Author Topic: Seen today (Read 1018764 times)

docsquid · « **Reply #2575 on:** 08 May, 2012, 07:43:12 pm »

Extremely cute pair of tawny owl chicks, snoozing in the sun at the top of one of our oak trees

Brimstone butterfly (pictured) also speckled wood and orange-tip

Nuthatch feeding chicks

And...a kestrel with prey. Lots of action in and around nest boxes too - most of them seem to be occupied by blue tits or great tits.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #2576 on:** 08 May, 2012, 09:13:37 pm »

Tootling along the Crawley-Horsham cycle route yesterday, on a bit of bridleway, I rounded a bend to come face to face (OK, face to 15 metres away) with a startled looking deer. It shot off sharpish into the undergrowth.

Later that day we saw what looked suspiciously like English Longhorn cattle.

fuzzy · « **Reply #2577 on:** 08 May, 2012, 09:50:44 pm »

Flying round my garden this evening-

Crumbling Nick · « **Reply #2578 on:** 08 May, 2012, 10:10:18 pm »

Sitting in the sun outside the Fleece at Bretforton I spotted 3 housemartins - first I've seen this year. A few minutes later the man at the next table pointed out some very high-flying swifts, around half a dozen - again a first this year.

The warm weather produced some wonderful smells - broom in flower, May blossom in sufficient quantity to fill the air briefly with its heavy scent and bluebells in a bit woodland. The combination of broom & free-range pigs in Danzey Green was an entertaining mixture $:-\$ .

The day's treat was a grass snake crossing the road in front of me in Ullenhall. It was mature: length of a serpentine wriggly thing is not easy to estimate, but maybe a metre or so. And it was beautiful. The sun shone from its scales. It moved across the road with an effortless fluid sinuousity, that disguised its speed. It straightened out a bit to cross the grass verge and disappeared through the hedge. It was all over in seconds - less time than it takes my pocket camera to boot up

. But I suspect it was a once in a lifetime sighting.

Pingu · « **Reply #2579 on:** 08 May, 2012, 10:17:37 pm »

Quote from: fuzzy on 08 May, 2012, 09:50:44 pm

Flying round my garden this evening-

That inspired me to have a go with the bat detector for the first time this year & I picked up a bat @ 45kHz within seconds

Saw it flittering around a couple of minutes later.

Basil · « **Reply #2580 on:** 08 May, 2012, 10:20:45 pm »

Bugger, the Canada Goose chicks are out on the path by the canal on my route to the pub already. (An annual pain)
As I approached I saw that all the chicks were off the side of the path furthest from the canal, whilst the two adults were on the side nearest the canal. This meant that I would cycle between the adults and the chicks. I figured that would be trouble.
It was.

Ow. Pecked knee.

rr · « **Reply #2581 on:** 08 May, 2012, 10:40:28 pm »

3 hares of my morning spin.
A Harris hawk guarding the roadworks.

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #2582 on:** 09 May, 2012, 05:35:01 pm »

About 4 o'clock today - a buzzard, soaring high in a cloudy sky - but in central Bristol?!

jogler · « **Reply #2583 on:** 09 May, 2012, 06:57:06 pm »

A tree rat
Deceased Brock
Buzzard
Huskey
Sheep
Horses
Cows
Rabbit

jogler · « **Reply #2584 on:** 09 May, 2012, 07:10:40 pm »

& 4 Hercules aircraft being broken up in a breakers yard in Hixon.The wings & tailplane were missing on each hull but nevertheless they remained impressively large.
Wrong thread maybe but I imagine the RAF are not only wild about it but perhaps apoplectic

benborp · « **Reply #2585 on:** 09 May, 2012, 10:55:13 pm »

I'm up in Derbyshire visiting my granny. Quite a few skylarks out in the fields yesterday. This one was mimicking the sound of a car alarm from a local farm in its song.

Trudging across the fields to get to my dinner as the light was fading I caught sight of a kestrel just before it dived in to the fields below.

Lots of swallows, pheasants (three of which being chased by a lamb) and a couple of highland cattle calves that were having a great time annoying the grown ups. I'd never seen a cow skip before.

clarion · « **Reply #2586 on:** 10 May, 2012, 11:23:36 am »

Nice shot of the skylark. What lens were you using?

