Happy New Year to one and all.

The start of a new year means the start of a new photo thread. This is the 11th photo thread, which is rather remarkable and a testament to its continued popularity. Thanks to everyone who contributed pics last year, and thanks too to the many who participated by liking or commenting on images.

Here's a pic I took from our balcony a few days ago. The house opposite is being renovated and the builders put together some lights on the side of the house. It says "Prettige Feestdagen" in Dutch, which translates as "Happy holidays", or at this time of the year, "Merry Christmas". 

Here's to lots of great photos in 2023!

 

More shots from the book

One extreme to another this morning , a nice steady atmosphere let me capture a lovely busy Sun in nice detail and then a tiny jumping spider popped into range as I was processing the solar stuff. (Sun false coloured)

He wouldn't sit still for me though and eventually took to hiding in a crack in the shiplap , the tile is 6"x6" and he was tucked away in the crack in the little yellow box above it ... 

And finally for those that think planets are only available at night a snatched shot of the Moon and Jupiter in the morning light , handheld with the 90D and Sigma 150-600.

 

 

 

 

A few easily identifiable critters before bedtime and a couple of birds I need help with please.

The Harlequin Ladybird larva is a vritable armoured machine close-up ...

The baby Long-tailed Tits were having a proper knees up , about thirty of them but only one sat and posed ... all under the watchful eye of the young Crow who was swiftly shooed away before his ideas of an easy supper came to be.

 

 

 

 

 

And these last two I need help with , both look "warbler" to me with the first maybe a female Yellow-browed Warbler ... ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first of your two unidentified is a chaffinch - possibly a juvenile bird not in full plumage. Can't quite make out the second, but likely a common species such as a chiff-chaff, sedge or reed warbler.

6 hours ago, Amsterdam Russ said:

The first of your two unidentified is a chaffinch - possibly a juvenile bird not in full plumage. Can't quite make out the second, but likely a common species such as a chiff-chaff, sedge or reed warbler.

Thanks Russ ,

They're hard enough sometimes when they're adults , but juvenile females all look surprisingly similar ... 

Been meaning to test the video side of the EOS 90D for a while and this was a great opportunity.

Shot in FHD only as I need to get a faster SD card for the 4K recording , got another opportunity next week so I'll try again then.

Summer Solstice ISS Solar Transit 21st June 2023.

Canon EOS 90D + Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary @ 600mm + Baader ND 5.0 Film.

Slowed it down to 0.25x ... and made a looped .gif in PIPP.

https://astrob.in/jb70ed/0/

 

And all the transit frames combined.

 

Edited June 21, 20231 yr by Woodbutcher

Another new arrival here today , a cloud , for want of a better word , of Small Scissor Bees decided to take up residence in the old Oak doorframe to my back porch.

Delightful little folk they are too , disappearing into all the old nail and pin holes in the weathered frame ... not the easiest things to photograph as you can probably gather from the millimetre scale in one of the photos ... !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And at the top of the garden the young Goldcrests were out in force again as I was solar imaging , so managed to catch some frames of them as well , along with one frame of my favourite jumping spider who came out of hiding too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 20/06/2023 at 23:45, Amsterdam Russ said:

The first of your two unidentified is a chaffinch - possibly a juvenile bird not in full plumage. Can't quite make out the second, but likely a common species such as a chiff-chaff, sedge or reed warbler.

After more observation and research it's actually a juvenile Goldcrest , today's photo was taken when a whole 'pack' of them were having a feast on the flies in the conifers ... 

2 hours ago, Woodbutcher said:

After more observation and research it's actually a juvenile Goldcrest , today's photo was taken when a whole 'pack' of them were having a feast on the flies in the conifers ... 

I disagree. The shoulder markings identify it as a chaffinch. And it's overall size and particularly its shape are not that of a gold crest. But, up to you - much like the wasp in an earlier pic - what you think it is, is what it is. No worries.

6 hours ago, Amsterdam Russ said:

I disagree. The shoulder markings identify it as a chaffinch. And it's overall size and particularly its shape are not that of a gold crest. But, up to you - much like the wasp in an earlier pic - what you think it is, is what it is. No worries.

