Author Topic: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill  (Read 133922 times)

Edd

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #475 on: 17 January, 2020, 11:51:23 am »
Horse on a bus (and associated puns)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51146051

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #476 on: 17 January, 2020, 11:56:19 am »
Was it a (Grand) National bus?
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #477 on: 24 January, 2020, 11:14:27 am »
I heard the first dawn chorus of the year today  :thumbsup:
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #478 on: 24 January, 2020, 06:13:54 pm »
A flock of starlings flew over the garden at dusk this evening  :)
the slower you go the more you see

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #480 on: 14 April, 2020, 09:29:16 am »
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.


Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #482 on: 26 April, 2020, 05:58:43 pm »
Bloody hell! How did that get approved?

Back to what I came here for: urban foxes. I'm wondering how they're doing, with some of their major food sources closed down. I know that foxes round here scavenge behind fast food places & restaurants, & there've been no discarded scraps in those places for them for weeks. Has anyone noticed hungry foxes?
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #483 on: 26 April, 2020, 06:20:24 pm »
Was in our local shopping centre the other day and heard an odd sound like a squeeky pedal kind of skreetch.  Looked up and and spied a pigeon sized bird on a ledge about 8 stories up.  Then saw another nearby.  When they flew there was definitely crescent shaped wings.  Got home and listened to bird calls and I'm pretty sure they were peregines.

If this works top of that brick building.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.292162,-0.7555549,3a,75y,106.13h,97.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZm9EfUoKOsF_U3_eccc_iw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en-GB&authuser=0

Is there a reporting procedure?


Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #484 on: 26 April, 2020, 06:50:27 pm »
I’d suggest the BTO as a starting point.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #485 on: 26 April, 2020, 07:10:30 pm »
WHAT THE FF?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/17/falconers-to-be-allowed-to-take-wild-peregrine-chicks-from-nests?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVS19XZWVrZW5kLTIwMDQxOQ%3D%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK
>:(

Bloody hell! How did that get approved?

Back to what I came here for: urban foxes. I'm wondering how they're doing, with some of their major food sources closed down. I know that foxes round here scavenge behind fast food places & restaurants, & there've been no discarded scraps in those places for them for weeks. Has anyone noticed hungry foxes?
Haven't seen any local foxes since lockdown.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.


Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #487 on: 03 May, 2020, 05:06:43 pm »
Opened up the nest box today, as we haven’t seen the bluetits recently. A fully formed nest, but no sign of eggs having been laid. Cleaned it out and repositioned slightly so the entrance is more easterly.  Perhaps another pair will use it for a late brood. Hopefully, as we’ve had nests in there for the last 5 or 6 years without fail.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #488 on: 04 May, 2020, 04:29:44 pm »
I had a big fox in my garden a few weeks back. Meant I had to build a secure run for my chickens but suspect its down to the school field behind me being quieter. There's a sports centre in the other side that's normally fairly noisy in evenings. I think the chickens have been ignored now in favour of the rabbits of which there must be over a hundred on the field. The fox may as suggested up thread be having to supplement its usual scavenged diet.

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #489 on: 17 May, 2020, 03:13:34 pm »
I have a bumblebee nest in one of my raised beds at the allotment. Little tunnel into the ground, bees going in and out.

A pea seeding is growing next to it but I didn't water as I didn't want to drown the bees.

Am best not going too close as they fly guard outside if I do.

GC

Snakehips

  • Twixt London and leafy Surrey
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #490 on: 17 May, 2020, 03:49:58 pm »
Ground dwelling bees have taken up residence in my shed which is rather inconvenient. They seem to resent my presence.
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #491 on: 23 May, 2020, 05:43:04 pm »
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #492 on: 03 June, 2020, 03:59:30 pm »
Whilst on a work skype call, I was vaguely aware of what my mother might have termed "a bit of a commotion" from downstairs.  Turns out a juvenile blackbird had wandered into our kitchen, helped itself to a piece of dry cat food from the bowl on the floor (this latter being found by me some 4m from said bowl, in the living room), been disturbed by my wife, and performed several circuits of said living room, flapping at windows and crapping vigorously, until it spotted the open kitchen door and once more exited our abode.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #494 on: 06 June, 2020, 06:05:17 pm »
You know those pigeon deterrent spikes?


IMG_6146_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

CrazyEnglishTriathlete

  • Miles eaten don't satisfy hunger
  • Chartered accountant in 5 different decades
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Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #495 on: 06 June, 2020, 08:36:08 pm »
Mrs CET saw three magpies in the garden, one smaller than the other two, which would suggest that the nest in our Norway Maple has been productive.  Which is better than not, given said magpies have evicted the wood pigeons from their favourite tree
Eddington Numbers 130 (imperial), 182 (metric) 571 (furlongs)  114 (nautical miles)

Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #496 on: 07 June, 2020, 07:48:41 am »
(Yesterday)
Couple of bluetit fledglings exited the bird box on the side of our garage. One made it to the bushes in the border, the other made a powered glide onto the middle of the lawn. Where it stayed for a while , then moved closer to the flower bed where at least there is a bit of cover. Parents kept visiting to encourage it to move, then a blackbird came across to say hello. The chick went for the blackbird and saw it off. Presumably programmed that if something large and unrecognised approaches you have nothing to lose by attacking.


Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
  • Help me!
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #498 on: 25 June, 2020, 08:44:47 pm »
We always have swifts, but this year there appear to be many, many more. The sky over our garden is full of them this evening, the screaming almost deafening.
Has anyone else noted an increase, or is it just local to me?
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Wowbagger

  • Former Sylph
    • Stuff mostly about weather
Re: A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill
« Reply #499 on: 25 June, 2020, 09:10:38 pm »
We seem to have quite a lot, but whether that's unusual I don't know. I read somewhere that the early summer visitors (swallows and martins) were badly affected by a series of storms over the Pyrennees an far fewer made it than usual.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.