There's no argument here---Fall is upon us. With the seasons' change, comes more inclimate weather...and that means less garden work is being done. I am biding my time and waiting for a dry spell to get back to work. Since the weather has gone a bit sour, we have been doing a variety of things, and I shall include a foto or two to illustrate our activities. To begin with, the Sprouts--we have harvested our first meal. I do love sprouts. We had a coupon to stay at a hotel in another part of the country, so we looked-up things to do on the way there and the way back. One of the things was to do some nature hikes in a couple of different Nature reserves in the northern part of Friesland. The hiking was so nice. It was dry and the wind was still. One day had sun and the other not...but as I said--there was no wind. We saw many things such as these mushrooms: ........and this one: One of the parks-- the Alde Feanen is a sort of place like the Broads in the UK. An area of much water, reeds and fens. The other place, Fochteloërveen National Park--is of a very similar landscape. Our little hotel was right on the edge of this first park. A great location and so unbelievably quiet. It was so quiet that one could hear the migrating birds flying over at night in the overcast sky. It was magical to sit outside and just listen. On the way back, we stopped by an old town (Kampen) and had a bite to eat.This is just a scene taken randomly in the old centrum. Well, it wasn't all travelling and hiking...we returned home and went to the lottie. Now then, I have to tell you that i bought a small and inexpensive camera for use photographing wild animals. I had been noticing that food had been disappearing out of the protected bird feeder and because of its construction, couldn't think what could be eating all that food. I suspected mice or possible even rats.The foto's and film from the "WildCam" told the story: This foggy foto had been reduced in size, but it is a jackdaw. The beast could not get into the feeding area, but apparently its neck was long enough to reach the little bowl of seeds. Well, not to be out done--I affixed a narrow band of wire mesh around the lower portion of the openings and the problem was sorted. See this next still shot after the fog had lifted: The jackdaw has left and the little great tit has taken its place. These smaller birds can easily slip into the feeder by going around the sides or over the top...or just above the strip of mesh. However, the jackdaws cannot now reach the food meant for the smaller birds. I am already enjoying the camera and have all manner of plans for it. I shall take some night films where I suspect night creatures to be active as well as other locations in the lottie. I can recommend this WildCam for anyone who want to keep an eye on things in the garden. If you use it at home, you can actually wire the thing to show live pics which can be viewed on your laptop or desk pc. It is bags of fun. It can also show me what the mice (birds) do when the cat is away.
Love your photos of your trip--I get so nostalgic for "old" things, since most everything here in Texas is relatively new. There is always a trade-off, I guess. My husband has been toying with the idea of getting a wildcam for the back flower garden. We find scat, and sometimes the bird watering station is upset, so we know we have a larger nocturnal visitor. I'll show him your post, and that may help him make up his mind. Whatever he decides is fine with me--he lets me plant and play in the kitchen, so he ought to have some fun, too!
Cheers ISLAND. Great idea JANE---I do not think that he would be sorry if he got one. One could also use if for a sort of home security camera also, I suppose...but for me I find the filming of wildlife really exciting and interesting..
I just love B sprouts! My mouth went instantly to watering with that first photo. I also like the bird feeder. I've been wanting to build something for the smaller birds, and this might be what I was thinking on. Thanks, Sjoerd!
I always enjoy your posts Sjoerd and this one especially for several reasons. SPROUTS! I also love them and yours look just right. You seem to have good knowledge of England, have you visited many times? Finally the 'Trail Cam'. I too have one, mostly to record the foxes and badgers but this little video clip surprised me after dark just recently.
Hiya Raddang, That is a nice vid, mate. You have quite a bit of experience with trail-filming, I suspect. I have just begun. In the vid above, did you have your outside lights on? What were those two eating in the grass? The cat is nice and comfortable-looking...but the vixen is also a lovely specimen. I see over to the left some cement tiles. do you put container plants on those, or are they meant to be stepping stones? I am glad that you enjoy some of my posts. I have visited England as well as Wales and Scotland a time or two...but one summer the bride and I went over there for six weeks! It was memorable for several reasons. Of course we did the rounds of gardens and garden centres, but we also visited historical places. The thing that I enjoyed the very most was visiting the old, small chapels with all the very interesting things that there was to see on the walls inside them. I wanted to visit the (then new Viking museum in York), but it wasn't open yet...they were doing the last bit of touching-up. That was a pity. We have a number of acquaintances and a couple of friends. We enjoy corresponding with them GS and the British culture in general. We watch BBC telly channels frequently, especially the crimi's, the xxx-watches, and gardening shows primarily. I like the Strictly series.
@Sjoerd I only have a cheap camera Sjoerd to try out wildlife photography at night. At the moment my camera is about 6 meters from the subject and the IR illumination is poor at that distance. I do move tha camera around but as batteries do not last long I have set it up temporarily with a transformer as the piacture. The sentry light is always there and I get the best results if the sentry comes on first to give colour video. If the IR comes on first I only get poor B & W images. The 'steps' go up a very steep old railway embankment. I used to have my bird feeding station at the top but with the problems that I have mentioned to you, I now have it at the bottom so that I can refill from the patio. We have been putting out scraps or dog food for the foxes for over 30 years and we do get the occasional one that becomes quite bold and almost tame. We like all wildlife....
Well, I have to say Rad--that looks like a professional set-up. Your vid was a good one. If I get night shots, they will be infra-red ones. BTW--I have a super simple trail cam. I bought it from Aldi (that ought to give you an idea). I have to say that it works a treat up until now. I just stuck a 32Gb card into it today. I will check it again tomorrow.