It's the beak that is all wrong to be a chaffinch  ,which has a much stronger triangular beak as finches do , the Goldcrest has a finer pointier beak for picking insects ,  the chaffinch's shoulder markings are very similar but the upper bar is usually more pronounced ... 

And the Hornet is most definitely a hornet not a wasp , when I come across a dead one I'll do you a side by side comparison photo , they are less forgiving than the Scissor Bees so I don't fancy pushing the camera to within 80mm as I did yesterday ... 

Edited June 23, 20231 yr by Woodbutcher

A few from Windermere and sun going down over Morecombe Bay on Wednesday.  Anyone identify the duck, I should know, but don't. (Edit - just found out its a mallard cross, mongrel, hybrid)

Edited June 23, 20231 yr by Soulandy

5 hours ago, Woodbutcher said:

It's the beak that is all wrong to be a chaffinch  ,which has a much stronger triangular beak as finches do , the Goldcrest has a finer pointier beak for picking insects ,  the chaffinch's shoulder markings are very similar but the upper bar is usually more pronounced ... 

And the Hornet is most definitely a hornet not a wasp , when I come across a dead one I'll do you a side by side comparison photo , they are less forgiving than the Scissor Bees so I don't fancy pushing the camera to within 80mm as I did yesterday ... 

I'm still not convinced. 

3 hours ago, Amsterdam Russ said:

I'm still not convinced. 

The more I look the more confusing they all look at that age , all I know is the parents were shepherding them about in one tree while the Blue Tits tackled another , a bit of a miniature West Side Story thing going on ... 

Whoops ... how did that happen ... 

Thank you to Simon at The Widescreen Centre ... 

7 hours ago, Amsterdam Russ said:

I'm still not convinced. 

Dare I suggest Willow warbler?

 

17 minutes ago, Kegsy said:

Dare I suggest Willow warbler?

 

For the last one in the first post you may indeed ...

I keep getting asked what its song was like for ID purposes ... sadly nobody that asked the question was bright enough to notice it had a proper mouthful of flies at the time and wasn't doing much warbling of any description .... 

Edited June 23, 20231 yr by Woodbutcher

A very colourful macro week so far ... 

A hungry no-more spider.

Ladybird on the way.

 

Scissor Bees in the Poppies .

 

 

 

A voracious little spider-hunting wasp who's taken up residence in the top of an old calor-gas lamp in the summerhouse , as I sit doing my solar imaging she's in and out every ten minutes or so with paralysed spiders for her broods larder , I've grown quite fond of her ... 

 

The "original" Velcro.

An unidentified insect pupa hanging underneath a Hazel leaf.

And as I wandering about the other evening I shot this single frame with the same Laowa 100mm F2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO lens that I used on the shots above , a remarkably sharp piece of glass from 80mm to 384,000km ... 

Finally got to play with the Altair Hypercam 174 Mono camera on the Sun this morning , seems to perform very nicely with the new Evostar 150 'scope ... 

Close-ups.

 

Full disc as normal with the EOS 550D.

Just a few of photos from a recent trip to Venice and the Betty Guggenheim museum. Dali, Picasso, Pollock amongst some amazing artwork

Here's a close-up of this week's star attraction as far as solar imaging is concerned ... you can fit about half a dozen Earths in this one sunspot , each of the small convection cells is about the size of France ... 

 

 

 

I went to the NS Weekender in Llandudno and turned it into a weeks holiday. Did a fair bit of walking. Just a few mobile phone photos, but I think they show the beauty of the area quite well.

 

Now there's something you don't see every day ... 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I guess I was wrong yesterday ... at least as far as seeing three Spitfires passing by together ... 

Another selection of distant visitors this afternoon , including the beautiful Q-YP , the last flying Blenheim ... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the above photo is our beach home, this one is the view

and this behind me is the highest place on the planet, chimborazo

 

Chimborazo's summit is the farthest point on the Earth's surface from the Earth's center, given that it is located along the planet's equatorial bulge.[5]This is despite not being the tallest mountain in the Andes or on Earth. Based on the average global sea level, the height of Chimborazo is 6,263 m (20,548 ft), well below the height of Mount Everest(8849 metres). Nevertheless, Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador and the 39th highest peak in the Andes.[6]
 

to clarify from wiki

 

On 29/07/2023 at 18:30, Woodbutcher said:

Now there's something you don't see every day ... 

