Author Topic: Seen today (Read 1016009 times)

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #5150 on:** 25 May, 2018, 09:34:13 pm »

Quote from: Jaded on 23 May, 2018, 08:17:27 am

Nice!

Wowbagger · « **Reply #5151 on:** 27 May, 2018, 09:15:36 pm »

Not today, but on 6th May when we were cycling through Luxembourg. Black stork.

Kim · « **Reply #5152 on:** 30 May, 2018, 01:47:07 pm »

Seen yesterday: Kestrel taking off from the hedgerow and swooping overhead as I cycled past at almost reach-out-and-you-can-touch-it-range. To the point where an inept bird-spotter like me was in no doubt that it was a kestrel.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #5153 on:** 30 May, 2018, 02:00:27 pm »

Good walk from Grassington along the Warfe and then back over high ground yesterday. Saw my first green woodpecker ever ! We have greater and lesser spotted locally and they even visit the nuts in our garden but I have never seen a green woodpecker before so that made my day. Pied wagtails a plenty plus one grey or yellow wagtail on the rocks in the river, I find it hard to tell them apart. Oyster catchers and various ducks on the river plus a lot of black headed gulls which were as far from the sea as its possible to get in the UK probably. Hear loads of curlew on the higher dales as we walked back but unfortunately didn't spot any, just crows and pheasant. Oh and sheep, lots and lots of sheep.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #5154 on:** 31 May, 2018, 07:21:10 pm »

Today walking near Levisham on the North Yorks Moors I did actually manage to see a curlew rather than just hear them. Havn't seen one for a few years.

Steph · « **Reply #5155 on:** 03 June, 2018, 04:35:06 pm »

Grey wags have a much longer tail than yellows, just for starters. Wing bar, darker back, and so on. Yellows have a huge range of races/subspecies.

You get lesser spotted? Wow! Not the commonest of birds, certainly not in the North.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #5156 on:** 03 June, 2018, 07:58:32 pm »

i was thinking I must visit pcolbec. I have never seen a lesser spotted woodpecker.

I had two sightings of cuckoos today, whilst walking between Benfleet and Leigh along the sea wall path. The first had been cuckooing and was therefore a male*. The second was skulking around the reedbeds for all the world looking as though it was hunting for reed warbler nests to parasitise.

Oh, and I made the pleasing discovery that the freshwater marshes in that area contain marsh frogs! I didn't see any but I heard them. I think it's the first time I have heard them in Essex, although I have a feeling that they are present on Rainham Marshes.

*I believe this to be the case, having read stuff, but I am always acutely aware that the wildlife I observe has very rarely read the same books that I have, and therefore might have other ideas.

Steph · « **Reply #5157 on:** 04 June, 2018, 09:16:05 pm »

Black storks? Hungary

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/pic/?o=1mr&pic_id=519938&size=large

Lesser grey shrike ditto
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/pic/?o=1mr&pic_id=510815&size=large

Lesser spotted ditto again
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/pic/?o=1mr&pic_id=519945&size=large

rafletcher · « **Reply #5158 on:** 06 June, 2018, 05:43:14 pm »

Some 20 red kites and 6or so buzzards appeared when the field opposite was mown today - it’s organically grown silage that the farmer lets seed before cutting.

ElyDave · « **Reply #5159 on:** 09 June, 2018, 04:12:19 pm »

this little chap

rafletcher · « **Reply #5160 on:** 13 June, 2018, 05:01:29 pm »

On a walk around the local nature reserve (a former Castle Cement chalk quarry) a small cluster of bee orchids.

ElyDave · « **Reply #5161 on:** 15 June, 2018, 03:36:25 pm »

plus a cinnabar moth that wouldn't sit still

Rescued the damselfly from inside my greenhouse

Crumbling Nick · « **Reply #5162 on:** 18 June, 2018, 12:16:57 am »

Quote from: Kim on 30 May, 2018, 01:47:07 pm

Seen yesterday: Kestrel taking off from the hedgerow and swooping overhead as I cycled past at almost reach-out-and-you-can-touch-it-range. To the point where an inept bird-spotter like me was in no doubt that it was a kestrel.

A magical moment. It's decades & tens of thousands of cycling miles since I last saw a kestrel that close. Thanks for sharing it.

Aunt Maud · « **Reply #5163 on:** 18 June, 2018, 01:44:52 pm »

A beetle.

Anyone know what it is ?

Chris N · « **Reply #5164 on:** 18 June, 2018, 02:00:51 pm »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllopertha_horticola ?

Aunt Maud · « **Reply #5165 on:** 18 June, 2018, 07:31:38 pm »

Cheers.

Pingu · « **Reply #5166 on:** 18 June, 2018, 09:24:29 pm »

Curlew with a chick yesterday.

madcow · « **Reply #5167 on:** 19 June, 2018, 04:53:47 pm »

Quote from: pcolbeck on 31 May, 2018, 07:21:10 pm

Today walking near Levisham on the North Yorks Moors I did actually manage to see a curlew rather than just hear them. Havn't seen one for a few years.

We have curlews very near to us as there is quite a bit of permanent pasture in a sea of arable crops. When we visited the Peak District a few years ago, one of our friends commented on how nice it was to hear curlews (they lived in Surrey). I didn't have the heart to tell them that we heard them almost every day at this time of year.

Last night, whilst visiting my allotment, I watched a barn owl hovering for a few minutes. It flew up the hedge line then over some rough grass at one corner of the allotment field then flew across the next field into the tall trees. We often see this owl out hunting in the evening. There is a field of miscanthus grass that grows very tall and is probably full of small mammals.