Spotter or birder?

We went to Leighton Moss yesterday and just as we got into the hide we heard the magic words "bittern to the right, flying over the field". The bittern is one of those birds which is exceedingly elusive, and each time we go to the reserve Q is desperate to find one.  I failed to see any wings of any sort, bitterns or otherwise, Q said she saw a brown blur in the appropriate place, but then rather blew her ornithological knowledge by whispering to me that she didn't realise they could actually fly. Luckily no one else in the hide heard her comment as we were in the company of EXPERTS. The two bittern spotters each had lenses the size of small sheds and as they left to see if they could follow the flight of the bittern a derisory voice was heard saying "Spotters! pah, they're not birders; you need binoculars, not a camera to watch birds properly". We didn't have our binoculars; but even if we had remembered them, they would not  have passed muster  in such erudite company. We did have our cameras, but again our paltry lenses couldn't put us in any spotters' league. Anyway we don't really spot let alone identify  many birds unless they stay still for about 5 minutes.

The robins of Leighton Moss are not at all camera shy and are willing little posers. The top left robin was flitting about near the reed beds and came and ate food out of one of the visitor's hands.




The marsh tit was a first - luckily for us there was an identification board right near the picnic table.

It's a long time since I have seen a greenfinch.

The reasons for the cages around some of the feeders became apparent!

Project in progress (part 3)

Lesson learned, don't flap around when fragile butterfly wing bits are on the microscope slide as they have a tendency to catch the breeze and float into oblivion.

This was taken from the upper surface of the butterfly wing, the blue colour isn't obvious as the light is shining through from underneath. What I found interesting were the little scale structures. Are these going to grow into larger scales, or are they subsidiary?  Interspersed among the scales are hair like structures (are they hairs or modified scales?) (Addendum: I've just found out that scales are modified hairs).

I took some pictures at higher magnification, but will need to do some serious Googling to see if I can find anything about the details of types and forms of wing scales. Initial forays into the ether have not been very successful.

Scales were removed using the sellotape method and I then looked at the wing. It would seem that the scales are laid down on a membrane.

The following two images show the same section of wing taken with top lighting (top image) and transmitted light (bottom image).

It is clear  that the scales on the upper surface of the wing are quite different is shape to those on the under surface.

Top lighting (top image) shows the blue colour of the upper wing surface. The transmitted light (lower bottom image) seems to show more detail of the scales.

Sparrow and some animation

The sparrows are really making the most of the bird feeders, but one of them doesn't quite seem to have the hang of it - or perhaps it suffers from motion sickness.

There has also been some other displacement activity.

Project in progress (part 2)

It was possible to look at the butterfly under the stereoscopic microscope without having to take it to pieces. However, in order to get a closer look, I needed to get out the compound microscope which unfortunately meant that this pretty little creature had to be dismantled.

Part of the wing was removed and viewed with top lighting. The scales overlap, like slates on a roof. Long hairs are present in some areas of the wing.

The wings were fringed with longer multi-toothed scales.

I removed some of the scales using sellotape in order that I could view them using the transmitted light shining through from underneath.

The next set of pictures is of strewn scales from the wings.

Part three of the project is to look at scales from the upper and lower surfaces of the wing in more detail.  From initial viewings, it looks as if the lower surface of the wings have longer scales than the upper surfaces. it will be interesting too to see if there is any difference between the pairs of wings.