Way, way better than Heron-cam

I occasionally get brief glimpses in nearby fields but it has been a while since one of these beautiful creatures was seen in the garden.

This is WAAAY better than Heron-cam 🥰 😃





There are many other pictures over a ten minute period but in nearly all of them this wonderful animal is behind the Gunnera and not clearly visible.

No more Heron-cam

There will be no more Heron-cam.

A crisp, sharp photo of a beautiful male newt in breeding 'plumage' disappearing into the jaws of the large male heron is not something I want to see each day. I have just reviewed the photos from yesterday and witnessed the death and consumption of at least three different newts. I realise that moving the camera to a less graphic part of the garden is burying my head in the metaphorical sand and possibly akin to turning off the telly because of an unpleasant news report, or crossing the road if you see a person up ahead who is in need of help, but there you go . . . I know my limits and they have been reached.

So instead, here's some much prettier pictures from yesterday. This is only a tiny slice of the garden, the bits I am not showing are a mess; a big, weed covered, falling-to-bits-in-places mess. Defintely not Instagram-worthy 😆

Chalk and Cheese

Sorry it has been a bit quiet here: ghastly, ghastly never-ending rain, strep throat, technology issues.

The first two I can do nothing about, but the third has been fixed. After my last mutterings about a heron visiting the garden I caved to the inevitable and put out the wildlife camera. I stopped doing this years ago because in a 24 hour period it could capture so many images that the time taken to quickly review them all could be substantial and it became quite a chore.

However, binoculars had identified two different heron - a smaller one with black feathers on (her?) lesser coverts and a larger creature with virtually no black on this area. As I currently have no desire to stand at a window for hours with a large camera it made sense to use the Bushnell to get a better view. Trouble is, that was not happening and it took me a while to learn/realise/find out that a 10-year old camera which has seen a lot of hard service had finally failed. The last straw was standing at a window watching a heron stomping around the pond, going to the camera immediately to check the memory card and finding not a single image had been taken of the visitation I had just watched.

Bit the bullet and bought a replacement camera for significantly less than the price I paid for one a decade ago. It has just had its first sleepover:








Many years ago I had to learn not to be upset that a sparrowhawk was hunting in the garden and taking small songbirds. I came to see it as an indication of the health & biodiversity of Bag End, a measure of success in creating a garden that was of benefit to local wildlife. I've not yet fully made that mental adjustment in respect of Ardea cinerea but as I cannot stop these beautiful creatures visiting the garden I might as well try to embrace them.

Chalk and cheese - there is no comparison between the new and old cameras, wish I had done this sooner.







For Marlene - this is the camera I bought at the weekend: Wildlife camera

Somewhat unexpected

It was inevitable - I dug out one of the Bushnell wildlife cameras and set it up at the edge of the Big Pond. This is what it was meant to capture:



However, THIS is what I got:






The date and time are correct, in American format, so 'someone' had a very nice breakfast at four o'clock this morning.

I have not worked out why there are no pictures of regular visits yesterday afternoon. I need a Plan B.

I am not sure how I feel about this . . .

For reasons which do not matter, this morning I did a search across my entire hard drive using the term "POST". I have a Mac computer which is running Ventura (I know that Sonoma is available . . . just not got there yet). I did not find the document I was looking for. However, my search results included:

A photograph taken nearly 20 years ago on the stunning island of Iona -



A fabulous memory from last year in Scotland which has already been published on this blog -



And an almost forgotten little bit of pure Americana, photographed at the Botanic Gardens in St Louis, Missouri, many many years ago -




None of the photographs have any tags or keywords. None have anything in their file name which relates to a postbox. This is just a sample, there were many others.

My operating system has not just searched for file names but clearly is actively scanning the file content. I am really not sure whether this is a good thing or not, and if it is happening on my little desktop machine, what the hell is happening on state-of-the-art systems running all sorts of incredibly clever recognitition software?

It is also extremely likely that I am the very last person in blogland to realise this happens . . .