Still no images from the trail camera, after a week at what I thought would be an interesting spot. What I actually captured was a still and a video of a cat following my trail around the meadow, a still of a blackbird, and numerous images of my legs as I went to check the camera. Ho hum. It has been moved and now to see what crops up at a different site - annoyingly, after I'd moved the camera, I found evidence of something having been in the area, which I think is jolly unfair.
So back to more classic ways of capturing images - and during the week we caught first sight of the new moon over the roof of the house. It was a classic clear, cold evening and a tiny slip of moon like a toe nail clipping!
Of course if it is like that in the evening, you wake up to a winter wonderland of ice the following day, but frost crystals on leaves do make for interesting images.
Cold mornings also mean that the small birds are keen on the fat balls I put out for them. As well as remarkably critical tits of various sorts, there is a flock of sparrows that haunts the feeder. At one stage I reckon there were a dozen on or by it, until Zola the cat trotted around the corner from annoying the chickens and they scattered. That was also the time when I was trying to get a photo of them on and around the feeder, so typically I have a number of photos of nothing much. But greed got the better of them and before I had put the phone away, a couple were back. Not the best photo, but you get the idea.
We were in the One Acre Wood this morning, so I spent some time planning where the trail camera might go, looking at where the leaves have been disturbed or where there are clear trails that aren't us. I have some ideas! I was also able to spot the other beech trees in the parcels next to ours, as at the moment, their leaves are mightily conspicuous.
Checking out the Meadow, after it has had its annual mow, and looking for evidence of wildlife as a target for the trail camera, I took some time to notice the new growth coming up. It strikes me it would be interesting to do a quadrant test to see how many species there are in half a square meter, as looking at the photo below I can make out two types of orchid, clovers, plantains, moss, grass and others that I am not familiar with. And therein lies the problem - I am not enough of a botanist to distinguish between clover types, or different trefoils, or different plantains. Perhaps I need to buy a student for a week! Anyway - here is a photo - how many can you spot?
I can see at least 9 different things in there.
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