It was enough to almost make me want to cry!
Sitting in the Lounge, I heard a quiet bang from the bedroom, on investigation it seems that one of our (many) Cats managed to open a door to the built-in Wardrobes.
Yes, you guessed it, one of the Cats (who still remains unidentified) knocked the 500mm f/4 over.
The Milky Way is visible to the naked eye from our garden right now, so I thought I’d point the camera up and see what it would pick up.
Ok, not exactly award winning Astro-Photography but it goes to show how little light pollution there is here in the hills of the Algarve. I look forward to getting out in the coming days and weeks looking for some good locations for shots.
If you look close, you’ll even spot a shooting star! Due to the high resolution of the stars, it’s much better to look at the photo on my Flickr Page
{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}
I was up with the sun this morning at just after 6am (yes is gets light quite late here in Portugal in the summer) and went for a look at how the Bee Eater nests are doing.
When I arrived, I was lucky, there were no Bee Eaters present (above ground anyway), so I hid myself away under a tree (and camo netting) and waited.
Soon enough I was surrounded by Bee Eaters sitting on a nearby electric cable bringing food back to the tunnel nests. They look like they’ve struck gold and found Hornets and they were busy whacking the sting against the cable to break it off.
{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}
Early this afternoon, the Bee Eaters (Abelharucos in Portuguese) were absent from around the house so I decided to take a quick look at their handy work and also quickly erect a pop-up hide.
I sat in the hide for a short while and a breeding pair turned up. They seemed a little nervous around the area, possibly with the hide there, but did visit a few times.
Only once did the male (I think it’s the male) go to the hole that they have started but then the pair flew away. It takes up to 20 days to build the nest so hopefully they will return to complete it. I have also left the hide in place for them to get used to it being there.
You can just about work out the start of the hole on the live view on the camera;
I did manage to get this shot of one sitting in a nearby tree.
Today I could hear a lot of Bee Eater activity as they have a very distinct “chirping” noise.
Our house (or Quinta) is on top of a hill and we have a tree lined driveway up the hill. I could see them sitting in the trees and then it dawned on me.
When the previous owners landscaped the land, they excavated a hole to use the good soil to build some terracing. The hole still exists.
As it was dug with a digger, it has banks very similar to river banks. Bee Eaters build burrows in River banks. Yes, it appears as though they are possibly making their own excavations right here in the garden.
This photo, from a long distance shows 2 of the Bee Eaters sitting in the tree (top right) and the fake river bank that they are paying a lot of attention to.
The “Feira do Folar” is a 3 day festival over the Easter weekend at my local town, Sao Marcos da Serra.
Last night I attended and after many (local) Gin and Fresh Oranges I walked the 20 minute trek back to the house.
The Moon was full a few days ago so was just about lighting the way through some broken clouds. Apart from this it was pitch black. I sat on a step at a local public well and listened to the fantastic chorus of Nightingales.
I took a recording on my mobile phone and thought I’d share it. Sometimes, you don’t need vision to appreciate the nature around you.
About 5 minutes after this recording, I stumbled across a family of Javali (Wild Boar) and it’s a good job the phone wasn’t recording as it gave me a bit of a shock and many expletives were said! Luckily, the Javali were also just as startled and made their way into the thick bush.