next time. I thought it was just animals and insects in here you see.
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Re: Nature photos
You wouldn't chance giving him a kiss?CelticRambler wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 4:07 pm Beauty?
He's a toad - ugly little fecker, just like his mammy!
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Re: Nature photos
Mammy Toad, sure why not ... but the youngster - nah: wouldn't want to find myself with a teenage prince on my hands!
Re: Nature photos
Out cycling yesterday along the grand canal, and met this lovely animal.
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Re: Nature photos
We found this fellow hanging from the staircase ceiling. And it was a shock to see how large its ears are when they are fully opened.
I would say they were at least 3" long. And when they are closed they are only about 25mm long. I would be interested to know what breed it is.
I would say they were at least 3" long. And when they are closed they are only about 25mm long. I would be interested to know what breed it is.
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Re: Nature photos
I took it outside and placed it onto a tree, and off he flew, with a very gentle form of flight.
Not light the 100's of other bats we had inside the house one time. It was an interesting thing. We always had a few under the chimmeney capping. But when I re roofed after the roof had been open during the winter, we had a major bat attack around the house. The youngsters, when they were young, would scream out "bat attack, bat attack, bat attack " at 2.30 in the morning.
That night I caught about 10 with a tea towel, and put them out. It was amazing to see the adult female bat with their young about the size of a fingernail. I contacted an expert to find out the friendly method of removal. She was a professor in her 70's known as "Batlady"
She was very envious of us having bats, as she had removed bricks from her house to encourage them. We watched one evening as the bats flew out from the roost under the chimmeney capping. I gave up counting when I hit 167.
She advised that they would be gone after the breeding season at the end of April. And she was right. They were a smaller bat than we had caught this morning
Not light the 100's of other bats we had inside the house one time. It was an interesting thing. We always had a few under the chimmeney capping. But when I re roofed after the roof had been open during the winter, we had a major bat attack around the house. The youngsters, when they were young, would scream out "bat attack, bat attack, bat attack " at 2.30 in the morning.
That night I caught about 10 with a tea towel, and put them out. It was amazing to see the adult female bat with their young about the size of a fingernail. I contacted an expert to find out the friendly method of removal. She was a professor in her 70's known as "Batlady"
She was very envious of us having bats, as she had removed bricks from her house to encourage them. We watched one evening as the bats flew out from the roost under the chimmeney capping. I gave up counting when I hit 167.
She advised that they would be gone after the breeding season at the end of April. And she was right. They were a smaller bat than we had caught this morning
Re: Nature photos
Love watching bats fly around the house. I've a couple of the here but have not yet figured out where they are roosting. Must find out.
Re: Nature photos
You might not like the smell of then if they are in the house. Unfortunately the urine smells pretty badly if you have a lot of them.
I've no idea how many we've got in our two large wooden sheds but you can smell that they have been there and often hear them in the roof. They get in just along the ridge where there is a gap where the square edged roof sections meet at an angle.
Its annoying but we like to have the bats so put up with it.
Bats need about the same size hole as a mouse. If you can get a pencil in a gap and turn move it side to side then thats plenty of room.
Re: Nature photos
Batwoman told us to caulk up gaps anywhere we think they were getting in. We did and never ever had any more issues.
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Re: Nature photos
Beautiful. Love foxes, several here around. I find they get used to me walking the dog (on a lead in fields of stock) and would not race away wildly.