For the sake of trying, I animated my Logo to see if I could add a little movement on my page. So far it looks ok but I might get sick of seeing it haha. What do you think? Don't forget, you can actually comment directly on my blogs now at the bottom of each post so feel free to leave any feedback.
Well.. Today marks the day of my first practical Driving test and I'm happy to say that I passed! This was well overdue but hopefully things will be much easier for me from now on and who knows what extra opportunities I'll get from being able to drive? It will certainly look better on a Job application so fingers crossed for feature Job opportunities.
Last nights photography trip went really well! (I think) I guess the photographs from the kids will be testament to that ;) I did take a look at a few of the pictures and I was impressed! I gave them the task to photograph something alive! Now, if they were clever, which some were...(too clever) they would have found ways of being able to do that really easy. For instance, they could have taken a picture of a leaf! or a tree! which in my opinion IS alive. However, some of the kids thought they were too clever and started taking selfies of themselves OR taking pictures of people walking their dogs! So I quickly reassured them that people or dogs don't count. That said, someone did get a picture of a worm and hopefully some of you were listening to me when I started to point out a few little creatures ? Well, some did listen and they did get pictures so i'm really looking forward to seeing them.
Below is an arty iPhone picture of the group walking on their annual conker walk.
Scouts Photography Trip
Thanks to my new website, I'm able to create a functioning booking page where you can add requests for specific dates in the year for various types of events ranging from photography talks to wildlife tours in the countryside. I've also added a music option of which you can book my functions band 'Morning Wood' for various events like Weddings or Pub / Club gigs.
I'll be keeping my bookings calendar up to date so that you can see for yourself any available dates so that booking is as easy as sending a request and waiting for confirmation.
Prices will vary depending on the event so I'll give prices upon request and also work around your budget.
I've been meaning to check this location out for a while and who better to do it with than Mike Kilner (Local Spider Expert) and volunteer ranger for Cefn IlA. Species to watch out for on the trip were the very illusive Wasp Spider of which only 1 has been sighted this year by none other than Mike himself.
First impressions of the reserve were brilliant! Their were plenty of Roesel's Bush Crickets amongst Long-winged Coneheads and Dark Bush Crickets so it instantly had my approval but the cackling of a Green Woodpecker and a distant Kestrel were all very inviting. The sheer variety of Tree's there is pretty incredible and with that, I intend on visited again throughout the winter.
Once upon the right habitat, it didn't actually take us long to find a Wasp Spider! I spotted the first one and in discussed at it being so easy, Mike found a second shortly after. I also got to hold my first ever Slow Worm! I've been meaning to photograph them for a while now so this was a real treat.
Early morning at Llandegfedd and it truly felt like spring again! Dawn Chorus was beautiful, albeit filled with mainly Robin's and Wrens but a surprised Chiffchaff also sang for a while which really made me feel good!
Once the morning dew burnt off and my feet dried out, the Crickets weren't far behind on the chorus. Though, I didn't have it all that easy today as the water pump was on all day which made it really hard to get the 20000hz Roesel's Bush Cricket quite the way I wanted to.
Lots of pictures today but also a small treat for you in the form a recordings!
If you can hear them of course.. because I learned something new today, and that is, the Roesel's Bush Cricket produces frequencies well into the 20000hz range which most people cannot even hear. SO! For you, I've slowed some of the recordings down for you which brought even more coolness out of the recordings as you can actually hear the individual scrapes of the hind legs of the cricket.- Especially on the Long-winged Conehead. Enjoy
Todays outing was all about getting recordings of the iconic Roesel's Bush Cricket. Something I've been meaning to do for a while. I was slightly unlucky that the pumping station was on at Llandegfedd meaning my typical hotspot was painted with the washing sound of water in the background which made it extremely hard to get a clear recording of the crickets 20000 hz song. The Roesel's Bush Cricket is very hard to hear and not many people can actually hear them, even when I've put the headphones on them in the field they still can't hear the high electric sound. It is this reason that I've slowed the pitch down on these recordings. I particularly love the Long-winged Conehead pitched down as you can hear the individual scrapes of the hind legs rubbing each other in various different patterns. It goes to show just how complex these songs actually are and also how very different the hearing of a Cricket/Grasshopper, actually is. I hope you enjoy these recordings.
Todays heather monitoring went really well! Only had little showers but for the most part it remained really warm and sunny. Only a few grasshoppers on the uplands now though and plenty of movement with the Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and Swallows so 'term has ended' for this years summer birds. On that note though, a typically 'winter bird' was flushed on our travels and we were shocked to find out it was a Short-eared Owl! This was a first for me so at that point my excitement levels hit the roof. The bird remained on topic for the rest of our trip but we had work todo so couldn't get too distracted. We covered a very large distance today but I won't give away location incase this particular owl was on breeding territory. It's not impossible though that it was just an early winter visitor.
This week I've been in conversation with Rycote - if you haven't heard of them, next time you watch the tennis on TV, check out the labeles on all of the microphones setup around the court. Those big fluffy 'dead cats' are products that Rycote specialise in. I started buying Rycote windshields and also microphone handles a couple years ago and also purchase my first 'blimp' modular system that completely surrounded my shotgun microphone and they worked so well! The wind noise was drastically improved. So much so, that I had a big shock when trying out my new Microphone from a company called Telinga. You may have heard already but I've recently made the jump to a Parabolic Dish setup instead of a shotgun Microphone. The dish enables me to record at much greater distances and with natural amplification rather than digital gain. This will get me better recordings theoritcally in conjunction with a higher quality mic. The problem is though, a dish also gathers a lot of wind which of course isn't good for the microphone.
In light of this, I contacted Rycote to see if they had a product that could improve the wind reduction with this setup. They didn't actually have anything manufactured other than what I had already purchased (small fleece) but instead of leaving me completely helpless they were kind enough to send me a large off cut piece of fur!!
They even sent it special delivery for free! I was very impressed and I've already put the fur to good use. I'm certainly not brilliant at sewing but check this out :)
(Folded twice over)
Cut 3 inches around dish size
Stitched the fur to my existing fleece
Folded and stitched the edges for a nice seamless edging
Finished!
I'm really looking forward to trying it out in the field so see how much the fur reduces the wind noise. I'm sure it will make a difference and I'm hoping that it is enough to get me through a winters birding on the mountain tops.
Massive thanks again Rycote and Telinga for their great customer service.
I even have enough fur to make one for my smaller compact dish which I'll also use for grasshopper and crickets in the summer.
many thanks
None of the Birds on my list showed today but luckily a short trip to Llandegfedd saved the day in the form of a Roesel's Bush Cricket. 2 in-fact!. You know you're getting good at your crickets when you can recognise a cricket by its sound and that's exactly what happened today. The sound of a Roesel's is so iconic, it's described as a 'Savy's Warbler' rather than a Grasshopper warbler because it sounds like electrical wires rather than a fast trill. I'm returning this weekend to Llandegfedd as the weather is meant to be nice and I'll get some recordings for you but for now, here is a quick snapshot of the cricket in subject on todays walk.
Can't believe it! I wasn't expecting to win again this year, especially after seeing some of the other photograph entries on the wall as I went in. Some fantastic photographs this year. I particularly admired the Grassnake photograph! I'm still yet to see one on my patch.
GWT Photography Competition winner 2015
In other news, the AGM meeting was great this year. I actually took some notes from the presentation as there were some really useful Stats about trees. All useful knowledge that I'll certainly use in the future!
Next years competition will certainly be tougher again I'm sure but that's a year away so I won't worry about that yet haha.
