Wrap the lens in a towel and secure it in a vise NOT hard - it shouldn't be necessary. Place a narrow bit of wood or something else with a flat end against one of the flange protrusions and hit the other end of the wood/ implement smartly with a hammer. If you don't have a vise then jam it in a drawer or shove it up against something just sufficiently to prevent the lens from revolving when you hit the adapter. I also discovered that putting the adapter on the lens was a bad idea! When it's on the camera, the little spring prevents it from moving so you have to unscrew the lens off the adapter anyway. I don't know who thought up putting the adapter on the lens first - he needs talking to. It's easy to remove from the camera. You simply shove your thumbnail in the slot to depress the spring. (If you don't have a thumbnail, then grow one. You will need it if you are going to be using M42s!).

No 3 is more like what it actually looked like. The others are either enhanced in PP or taken with high EV compensation to show the whole of of the thing.

That ovipositor is seriously bad news for some poor creature! Super pictures of it nevertheless.

Good heavens Steve. I think the bees have the best of it!

If your cherries are like my cherries they won't last 5 minutes when the blackbirds start and the pigeons finish them. That last one is rather nice.

Some birds don't take kindly to predation. A pair of carrion crows recently downed a magpie that had been caught near their nest. They pecked it to death in the middle of the road amid a tremendous racket of caws and screeches.

Makes a striking image.

I found this hanging from a tree deep in the local woods. It might have been intended for birds to use as a nest box except
the opening is very low and chicks could fall out. Also, it swings about. The bumble bees have taken it over and filled it with
moss, like they do.



It makes for some nice pictures with its decoration of Greek key frieze, twined vines and hanging grapes. I didn't touch it
and so I don't know what it's made from. It looks like pottery that has been painted a long time ago.






The lid looks to be fixed in place, or it would fall down(!) but what about those holes around the lower circumference?
That excludes any use for holding (say) honey or other fluid. The hole under the opening may have held a perch?



Whatever it might have been in another life, the bees certainly like it.



Taken with a K1 and a Vivitar 2.8/100. ISO3200 and somewhere around f4

Might well be a handful but those results make it all worthwhile.

+1