{"id":937,"date":"2007-09-03T22:09:01","date_gmt":"2007-09-03T21:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/937"},"modified":"2013-11-24T16:36:07","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T16:36:07","slug":"a-very-mixed-bag-indeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/a-very-mixed-bag-indeed\/","title":{"rendered":"A very mixed bag indeed"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Some days are easy on the eye, and others present some bizarre or near impossible photo moments. I was in the garden this morning watching the greenfinches on the new bird feeders we put up over the weekend. They seem to appreciate seed rather than peanuts, or maybe the fact that these are just a bit more mouse-proof!<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/greenfinch_0309077038.jpg' \/><\/span> <span class=\"aligncenter\">Greenfinches on the 4-station feeder<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The 4-station feeder is situated near the front of the garden so I can (in theory) watch from the window. The other feeder is at the top of the garden hanging on the fence. It&#39;s getting used, but not quite as much yet as the one hanging from the tree. I was at the bottom of the garden using the zoom when I saw a slight altercation. A greenfinch was in occupation and defending its new territory from an intruding great tit.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/greattit_greenfinch_0309076996.jpg' \/><\/span> <span class=\"aligncenter\">Greenfinch on the attack!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The bizarre came mid morning when I noticed something hanging in mid air. At first I thought it was a leaf caught on some spider webbing, but on closer inspection it turned out to be an abseiling caterpillar! It was very effectively climbing up a tiny thread back into the beech trees. It covered the final 4 or 5 feet in about 3 minutes, twisting and turning as it went. It finally settled back under a leaf. <br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/caterpillar_0309077009.jpg' \/><\/span> <span class=\"aligncenter\">Abseiling caterpillar<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The near impossible moments were later in the day. A dragonfly was circling the garden. Now these are much easier to photograph stationary (or at least hovering, but this one wouldn&#39;t settle. What made it worse is that I&#39;d lose sight (and focus) of it as it passed in front of the trees. I finally managed one blurred shot. It seems to be a hawker, but beyond that I can&#39;t give a firm identification.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/dragonfly_0309077050.jpg' \/><\/span> <span class=\"aligncenter\">Hawker in flight<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Having got one near impossible shot (not very well) I decided to photograph gnats in flight. I&#39;ve tried this before with varying degrees of no success ;). I set the focus manually at an approximate distance (no point in trying to autofocus on such tiny and highly mobile creatures) and pointed at a small cloud of the things. And waited. Eventually one came into the view finder for just long enough to grab a shot. This has got to be the smallest thing I&#39;ve captured in flight!<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/gnat_0309077119.jpg' \/><\/span> <span class=\"aligncenter\">100% crop of a gnat in flight<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That really ought to have been enough oddities for one day, but tonight&#39;s sunset was a corker. Make of it what you will!<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/sunset_writing_0309077123.jpg' \/><\/span> <span class=\"aligncenter\">A-X in the sky<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[980,991,1022],"tags":[33,107,1139],"class_list":["post-937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","category-insects-2","category-sunset-landscape-2","tag-birds","tag-insects","tag-sunset","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}