 

 

 

 

 

Great pics, you can see how much the Mustang had surpassed the early machines from the last 3ts; was the 109 an original, or a Spanish one?

I was at the Glastonbury Extravaganza yesterday, great show, Lightening Seeds, and Texas... plus a seriously good firework show... bit damper than last year’s festival, but once the sun came out it kicked into life!

Never been a fan of Lightening Seeds or Texas, I could not tell you a single one of their  songs to be honest, but they were both great acts, obviosuly remembered the hits when I heard them. Sharleen Spiteri certinally has got it, great presence on stage...

1 hour ago, Mal C said:

Great pics, you can see how much the Mustang had surpassed the early machines from the last 3ts; was the 109 an original, or a Spanish one?

The Spanish Buchon.

Just had a long weekend at Bala, Wales and was treated to a low flyover from a Airbus Atlas on Friday, bound to Anglesey. There was a few jets flying around but either too high or too fast for a phone photo. Impressive 

4 hours ago, Soulandy said:

Just had a long weekend at Bala, Wales and was treated to a low flyover from a Airbus Atlas on Friday, bound to Anglesey. There was a few jets flying around but either too high or too fast for a phone photo. Impressive 

 

Atlas A400 out of RAF Brize Norton,the jets were most likely BAE HAWK T1’s(trainers) based at RAF Valley, the local Anglesey station...

5 minutes ago, Mgm 1251 said:

Atlas A400 out of RAF Brize Norton,the jets were most likely BAE HAWK T1’s(trainers) based at RAF Valley, the local Anglesey station...

Yeh, tracked the Atlas on the flightradar app. See/hear quite a few Hawks etc  when out and about in that area near the mach loop 👍👍

A couple of visitors tonight 

 

Edited August 10, 20231 yr by Soulandy

View coming out of the runway tunnel (under manchester airport) along the River Bollin today

Dali immersive experience. Think this lad definitely did acid😎

On 10/08/2023 at 16:30, Soulandy said:

A couple of visitors tonight 

 

I will see your spider, and raise you this bugger! was talking to the wife when this came out from under her chair, quite funny really, well, I thought it was

Obviously not a great photo but might bring a smile, ready for the Tour of Britain passing my house in Shuttleworth with a Lancashire welcome for Tom Pidcock. Before some pedant points out according to government boundary changes I'm technically in GT Manchester, never accepted that and never will, Lancashire born and bred and always will be. 

A week looking round Argyll in Scotland with pretty decent weather. A couple of good reflections on Loch Eck

Rainbow on Loch Fyne

 

16 hours ago, Soulandy said:

A couple of good reflections on Loch Eck

Rainbow on Loch Fyne

3rd photo, beam me up Scotty...some lovely shots there

Boeing 737, landing gear lowered, flying into Santorini airport. It took me nearly 5 hours lying on the beach to get a shot of a plane fully in frame 🙃. 

Sunset at Oia, 19/09/2023. 

More new arrivals

Sunrise at Kamari, 22/09/2023. This was already quite a beautiful sight, but when that boat drifted by it took it to a whole new level.

Edited September 24, 20231 yr by Soul16
Wording added

 

Hello not posted on here for ages on Freebaaing, hope all are well?   Here are some of my favourite photos I have taken in early 2023.  All taken where I live apart from South Shields Fairground 

Suz x

Here are a few more photos from 2023

Suz x 

This popped up on the wife’s Facebook feed taken by a local photography group. A stag in the Peak National Park on the edge of Chesterfield with the crooked spire down in the distance.

 

Here are my last lot of photos.  For me because I work in sich a pressured emotive job taking photos is therapeutic 

Suz x

Boulder Beach penguin colony, Western Cape and a sign not often seen in the UK

Views from Table Mountain, in and out of the clouds