Seen today

[Wowbagger]

Yes - very similar to the pet ferret I had when I were a lad.

My understanding is that if female ferrets don't get pregnant when they are on heat then they sometimes pine and they go into a decline. So a lot of the time, because it's not necessarily that easy to get rid of lots of ferret kits, the owner of a pregnant female will just abandon her somewhere. A couple of year ago one took up residence in my younger son's woodshed and gave birth to a litter. The whole lot were removed to a ferret rescue place where my understanding was that they did quite well.

Edit: I just found this

Female ferrets (jills) come into season (oestrus) in spring and summer (March to September) as the day length begins
to increase. They will stay in season either until mated or until day length reduces again. When in oestrus, the vulva of
the jill will become swollen and they are receptive to mating. During this time they are subject to high levels of the
hormone oestrogen. This can suppress the production of red blood cells and lead to a life threatening anaemia.
Female ferrets can die from the subsequent anaemia unless brought back out of season. In the wild they are mated
which stops their season but results in pregnancy. This is obviously not ideal in captivity! How can we stop her
developing the anaemia and stop her cycling without having litter after litter of ferrets?

https://www.rvc.ac.uk/Media/Default/Beaumont%20Sainsbury%20Animal%20Hospital/documents/caring-for-your-ferret.pdf

[phantasmagoriana]

The pigeon that hangs around outside appears to think my rosemary plant is an appropriate perch for eating fatballs. I do need to get a better bird-feeding platform, though, as my current feeders don't have much of a perch.

[Wowbagger]

A swift! I went to report it on the local RSPB site to find that someone had beaten me by 15 minutes - and they are about a mile to the west of me. Almost certainly the same bird.

Edit: on checking, that first sighting of a swift was at 8am, not pm.

[nicknack]

I was peering through my binocs at the beach down below me (I was standing on the top of the cliff at St. Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight), when, across my field of view, a white-tailed sea eagle gently glided.

[Jurek]

I was peering through my binocs at the beach down below me (I was standing on the top of the cliff at St. Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight), when, across my field of view, a white-tailed sea eagle gently glided.

Choice.

[SteveC]

MrsC and I were running the polling station in our village on Thursday.
At one point in the afternoon, we were joined by a swallow, which flew in through the open door, then had some difficulty getting out again.
Cue much opening of windows, fire escapes and so on.
Lovely to see one so close, but a bit worrying until it finally found a way out.

[Wowbagger]

Another cuckoo. I heard one yesterday almost exactly 1km south of where I saw one today, so quite probably the same bird.

I cuckooed at yesterday's bird and it came to find me, but I was hiding under the branches of an oak tree, which obscured much of my view of the sky, so I didn't actually see it, even though I heard its "throat-clearing" noise. it alighted in a willow tree about 20 yards away from where I was hiding.

[Pingu]

If you look under the rocks and plants.


IMG_0378_01 by The Pingus, on Flickr

The mealworm was acting like a sail and the ant was getting blown all over the shop. It didn't want to let go of its booty though.

[ravenbait]

Yesterday, tbf. A couple of salmon resting under North Water Bridge.



Sam

[rafletcher]

A pair of Herons in the field opposite, presumably after worms and voles.

[Wowbagger]

A family of long-tailed tits in the park today.

It seems that the parents have one brood per year and the whole family stays together for the season, the parents keeping an eye on the youngsters.

[rafletcher]

About 20 swifts, which is lovely to see, wheeling and squealing overhead. Plus the obligatory buzzards and kites.

[cycleman]

A pair of goldfinches  🙂

[ElyDave]

two of my last offroad rides have had some deer accompaniment, plus recently several hares, buzzards, herons, kestrels.

Unfortunately today I had to remove a dead sparrowhawk from the lawn.  No idea why it had died, there wasn't a mark on it

[Wowbagger]

Jan and I drove out to Wallasea Island (nowhere near Liverpool) to have a look at the RSPB site. There was a fair bit of stuff there, the pick of which was probably a marsh harrier. We also saw a couple of avocets from a distance, and the more usual stuff. There were some linnets I think but we saw them at a distance.

[rafletcher]

Yesterday, on my ride, I disturbed a pair of magpies killing a sparrow.

[Mrs Pingu]

Swifts, getting jiggy on the wing.

[ElyDave]

Hares x 2 whilst mtb'ing around the droves. They're bloody quick

[andrew_s]

Unfortunately today I had to remove a dead sparrowhawk from the lawn.  No idea why it had died, there wasn't a mark on it

Flying into a window is a relatively common cause of dead birds close to the house

[ElyDave]

Yes, we've had that happen, but no sign of it here, there's  usually a big thunk and a imprint on the window.

[Wowbagger]

An owl, I think a tawny, this evening at Wakering Stairs. I watched it for a while and videoed it but it didn't get very close and a lot of the time I was looking and filming into the sun. About 5 minutes later I heard a nightingale, which I didn't see, but might have if I'd paid more attention because it started singing in one hawthorn and shortly afterwards was in another - assuming that there weren't two. It seems to me that there have been far more reports than usual of nightingales in Essex this year.

[CrazyEnglishTriathlete]

Hedgehog in our garden.  We suspected they had returned as in the spring we found a pile of wrapped up old bamboo leaves with a hedgehog shaped hole in the middle at the base of our phyllostachys stand, but it is nice to see one has found the old foraging route through our garden and the hole under the side fence has come in useful.

[rafletcher]

Last evening, a fox on the far side of the field in front of the cottage.

[Pingu]

Curlews mobbing a buzzard.

[citoyen]

A grass snake! Lifted up the top of an old garden table that was lying on the ground and it was there sheltering underneath it. It was a big one too - must have been over a metre long. Really lovely specimen. Didn't hang around long enough for me to get a really good look though - quickly slithered off into the undergrowth.

An owl, I think a tawny, this evening at Wakering Stairs. I watched it for a while and videoed it but it didn't get very close and a lot of the time I was looking and filming into the sun. About 5 minutes later I heard a nightingale, which I didn't see, but might have if I'd paid more attention because it started singing in one hawthorn and shortly afterwards was in another - assuming that there weren't two. It seems to me that there have been far more reports than usual of nightingales in Essex this year.

I don't see them often but I hear tawny owls and nightingales a lot at the moment - I can hear a nightingale outside right now, in fact. Wouldn't be at all surprised if nightingale numbers were up based on how many I'm hearing regularly.