Jump to content

Sheffields Flora and Fauna


Guest Trefcon

Recommended Posts

Some years ago an Asian doctor and his family who'd recently arrived in the UK and moved to Ranmoor called the police in the middle of the night to report loud noises coming from the back of the house. Police duly arrived and found a pair of mating hedgehogs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One day last week I saw two rainbows in the sky at the same time, is this unusual?

It's the first time I've ever seen anything like that. One was hovering above the other

but not as vivid colour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One day last week I saw two rainbows in the sky at the same time, is this unusual?

It's the first time I've ever seen anything like that. One was hovering above the other

but not as vivid colour.

A double rainbow is not unusual at all ukulele lady. It is to do with the way in which light is reflected, refracted and dispersed into colours when passing through a spherical raindrop (in science lessons this is always demonstrated with a triangular prism, but in reality small raindrops are spherical)

Providing the air saturation with water droplets, the light intensity and direction are correct then a double rainbow should be the norm, - but often one of these conditions is less than perfect and then gives the more common single rainbow.

Less commonly seen is an extra greenish colour after the violet (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, --- pale-ish green). This is because the spectrum does include an infra red above the red and an ultra violet after the violet (hence their names) These are normally invisible as our eyes are insensitive to them, - however the ultra violet has sufficient energy to cause certain molecules in the air to fluoresce, like many substances will fluoresce in uv, and give out the greenish light.

I have only ever observed this effect, but on more than 1 occasion, when there is a double rainbow, and even then it seems to affect only the upper rainbow of the two.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Correction to my previous post having seen vox's photo.

The UV air fluorescence effect is visible in the lower and not the upper bow as this is clearly the brighter and more intense of the two.

I don't think the effect is visible at all in vox's picture as only the normal colours appear in the expected normal order.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes , just like that with the more prominent one below.

Did you take this picture vox?

I did - yes Ukelass

I've seen a few from time to time, some much better than this one, but this is the only one I had chance to photograph.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did - yes Ukelass

I've seen a few from time to time, some much better than this one, but this is the only one I had chance to photograph.

Excellent photo of a double rainbow vox.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The second rainbow will always be fainter because it involves two reflections within raindrops rather than one, and such an event is statistically less likely.

The double reflection also means the colours are reversed in the second rainbow..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The second rainbow will always be fainter because it involves two reflections within raindrops rather than one, and such an event is statistically less likely.

The double reflection also means the colours are reversed in the second rainbow..

Correct HughW,

It all depends upon the refractive index of air-water and the critical angle required for reflection. In this case the critical angle is sufficiently small to allow 2 reflections within the raindrop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh the joys of being a householder !

Yesterday I noticed that the gully that takes the waste from the kitchen and bathroom was overflowing in a delightful way.

Donning my designer gardening togs, (Compo Simmonite brand), I attempted to clear the blockage, I must remember to buy some long rubber gloves some time, ugh !.

My usual ploy of wrapping rags around the drain rod disc and using it as a "posher" also proved unsuccessful.

Up came the inspection chamber lids and out came all the drain rods. I'd no sooner started when a pesky honey bee started flying around my head, followed by another, and another, and another. Eventually I was surrounded by a small swarm.

They seemed very interested in the open drains.

The blockage problem proved to be grease build-up despite the best efforts kitchen wise of self and wife.

At some point in the past the iron grating over the gulley must have moved and the drains were also full of rotten leaves.

When I stated to clear out the mess the gunk was soon covered in bees, they were also crawling all over the concrete benching in the inspection chambers.

The smell of course was horrible, drains that carry sink and bath waste always smell worse than drains that carry other "things" for some reason.

Why on earth would bees prefer drains when my fruit trees are covered in blossom that they seem to be ignoring ?

I did wonder if the bees could smell the floral perfume that they put in washing powder nowadays. Perhaps their sense of smell doesn't stretch to the horrible pong that I could smell but only covers the nice smell of flowers. I certainly couldn't smell any flowers !

I had to drive them out of the inspection chambers with a fine mist from the hose before I could put the lids down.

Anyway if that's what they get up to it's put me off honey for life.

HD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only reason I can think of, is that the bees were attracted to the water.

Edit: Just found this ... http://mudsongs.org/honey-bees-drinking-dirty-water/

Thanks for that.

Earlier I emailed the Bee Keepers website and a lady has just replied to the effect that they would be after the moisture, it would seem they prefer smelly water. Apparently they wont touch the blossom until the temperature averages 13 degrees Celsius, they may be in for a long wait. :(

We may all be ! :(

HD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that.

Earlier I emailed the Bee Keepers website and a lady has just replied to the effect that they would be after the moisture, it would seem they prefer smelly water. Apparently they wont touch the blossom until the temperature averages 13 degrees Celsius, they may be in for a long wait. :(

We may all be ! :(

HD

Got me thinking back over the years to when I did a lot of fishing,

and I'm sure that I have seen wasps doing the same,

recall seeing wasps groping about in the stagnant mud by the side of ponds,

but never even gave it a thought, as to the reason why.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that.

Earlier I emailed the Bee Keepers website and a lady has just replied to the effect that they would be after the moisture, it would seem they prefer smelly water. Apparently they wont touch the blossom until the temperature averages 13 degrees Celsius, they may be in for a long wait. :(

We may all be ! :(

HD

Just been on BBC news - weather, the coldest Spring since 1979

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Slime moulds are strange and fascinating organsisms. My knowledge is rudimentary, but I suspect I may soon be identified in some quarters as the man who stares at wood chippings...

Possibly Leocarpus fragilis...

Saturday

Sunday

Wednesday

(from a wood chip pile left after tree felling, Walkley Road)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Live feed of the peregrines nest on top of St George's, courtesy of Sheffield Uni.

Not pigeon again !

Image courtesy of The University of Sheffield

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We get one of them (I assume it is the same ones) in our garden from time to time.

I've seen one three times in the last year or two.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like the birds have flown!

If what we saw at North Stack on Anglesey is anything to go by there might be some aerobatic treats in store. We sat on top of the cliffs with our lunch and watched a pair of peregrines and their three offspring zooming around the cliffs and our heads. I spoke to one of the RSPB people at South Stack later and they said the adults would be teaching the youngsters to hunt. All I know is it was a fantastic sight as they chased each other around at high speed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like the birds have flown!

If what we saw at North Stack on Anglesey is anything to go by there might be some aerobatic treats in store. We sat on top of the cliffs with our lunch and watched a pair of peregrines and their three offspring zooming around the cliffs and our heads. I spoke to one of the RSPB people at South Stack later and they said the adults would be teaching the youngsters to hunt. All I know is it was a fantastic sight as they chased each other around at high speed.

At last two of the young birds are still present, on top of the surround, out of view.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This stuff seems to be everywhere nowadays, waste ground, gardens, even growing in walls and pavements. Someone told me it was called Ground Lilac but I don't think that's correct. Whatever it is, it's on the increase over the last 5 years or so, and is getting to be the "new Budlia".

(I should have taken a close-up I suppose.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...