Ursa Major

Wow.. really this was a spectacular event happening in our back garden!  I posted one as an extra last night but this was taken past midnight qualifying it for todays blip.  We are hoping for more excitement tonight but there has been a haze most of the afternoon so we are not sure we will see it again.  I have seen a minor display of the Northern Lights perhaps three times in my life but this was utterly different. The phone was amazing at picking up the colours in a 3 second exposure and here you can see the Plough or Ursa Major in an incredible burst.. just beautiful!
Today has been wonderfully warm.. too warm to sit out for too long but we had a happy lunch outside.. 
News of the nest box and the little blue tit couple was that a couple of evenings ago a bird hopped in at around 7.30pm as usual with a beak full of short bits of grass.. it stood looking a little quiet for a few minutes and flew out.. which was unusual.. normally the bird would settle down to re rounding the nest hole then fall asleep quickly.. this time however no little bird came back in.. and since then the nest has been empty... I feel bereft.. and assume that now there will be no eggs or chicks this year.  Instead today the alarm has gone a few times only for me to see a hornet crawling around inside the box.. eek!  We really don't want that!!! I mean I have no real issue with hornets but the nestbox is above our terrace so they could be problematic there.. we may decide to remove the box rather than have them settle in there.