Author Topic: Seen today  (Read 999649 times)

Re: Seen today
« Reply #900 on: 07 December, 2009, 02:08:18 pm »
2 nuthatches in a tree by the cafe in Oaks Park. That cafe is always a good birdwatching spot :D.
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clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Seen today
« Reply #901 on: 07 December, 2009, 02:51:22 pm »
A mundane bird, but a pretty one - a magpie that walked past just outside the window of the cafe.  Very close, with the iridescence of the feathers clearly visible, the colours changing as the bird ambled by.
Getting there...

Re: Seen today
« Reply #902 on: 07 December, 2009, 03:57:25 pm »
About 4:30 the other morning. A very large very fat badger ambling down the road. He wasn't to be hurried. Made my morning.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Seen today
« Reply #903 on: 07 December, 2009, 07:16:25 pm »
A family walking with an adult dog and two teeny tiny little puppies, smaller than big guinea pigs. They might have been Jack Russell puppies or some sort of terrier. The puppies were a bit all over the place so I decided to stop until they were past. They stopped for a sniff and explore of the bike and my right foot - one of them had to stand on his hing legs to sniff my trouser band! I'm not really that fussed about animals, particularly not dogs and especially particularly not little dogs, but the puppies were just so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Riggers

  • Mine's a pipe, er… pint!
Re: Seen today
« Reply #904 on: 08 December, 2009, 08:13:58 am »
Seen on Sunday. Perigrine falcon on Brighton beach swooping down to plow through a swarm(?) of Starlings. Smashing.
Certainly never seen cycling south of Sussex

Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Seen today
« Reply #905 on: 08 December, 2009, 01:41:39 pm »
A mundane bird, but a pretty one - a magpie that walked past just outside the window of the cafe.  Very close, with the iridescence of the feathers clearly visible, the colours changing as the bird ambled by.



Seen in the right light, magpies are incredibly coloured birds, one of my favourites.  Like mallard ducks I think their ubiquity can blind us to how deceptively attractive their colours are.

(I didn't kill the bird for the photo)

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Seen today
« Reply #906 on: 08 December, 2009, 02:23:49 pm »
Exactly.  I can still remember my excitement as a kid the first time that I noticed a 'black & white' magpie could be blue.
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Wascally Weasel

  • Slayer of Dragons and killer of threads.
Re: Seen today
« Reply #907 on: 08 December, 2009, 02:33:27 pm »
When my father was growing up, in one of the places where he lived, a lot of the land had been stolen generations ago was owned by the Duke of Buccleuch – my dad always marvelled at the sight of a magpie, thinking it the rarest of birds.  This was because the Duke’s gamies would blast the crap out of any magpie they saw.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Seen today
« Reply #908 on: 08 December, 2009, 02:41:21 pm »
:hand:  Those gamekeepers are experts in wildlife conservation, don't you know?  I read it in a BASC press release, so it must be true ;)
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Re: Seen today
« Reply #909 on: 08 December, 2009, 03:35:50 pm »
Magpies definitely rule the roost around here. Replacing all the sparrows and starlings which used to be the most common.
I too also like their iridescent colouring when the sunlight catches them, but f**kin' hate their non-stop Kalashnikov calling at dawn.

Although it doesn't even come close to the iridescence of a kingfisher which happily
 now are becoming a more familiar sight around here.  :D
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RJ

  • Droll rat
Re: Seen today
« Reply #910 on: 09 December, 2009, 09:03:19 pm »
:hand:  Those gamekeepers are experts in wildlife conservation, don't you know?  I read it in a BASC press release, so it must be true ;)

Self-styled "guardians of the countryside" :-\.    What the countryside probably needs is fewer guardians and more Guardianistas ...  ;)

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Seen today
« Reply #911 on: 09 December, 2009, 09:48:27 pm »
:thumbsup: ;)
Getting there...

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Seen today
« Reply #912 on: 14 December, 2009, 12:37:29 pm »
Well, yesterday actually. A fox, sat just outside the entrance to Ebbsfleet International Station at about 9.15pm. Didn't seem to mind the people wandering past it. Looked perfectly healthy - good condition actually. Got up after a bit, walked about and sat back down again.

