SP5595ish - First Foray

Today dawned bright and early. For some I'm sure at least; for me there was no intention of getting up at the crack of dawn as an evening on large whiskies and the constraint of a bi-daily visit from the District Nurse meant I was going nowhere early anyway. By the time I looked out into the garden, it was evident that the clear cold skies that prevailed into the night at the end of 2020 had been replaced by dank grey clag. I whiled away some time watching the garden feeders, and after the nurse had been I got ready to head out for a walk down the lane. I was not intending too go all out crawling through the undergrowth - I can't anyway as I'm still a physically restricted with regards to bending over (getting my boots on and laced up without help was a milestone!). I had my bins, P900, phone and dictaphone.

It remained steadfastly grey, in fact the conditions only worsened whilst I was out for a couple of hours. Before hitting the lane, I'd already picked up a fair number of plants heading out of the estate including some obvious escapes: Mahonia, Lesser Periwinkle, Sowbread, Buddleija, Spotted Medick and these ....

Purple Toadflax

Spotted Dead-nettle

Italian Lords-and-Ladies

In total I managed to record a modest 46 vascular plants. This includes trees, plants identifiable from their leaves or fruit and a handful of flowering plants. I clearly saw a lot more than 46 species; there are plenty to come as they develop and I can spend more time focussing on them.

I completely ignored any invertebrate life. Between the garden and walking about I saw 25 bird species and 1 mammal (the resident garden Squirrels). There were no avian surprises, and the light was shocking but that didn't stop me pointing the camera at a few to garner some rubbish photos.

Common Buzzard

Fieldfare - at least 60 feeding across a couple of fields

Redwing - only around 10 of these with Fieldfare

Common Gull - with camera pointing through a hedge giving the weird vignetting effect

With 4 fungi, 2 lichens and a moss noted, I've ended up on 79sp. - not bad for a couple of hours in dull and uninspiring conditions. By the time I was heading back up the lane to home a steady drizzle had set in.

'False'

The garden moth trap remains poor. When we have cloudy days, it's been clearing to cold nights, and when we have warm sunny days, it stays clear and cools quickly at night. Just like every spring, but we always forget that there is a really quite crap period between late March/early April and late to mid May. I've not bothered tonight as it's cold and windy, and anyway I've got be up and out early for a routine MRI scan.

The moth trap did yield a full on tick for me on Sunday night though .. but this is absolutely down to me not taking enough notice of them and/or bothering to write them down. So this one has probably appeared in the trap many times before but evaded being recorded.

Limnephilus auricula

I also managed another full on tick in the garden on Saturday, one that I have been expecting to see some time but not in the garden.

Steatoda nobilis - Noble False Widow Spider

So it's 'noble' and false. Sounds like the vast majority of the House of Lords.

Seeing as I saw a new spider, I thought I may as well share a couple of other from the garden ..

A seven-legged Nursery Web Spider

Garden Spider - this one is actually from 23/04, lots growing in the garden now

This afternoon I had a bit of a play with the P950 on a quick walk. The step-down ring I ordered turned up and I had a go whilst out, but with the big difference in camera lens diameter versus Raynox lens there is more vignetting than on the P600, and when I've zoomed through that the magnification is huge. So it's a case of finding a balance and working out whether the DCR-150 or DCR-250 lens works best. I managed a few shots though ... like these ...

It looks like even with a fair bit of cropping I should be able to get more than useable images. It's just going to take time and practice as it always does with a new camera.

Whilst out I pointed it at a few vertebrates.

Great Tit

Yellowhammer - some way off down the road

Common Buzzard

Brown Hare

This last one is not the best shot I've ever taken, but it's the best (only?) shot I've ever taken of a Hare and the first one I remember seeing around here. This was at full zoom and a quick point and shoot as I rounded a bend and saw it. It very quickly lolloped off.

Very Common Buzzard

A quick trip to the local farm shop this afternoon was enlivened by four Common Buzzards circling the same thermal, along with a Sparrowhawk. Almost unbelievable as to how genuinely common these two species are now compared to only a decade or two ago.