A random thread for the wildlife stuff - you know the drill

[Pingu]

Scottish grouse moors to be licensed in attempt to protect birds of prey
MSPs vote for controls as it emerges another hen harrier has vanished in area ‘notorious’ for persecution

[Flite]

Good News/Bad News.
The shooting estates have had decades of warning to clean up their industry with little effect.
The sooner the law is enforced and estates start fearing for their licenses the better.
Faint hope of it happening in England.

What is never mentioned about heather burning is the devastation it causes to overwintering reptiles - all on the protected list.
It is illegal to disturb an adder's hibernaculum, but apparently not to incinerate them.

[Wowbagger]

My Good Pal Penelope has a squirrel that occasionally visits her garden. Being Not Of Sound Mind, she feeds the little fecker, but it isn't always that receptive and on occasions buggers off when she puts some peanuts out.

The other day she noticed that after the squirrel had gone, leaving quite a few nuts behind, some magpies turned up and took the peanuts and buried them around her lawn.

After the magpies had gone, some crows turned up, unearthed the nuts and ate them.

[Steph]

Hedgepig in the garden in Monday morning as I went out for an early shift, and red kite overhead as I caught the bus today. Local biodiversity is looking up!

[Mrs Pingu]

Awful photos, but I was about to remove last year's barley straw from the pond when I found this dragonfly nymph on it, so I put it back sharpish. *dances vigorously*

PXL_20240426_124848623 by The Pingus, on Flickr

PXL_20240426_124858854 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[PaulR]

My spotting of a freshwater shrimp in the road yesterday led me to a website where you can buy a multipack of dragonfly nymphs, 5 per pack, mixed species, for just over £20.  I wonder how that fits in with conservation.
https://blades-bio.co.uk/shop/living-organisms/pond-life/dragonfly-nymphs/

[Mrs Pingu]

That seems fairly pointless. I could get a mix of 5 species that don't exist in Furrybootoon! Also a bit disturbed by the comment 'taken from natural ponds'.

[Mrs Pingu]

After the last couple of springs where we've got excited we might get lodgers in our nest boxes which came to nowt, this year it looked like it might actually happen, although it's been a bit quiet the last few days round the box.
Until this morning when I came home from my morning walk and saw the nest box was no longer on the fence post. It had fallen off, and when I lifted the lid for a look there was indeed a lovely nest in there with 4 eggs in it.

Don't know how long it had been on the ground for but I quickly cable tied it back up again. I don't hold out much hope but I've done what I can.
Need a better mounting solution for the long term.

[Mrs Pingu]

Appropos of the above box drop, according to https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/articles/blue-tit-diary blue tits lay 1 egg a day, 8-12 eggs on average and the female doesn't start incubating until the clutch is complete, so maybe all is not lost for our little lodger.

PXL_20240507_065403764~2 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Jurek]

Foxes are going crazy out here this evening.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Same around here for the last couple of nights. Not as frequent as during January, mating time. I’m not sure why - lots of growing cubs to feed and scarce resources maybe?

[Pingu]

Some damselfly action in the garden.


IMG_7409_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr


IMG_7374_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr


IMG_7363_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Wowbagger]

I've just seen some most impressive photos on Faceache of red kites impersonating ospreys and catching live trout from a trout farm in Northamptonshire.

[Pingu]

Hedgepig update: we've seen a hedgepig most nights since the first spot last month. There has not been a repeat of the afternoon visit. Mrs Pingu made a hedgepig feeding shelter from an old cat litter tray with a bowl of cat food inside. This has been used every night since it was installed 


IMG_0137 by The Pingus, on Flickr


Hedgepig nomming cat fud by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Jurek]

I wish that the noisy magpies nesting in the tree just outside of my bedroom window would just Foxtrot Oscar

[andrewc]

I've got magpies & crows nearby in urban Liverpool.   The crows are bloody noisy & seem to like fighting the seagulls. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Crows, magpies and jays hopping on the roof are quiet. Seagulls are gurt clodhopping monsters.

[Andy W]

My Merlin app identified greater whitethroats and blackcaps yesterday in North Herts.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Yesterday was my first seal 'rescue'.

About to leave the house, neighbour trots up "You are something to do with seal rescue, aren't you?"

Her husband has seen a seal pup next to a road . . . Sounds very unlikely.
I go to the location. Very small pup, right next to a road and over 500m from the sea.

Formal report and admin later, as the pup is underweight, no possibility of returning to, or finding, mum, it is decided to 'uplift'. This is complicated; I have to catch seal, transfer to vets, then BDMLR will arrange transfer on ferry to another medic, who will relay pup to a seal rehab centre.

I've not done this before, so I'm very nervous. Good thing my first is a small pup.

You catch them by leaping on them with a towel, then rolling them up.

I can report that a seal pup burrito is the sweetest thing ever, apart from the noises they make. They do a sort of OOuumm sound with goes straight to your heart.

[Jurek]

Yesterday was my first seal 'rescue'.

About to leave the house, neighbour trots up "You are something to do with seal rescue, aren't you?"

Her husband has seen a seal pup next to a road . . . Sounds very unlikely.
I go to the location. Very small pup, right next to a road and over 500m from the sea.

Formal report and admin later, as the pup is underweight, no possibility of returning to, or finding, mum, it is decided to 'uplift'. This is complicated; I have to catch seal, transfer to vets, then BDMLR will arrange transfer on ferry to another medic, who will relay pup to a seal rehab centre.

I've not done this before, so I'm very nervous. Good thing my first is a small pup.

You catch them by leaping on them with a towel, then rolling them up.

I can report that a seal pup burrito is the sweetest thing ever, apart from the noises they make. They do a sort of OOuumm sound with goes straight to your heart.

Fascinating. And so different from my corner of Londres Sud.

[Mrs Pingu]

Awww

[slowfen]

Bit of a non-rant

Pigeons, if you’re going to stuff yourselves with grain overnight, get some JATOs so you don’t need to run down the road madly flapping to take off, I’fed up with you bonnet surfing

[Pingu]

I had to rescue this starling today 


IMG_8612_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF) latest to walk away from Yorkshire Dales/Nidderdale sham Bird of Prey ‘partnership’

The Northern England Raptor Forum (NERF), a collective of regional raptor fieldworkers, is the latest organisation to walk away from the Yorkshire Dales/Nidderdale Bird of Prey Partnership.



Comment beneath:

every estate where birds are raised to be shot at by wealthy ass holes has one aim in life that is to kill as many raptors they can just so they cane squeeze the last penny out of the shooting sprees they run.

If any raptor is injured or killed on or near any estate the estate in concern must be fined £1,000,000 and closed down for 5 years.

this is the only way this slaughter will cease

the estates MUST BE HIT WHERE IT HURTS THE MOST IN THEIR POCKETS

These areas of the country are too precious to be in the hands of these people.

[Flite]

We live surrounded by grouse moors.
They routinely break the law and know they will get away with it.