There was a photo on the BBC London news the other day of a fox on the escalator at Walthamstow Central station.  I think he was prevented from boarding a Victoria Line train to Brixton for not having a valid ticket.
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Snakehips

  • Twixt London and leafy Surrey
Re: Seen today
« Reply #913 on: 15 December, 2009, 08:32:42 am »

There was a photo on the BBC London news the other day of a fox on the escalator at Walthamstow Central station.  I think he was prevented from boarding a Victoria Line train to Brixton for not having a valid ticket.
Twenty or so years ago I used Walthamstow Station a lot. I often saw a  guy who had a pet fox and carried it on his shoulder (yes I am sure it was alive , and not one of those things that some women used to wear round their necks).
Presumably the fox does not require a ticket if being carried.


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clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Seen today
« Reply #914 on: 15 December, 2009, 11:15:27 am »
Um, not today.  Well, yes, today, but in a different way.

Today as I crossed Figges Marsh, I was joined by a pied wagtail that flew beside me, banking and weaving away & back as it conducted its stalling flight.

But last week, I disturbed a pair, and they flew ahead of me, an escort of synchronised swooping. :)
Getting there...

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Re: Seen today
« Reply #915 on: 16 December, 2009, 12:23:00 pm »
I've been house bound with a cold for the past few days so wasn't expecting to see anything to merit a posting here.  That was until a buzzard glided into view from the sitting room window this morning.  In 10 years here that's only the second one I've seen from the house.  But given that we're, as the corvid/buzzard flies, only 2 miles from Embra city centre that's not bad.  :) 
Aero but not dynamic

Re: Seen today
« Reply #916 on: 16 December, 2009, 12:34:34 pm »
The birds are hungry. My bird feeders are being mobbed. I think I have to go outside & refill the most popular one, that all the finches go for. It looks almost empty.
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Chris S

Re: Seen today
« Reply #917 on: 16 December, 2009, 07:50:11 pm »
The birds are hungry. My bird feeders are being mobbed. I think I have to go outside & refill the most popular one, that all the finches go for. It looks almost empty.

Hehe. We have a bird table outside the kitchen window, beside a Hawthorn hedge. A Robin owns it. He's a bloody bully - and chases off everything. He has three fat balls and a heap of seed all to himself.

He watches me through the window as I make tea.

border-rider

Re: Seen today
« Reply #918 on: 17 December, 2009, 03:50:38 pm »
The birds are hungry. My bird feeders are being mobbed. I think I have to go outside & refill the most popular one, that all the finches go for. It looks almost empty.

I'm having to fill ours 2-3 times per day at the moment, and they're big feeders.   They're covered in birds.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #919 on: 17 December, 2009, 05:08:25 pm »
My wren is back. Haven't seen him for a few weeks.
Never knowingly under caffeinated

Re: Seen today
« Reply #920 on: 17 December, 2009, 05:52:43 pm »
He's a bloody bully .... He has three fat balls

clearly too much testosterone

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Re: Seen today
« Reply #921 on: 20 December, 2009, 04:36:25 am »
Seen yesterday (location rural New South Wales - Audax 300)
Big black snake (2 metres long) crossing the road 
lots and lots of birds including many lorikeets and rosellas
cattle grazing along the roadsides because of the drought (accompanied by stockmen on horses and dogs)
3 wallabies
2 foxes
many rabbits
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Re: Seen today
« Reply #922 on: 20 December, 2009, 08:24:56 am »
A barn owl flying over our garden this morning. Beautiful against the snow.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Rig of Jarkness

  • An Englishman abroad
Re: Seen today
« Reply #923 on: 20 December, 2009, 09:40:57 am »
A barn owl flying over our garden this morning. Beautiful against the snow.

I am so envious !  One of my favourite birds but I haven't seen one for decades  :( Now in the space of two days both you and Chris S describe seeing them over your gardens !
Aero but not dynamic

Bluebottle

  • Everybody's gotta be somewhere
Re: Seen today
« Reply #924 on: 20 December, 2009, 09:45:36 am »
At work yesterday I managed to get within 10 feet of a snipe (quite sure it wasn't a woodcock - couldn't quite make out any bars on the nape) sitting on concrete in a corner of the work car park.
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