Birds' nest and Broadband
Question: do birds return to previous nests, or do they build new ones every year?
I had a problem with my broadband a couple of weeks ago. Owing to a previous repair there's a break in the line into my house, which is joined in a junction box at roof level. On this occasion the joined cable had fallen out of the box, and a tree at the side of my house had snagged it and broken the join. BT fixed it and fitted a new waterproof junction box which should be rather more secure. By fortuitous coincidence a Sky engineer turned up at roughly the same time and asked permission to cut the tree branches back because it was blocking the neighbour's dish, so I lent him a saw and between us we trimmed it back to a sensible level.
And among the fallen branches I discovered an abandoned nest.
Here it is for size:
It's amazingly soft and snug inside, and I love the idea that the birds could reuse it. So I might find a suitable spot to put it back in the remains of the tree, and maybe shelter it from the rain with an old drum head like I have with my bird feeders.
And while I'm photospamming, here's a swan and some gulls.
Taken over the bank holiday weekend. I was playing around with the camera settings, hoping to start learning more about photography than simply point-and-click on auto. As luck would have it this happened while I was doing so, with the result that the shutterspeed was right for the action but the aperture setting was exactly wrong and the resultant pic came out way too dark. I've had to bring up the brightness and contrast to get it to a presentable state, but for the moment I'm still quite happy I got it at all.
And these gulls were taken at Chorlton Water Park while visiting Manchester last November. The settings here were about right; this time the light actually was that gloomy. But I think the pic is a beautifully captured moment.
I had a problem with my broadband a couple of weeks ago. Owing to a previous repair there's a break in the line into my house, which is joined in a junction box at roof level. On this occasion the joined cable had fallen out of the box, and a tree at the side of my house had snagged it and broken the join. BT fixed it and fitted a new waterproof junction box which should be rather more secure. By fortuitous coincidence a Sky engineer turned up at roughly the same time and asked permission to cut the tree branches back because it was blocking the neighbour's dish, so I lent him a saw and between us we trimmed it back to a sensible level.
And among the fallen branches I discovered an abandoned nest.
Here it is for size:
It's amazingly soft and snug inside, and I love the idea that the birds could reuse it. So I might find a suitable spot to put it back in the remains of the tree, and maybe shelter it from the rain with an old drum head like I have with my bird feeders.
And while I'm photospamming, here's a swan and some gulls.
Taken over the bank holiday weekend. I was playing around with the camera settings, hoping to start learning more about photography than simply point-and-click on auto. As luck would have it this happened while I was doing so, with the result that the shutterspeed was right for the action but the aperture setting was exactly wrong and the resultant pic came out way too dark. I've had to bring up the brightness and contrast to get it to a presentable state, but for the moment I'm still quite happy I got it at all.
And these gulls were taken at Chorlton Water Park while visiting Manchester last November. The settings here were about right; this time the light actually was that gloomy. But I think the pic is a beautifully captured moment.