Author Topic: Seen today  (Read 999465 times)

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6700 on: 16 March, 2024, 04:46:34 pm »
No idea what we saw today. It was a raptor, that’s for sure. It was perched on the arm of a bench close to the bird feeders, then did the sparrowhawk thing of chasing after one of the sparrows, twisting in flight. Then it perched on the fence briefly, but I signally failed to get a photo. What puzzles us is what it was. If I had to compare, I say its colouring was not unlike a pigeon’s - slate grey wings and back and a kind of buff breast. No barring that I could see - we have had sparrowhawks in the past, and this was comparable in size but not colouring.

OTOH I do know that out front perched in the tree of the hedgerow opposite was a song thrush. It’s been singing there on and off since December. Delightful.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6701 on: 20 March, 2024, 12:52:13 pm »
On Monday in and above Farndale. Black grouse laughing at us, curlew and an amazing close up view of a lapwing display flight.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6702 on: 20 March, 2024, 01:56:19 pm »
A red-legged partridge - not something I'd ever expect to see in an urban setting, TBH.
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6703 on: 20 March, 2024, 02:38:14 pm »
On Monday in and above Farndale. Black grouse laughing at us, curlew and an amazing close up view of a lapwing display flight.

I was watching a lapwing doing its crazy flying stuff on the moors above Sheffield last week.  There was a guy in a RSPB landrover admiring it too.  I mentioned Jonathan Livingston Seagull to him and was surprised when he hadn't heard of it - I just assumed that it was required reading for people working for the RSPB.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6704 on: 20 March, 2024, 07:48:32 pm »
Saw a short eared owl at very close range. If it had stayed still I would never have seen it, but as I walked the Canewdon seawall footpath it flew off from the salt marshes a few feet away. Magnificent. Also half a dozen buzzards circled overhead, as I made my way over open fields.
"Ott's Law states that the worst weather will coincide with the worst part (for that weather) of any planned ride"

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6705 on: 26 March, 2024, 09:51:42 am »
Not seen

I'm off island, and of course, it is now when a pod of humpback whales decide to cruise past the island, in sight of the shore.

Oh and now the orcas are joining in.

There is a shoal of herring moving down the coast; humpbacks, minke, orca are following it.

All I can do is watch the videos!
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6706 on: 26 March, 2024, 07:40:39 pm »
Son came downstairs at 1am yesterday morning to find the dog snarling at the back door and the PIR light at the top of the garden on.  He opened the back window and heard snuffling so crept out to take a look.  Hedgehog in the middle of the garden. First one I have found in our garden in at least 15 years and only the second live one I have found in the last decade.  I need to be careful when I clear all the bush cuttings piled in the corner as I suspect he/she is underneath somewhere.  I won’t do any clearing until spring has very definitely sprung and hedgehog and any hoglets have moved on.

Re: Seen today
« Reply #6707 on: 26 March, 2024, 08:11:40 pm »
Our Robins fledged today
"Ott's Law states that the worst weather will coincide with the worst part (for that weather) of any planned ride"

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: Seen today
« Reply #6708 on: Yesterday at 02:01:46 pm »
Got home to my Rural Idyll the other day to see a Red Kite at roof top height as I drove in. Swirling and wheeling, like, umm, a kite, as it dodged the attentions of two unhappy and fierce crows.
There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can
"overhaul" it, or you can ride it.  (Jerome K Jerome)

Snakehips

  • Twixt London and leafy Surrey
Re: Seen today
« Reply #6709 on: Yesterday at 03:02:19 pm »
Got home to my Rural Idyll the other day to see a Red Kite at roof top height as I drove in. Swirling and wheeling, like, umm, a kite, as it dodged the attentions of two unhappy and fierce crows.
I saw the same thing over my garden a couple of days ago. On the same day and same place  I saw and heard a skylark. Neither bird unusual in my area , we have Richmond Park, Bushy Park and Home Park all within a mile, but they usually stay in the parks and don't come to visit me at home.
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?