JStone · « **Reply #2587 on:** 10 May, 2012, 04:15:23 pm »

For the last couple of days we've had a pair of goldfinch making regular visits to the garden - the first time we've seen them here. They're determindly picking flowers & stems from the forget-me-nots, so I assume that somewhere in north Bristol there's now a nest attractively lined with pale blue flowers.

Last week in Tuscany - a pair of jays and a pair of hoopoe. Seen them singly before, but never before in pairs.

Crumbling Nick · « **Reply #2588 on:** 11 May, 2012, 12:12:47 am »

Well done for attracting goldfinches. They're around near us, but niger seeds haven't encouraged them to feed in the garden for several years.

Snakehips · « **Reply #2589 on:** 11 May, 2012, 07:58:07 am »

Swifts are here too

why1040 · « **Reply #2590 on:** 11 May, 2012, 09:21:49 am »

A pair of swifts setting up home in one of the stables, as per normal. It's so nice to see them back

It only worries us because just occasionally one of the little ones falls out, and horses are big buggers...plus they couldn't go in my horse's stable as he's such a nibbler I'm sure he'd eat the nest-we've had to put chicken wire over his ceiling joist to stop him eating that ffs!

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #2591 on:** 12 May, 2012, 10:05:33 pm »

Richmond Park: hundreds of parakeets. An ickle treecreeper, a first for me. And a bird I didn’t recognise for a moment until it started doing its thing, a greater spotted woodpecker.

Not many hanimuls though, apart from 2 varieties of deer.

Pingu · « **Reply #2592 on:** 12 May, 2012, 10:30:07 pm »

A first for us - we saw cuckoos on the road between Glen Isla & Blacklunans

Also seen today: first swifts & house martins of the year, partridge, buzzards, lapwing, curlew, yellowhammers, larks.

Bledlow · « **Reply #2593 on:** 12 May, 2012, 11:06:21 pm »

Quote from: Crumbling Nick on 11 May, 2012, 12:12:47 am

Well done for attracting goldfinches. They're around near us, but niger seeds haven't encouraged them to feed in the garden for several years.

Bird seed feeder with Wilkinsons El Cheapo bird seed mixed ca 50/50 with Wilkinsons sunflower seeds. El Cheapo alone isn't popular, but the mix goes down well, as do unmixed sunflower seeds. Goldfinches today, yesterday, & I've noticed them most other days I've looked. Also other finches, tits, & some others.

I put niger seed in a special feeder & it was hardly touched. Put it on the ground, in spots selected to meet the criteria I found on the web, & it stayed there until it got mouldy.

jogler · « **Reply #2594 on:** 12 May, 2012, 11:58:31 pm »

3 dead badgers in varying states of decay

Butterfly · « **Reply #2595 on:** 13 May, 2012, 09:02:11 am »

Yesterday on the Wiggy 100 we saw:

swallows
swifts
chaffinches
goldfinches
blue tits
a skylark and heard her mates
a curlew

a kestrel
a buzzard
Reindeer
miniature ponies and foals
black cows
lambs jumping over each other

some medium sized noisy brown birds at Brimham Rocks, which I needed Steph to identify. They sounded a bit like skylarks, but not quite so shrill and were sitting in the tops of the not very tall trees.

Pingu · « **Reply #2596 on:** 13 May, 2012, 12:09:30 pm »

First swifts in Furryboottoon today.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #2597 on:** 13 May, 2012, 08:15:11 pm »

Hooning downhill near the edge of Halsham on the tandem, we went past a road side hedge. An almighty avian row was going on inside it and then foom!

Two large black birds, possibly rooks or crows emeged, the rear one with a chick/juvenile something or other in its beak. They were hotly pursued by presumably the parent of the chick, smaller than the hunters but still black, so I'm guessing blackbird.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #2598 on:** 13 May, 2012, 10:59:54 pm »

Shortly after leaving Shenfield this morning, Jane pointed out a little owl on a wire. About a mile later, we saw another, flying into an oak tree.

I think it's vanishingly unlikely that it was the same bird flying along with us but, since it's a species that I probably haven't seen more often that about once every two years throughout my life, it's also most remarkable to see two on the same day.

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #2599 on:** 14 May, 2012, 03:12:35 pm »

Buzzards n swallows n surprised looking deer!