Seen today

[Wowbagger]

DSH?

[TimO]

DSH?

Sorry, Domestic Short Hair ie a moggy.

Hell, it was 3am, you're lucky I understand that post!

[Rig of Jarkness]

My quest for waxwings remains fruitless but my wait for the no 38 bus this morning did give me the consolation of a nice little group of long tailed tits flitting about in the trees opposite.

[RJ]

... and a 38 bus too, I hope 

[Rig of Jarkness]

Yes , and on time too !

[TimO]

I just saw a fox in my back garden, failing to catch a pigeon for it's breakfast.  For all I have often seen foxes on the way home, this is the first time I've seen one in the garden, and it didn't care that I saw it, it peered back at me inside the kitchen, and continued to walk along the fence towards me.  It was actually quite a healthy looking bugger, the few foxes I've sen up close before, have been a bit on the skinny and mangy looking side, this one seemed to be pretty stout and well fed, with a thick coat, which it needed considering the thin layer of snow on the ground.

[Rig of Jarkness]

A weasel running along the pavement in front of me and then nipping into a hole in the stone wall that surrounds Edinburgh Uni's Kings Buildings campus.  Is it just me or are weasels getting more numerous ? I went for years without seeing one and now I've seen 3 in the past 18 months.

[Wowbagger]

Goldcrests in my neighbour's garden this morning when I went to visit the compost heap.

[Pingu]

My quest for waxwings remains fruitless but my wait for the no 38 bus this morning did give me the consolation of a nice little group of long tailed tits flitting about in the trees opposite.

Snap! (Apart from the bus)

[toekneep]

Sorry, I know this is a bit hollow without pictures but this morning whilst out with the dog we were treated to the most spectacular display of spiders webs that had gathered freezing fog overnight and were just amazing.

[CathH]

Those little brown moths are all over the road again.  Where do they go in the summer?

[hellymedic]

Had a thin small young fox visit my garden at lunchtime last Wednesday.
Seemed to shiver in the cold; it had been frosty overnight.
Green woodpecker also visited my lawn.

[Tim Hall]

Green woodpecker today, um, I think as I was driving along the A21.

Sunday another Green woodpecker, shortly before I fell off my bike on Old Winchester Hill.

Sunday a gert big owl, perched on the electricity sub station just south of Three Bridges station. Or was it further south? I'll have to go backand check to make sure it's not a model.

[mike]

we've got a pair of green woodpeckers living in a tree in the garden behind ours. They're incredibly noisy, either bashing their heads against the tree or shouting at each other.

I saw a fox on sunday too, the closest I've ever been to one, right in the middle of cambridge.

[hellymedic]

There are times when the foxes fretty well rub their noses on my patio doors here in Londonton.
They don't seem to be tied to any time of day either.

[Chris N]

Loads of mundane (but nice to look at) stuff recently: brown rats, mice/voles, herons, kestrels, foxes, rabbits, buzzards and some lovely looking Longhorn cattle on one farm.  Heard an owl on the way home last night too, but don't know what kind.

[Wowbagger]

we've got a pair of green woodpeckers living in a tree in the garden behind ours. They're incredibly noisy, either bashing their heads against the tree or shouting at each other.

Green woodpeckers are the ones with the "yaffle" cry but it's greater spotted who are the head-bangers. They've also got a very distinctive, loud, staccato alarm call.
Three little egrets have taken up residence in the park for the past week or so. There were at least 50 ducks on the lake this morning, which was partially frozen (-8°C in my garden last night) and more than a dozen moorhens. The pool in which I regularly saw 3 tench, 2 pike and a large roach last winter has cleared with the cold weather, but so far all I've seen is one of the tench and some fairly small fish, probably roach.

[clarion]

Gosh that reminds me.  On Monday I was in a meeting.  I looked out the window, and a woodpecker landed on the tree just outside - a few feet away.

I couldn't concentrate after that, which was a shame, as I was chairing (and taking minutes)

[Snakehips]

  I looked out the window, and a woodpecker landed on the tree just outside - a few feet away.

What kind ?
I looked in to my garden earlier and saw a small flock of long-tailed tits

[Wowbagger]

There were quite a few long-tailed tits in the park this morning. I didn't see any goldcrests today, although they do tend to go about together. There were lots of mallards and I saw two of the little egrets this morning.

[clarion]

  I looked out the window, and a woodpecker landed on the tree just outside - a few feet away.

What kind ?
...

Oh - nothing special - greater spotted.  It was just that I'd never seen one in the city before, and it was so close, fussing around the joint of a branch.

[Wowbagger]

On my pootle this afternoon I had my best view ever of sanderlings. Firstly there were five of them, feeding in shallow water not more than 30' from the sea wall in Westcliff. Then three more, which had been zooming past, took a sharp left to join their pals and they were followed by four more. I was very impressed how those in flight could easily pick out their chums on the beach from the best part of 50 yards away.

They are gorgeous little birds, at this time of year predominantly white but with a slate-grey bill and legs and a few black markings. In the late afternoon December murk, they gave the impression of being silver. They are very busy, like small battery-powered toys, darting in and out of the water to pick up whatever the waves were leaving behind, their legs moving almost as though they were riding invisible bicycles.

There were lots of people about and the birds took no notice until some great clod-hopping human stomped along the beach right where they were and that was the end of the fun.

[Mr Larrington]

There are times when the foxes fretty well rub their noses on my patio doors here in Londonton.
They don't seem to be tied to any time of day either.

I was in the midst of opening my front door on returning from work yesterday when the sleekest fattest fox I've ever seen calmly emerged from the undergrowth, passed within six inches of me, vaulted lightly over the fence and trotted off down Hamilton Road.

[Bledlow]

A couple of red kites, circling over Reading. Not an uncommon sight nowadays. Saw one (maybe one of the same birds) yesterday.

Usual tits in the garden, but the finches have all buggered off.

[Chris S]

There was a cloud of Tree Buntings in the front garden earlier. Tight social group, taking it in turns to feed from the bird table - but terminally fidgety. Great fun to watch.