Author Topic: Seen today  (Read 999848 times)

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5750 on: 10 January, 2021, 11:01:08 am »
A large (heron sized) egret in the field behind our house. Not seen one there before, in 20 years here.
Sounds like a Great White Egret. They've been breeding on the Somerset Levels for a couple of years now. Where are you?
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Pingu

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5751 on: 10 January, 2021, 02:19:32 pm »
Bullfinches on the seed feeder - a first for us  :thumbsup:

Vernon

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5752 on: 10 January, 2021, 10:11:50 pm »
A flock of long-tailed tits discovered the recently installed fat-ball feeder.
 :)

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5753 on: 10 January, 2021, 10:23:41 pm »
Damn cat from next door worrying a Vole ( I think was a Vole, it was very small). Shood the cat off, but it returned later and I saw it eating something in the same area of the garden. Ho hum. I am fond of cats but this wily Bengal model eats the bird food I put out including sunflower seed hearts and he killed a nesting blue tit last season. Grrrr.
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Basil

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5754 on: 25 January, 2021, 09:34:26 am »
A smallish dark animal moving in a rather odd way on the hillside opposite this morning.  Too far away to see what it was. Small fox? Too black for that.
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5755 on: 25 January, 2021, 05:27:05 pm »
On Saturday we drove up North for a bit to go for a forest walk. 2 secs after parking I noted that the was a goldcrest hopping about in the branches of a tree about a foot away. Our first goldcrest! But no photies unfortunately.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5756 on: 25 January, 2021, 07:15:29 pm »
On Saturday we drove up North for a bit to go for a forest walk. 2 secs after parking I noted that the was a goldcrest hopping about in the branches of a tree about a foot away. Our first goldcrest! But no photies unfortunately.

Very difficult to photograph - always on the move. And very wee.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5757 on: 25 January, 2021, 07:45:28 pm »
Bit of a shame, I doubt we'll ever be that close to one again.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

CrazyEnglishTriathlete

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5758 on: 25 January, 2021, 10:46:38 pm »
Lucky to photograph a stonechat yesterday.  Was on a local walk in the quickly melting snow, popped into a field and a bloke with binoculars asked me if I was interested in birds.  He was the local gamekeeper and he pointed out a pair of stonechats.  We got chatting, and they stayed around, so had time to put on the 500mm mirror lens and take a few snaps.
Eddington Numbers 130 (imperial), 182 (metric) 571 (furlongs)  114 (nautical miles)

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5759 on: 28 January, 2021, 03:42:36 pm »
A little wol - in Marble Hill park. Did get a photo but it’s just a vaguely wol-shaped blob due to bad light.

JStone

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5760 on: 31 January, 2021, 10:12:27 pm »
First redwing for over a year, yesterday & today, stripping berries from the pyracantha (Bristol)
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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5761 on: 02 February, 2021, 05:07:48 pm »
I just remembered. Last week I was walking the dog alongside a really big ditch across a field that all the field drains empty into. It was about six foot deep down to the water.
The dog passing disturbed a snipe and it flew the length of the ditch at about four feet off the deck and then off and away.

That's the first snipe I have ever seen.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5762 on: 02 February, 2021, 05:11:19 pm »
On Saturday we drove up North for a bit to go for a forest walk. 2 secs after parking I noted that the was a goldcrest hopping about in the branches of a tree about a foot away. Our first goldcrest! But no photies unfortunately.

When I was a teenager I used to walk over the disused Clifton aerodrome on the outskirts of York a lot and along the lanes around it. There were often flocks of goldcrests. That was the late 1970s/early 1980s. Its all built over with houses, light industry and supermarkets now :(
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5763 on: 03 February, 2021, 02:15:27 pm »
We have quite a few goldcrest. 
Best way to see them is to take the cat for a walk - they come out to swear at her.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5764 on: 03 February, 2021, 03:44:57 pm »
Unusually for us, a mistle song thrush (now I've had a chance to compare songs), in the plum tree across the road from the house. Lovely song last evening and this morning.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Ruthie

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5765 on: 03 February, 2021, 03:52:48 pm »
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a goldcrest. And I haven’t seen a mistle thrush in what seems like years.

Riding home through the nature reserve in the pitch black, the dynamo lit up a massive rat. It was spooky!
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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5766 on: 04 February, 2021, 08:35:30 am »
A sparrowhawk just got one of the blackbirds in our garden right in front of us then flew off with it to behind the shed to finish it off. A slow process with lots of squeaking from the blackbird. The sparrowhawk has to eat though.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #5767 on: 06 February, 2021, 10:25:21 am »
I know its been wet for weeks but this is ridiculous, I just found a newt in the cats bowl of biscuits !

Its been ejected now into next doors garden (they have a pond).
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Wowbagger

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5768 on: 14 February, 2021, 02:10:19 pm »
For the past 2 or 3 days we have had a flock of fieldfares and redwings come to visit mostly next door's holly tree, but also our smaller one. They prefer next door's as it has a lot more berries, being a bigger tree, it also gives them more cover, and it's further from the road. I have taken some reasonable photos of them. I don't think they will be back much more though as there are so few berries left. Also, the snow is melting now and presumably they will be able to find enough food without the risk of visiting built-up areas.

Yesterday I counted 14 fly away from the trees when they had finished guzzling. Today I didn't manage to count them as there were too many - certainly in excess of 20.
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Snakehips

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5769 on: 14 February, 2021, 09:47:13 pm »
For the last couple of days it has been my great pleasure to host an itinerant male Blackcap in my back garden. 
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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5770 on: 14 February, 2021, 10:05:37 pm »
Camera not to hand but 16 Goldfinches on junior specimen tree on front garden (Sorbus Aria Lutescens 8/9 years old or so). They did not stay long but can't imagine it happening again for some time.
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T42

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5771 on: 18 February, 2021, 03:39:58 pm »
Half a dozen red kites being hassled by a bunch of crows. Two of the kites eventually flew off, the rest hung about and the crows finally got fed up and went away. Ditto us.
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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5772 on: 18 February, 2021, 04:57:55 pm »
The clinique St Michel is about a kilometre from where I live. Last week the land in front of it was rooted up by a herd of wild boar. I am quite near open country but this is closer to the centre of Quimper. They did a reasonable amount of damage to the grass.

Basil

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5773 on: 01 March, 2021, 01:03:53 pm »
Hooray. A foal. Looks a few weeks old so must have been born early on in the stable block.
Looking forward to April and May when we can usually watch them being born in field opposite.
Since this year's floods all the horses are unusually indoors.  Mum and foal seem to have been let out for a bit of sunshine.
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nicknack

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #5774 on: 03 March, 2021, 09:37:38 am »
Foggy this morning. But this appeared out of the gloom just outside our bedroom.
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