Seen today

[clarion]

Well yesterday, but a group of seals (what is the collective noun for seals?) Frolicking in a bay on the south east of Harris.
...

I think it's a colony or a herd.

[Wowbagger]

Well yesterday, but a group of seals (what is the collective noun for seals?) Frolicking in a bay on the south east of Harris.
...

I think it's a colony or a herd.

Or perhaps a pod.

I suspect that they were the same lot that we saw in June. Were they near Fleoideabagh?

[RJ]

Well yesterday, but a group of seals (what is the collective noun for seals?) Frolicking in a bay on the south east of Harris.
...

I think it's a colony or a herd.

Or perhaps a pod.

Group is fine (as understood by everybody), though I might use "bunch", depending on context 

(Colony implies breeding activity; pod I think is specific to cetaceans and not pinnipeds; herd sounds right if you insist on a special collective noun - but IMO "group" is perfectly appropriate).

</pedant>  maybe ...

[nicknack]

Evidence of mole activity today spotted whilst walking across a field. A small patch of ground moving up and down.

[Bledlow]

Last night, in the pouring rain, nearly squashed a toad - or maybe a frog. I didn't get a good enough look to be sure, but I think probably toad. It hopped just as i swerved to miss it, & I thought for a moment it was going into my rear wheel, but the bloke behind me saw it hop into the undergrowth,

[Sergeant Pluck]

Yesterday, in Fulham, a ferret on a lead. I asked the owner about it - she had found him in her home country (Poland) 5 years ago and kept him. OK to walk on the lead for short distances. He looked quite well behaved, while she sat and had a coffee. She recommended that I didn't try and stroke him though.

[Mrs Pingu]

Yesterday, not 1, not 2, but 3 red sqrls!

[Pingu]

And a slack adder:


IMG_0860 by The Pingus, on Flickr

[Snakehips]

I saw an earwig yesterday. It must be the first one I have seen in at least a decade.

[Tim Hall]

A sparrow hawk, high over head in Reigate while we waited for the Tour of Britain to do their parade thing. According to my mate Frank, it was the flap flap glide that gave it away. That and being big and raptor shaped. 

[Bledlow]

Burchetts Green, Berkshire. A dead deer by the side of the road last night. It looked as if it had been dragged off the road, presumably by whoever had hit it. Fresh: it wasn't there when we passed by less than four hours earlier.

Gone by this afternoon. Venison, anyone?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I saw an earwig yesterday. It must be the first one I have seen in at least a decade.

There are places without earwigs? !!!!

[Pingu]

A couple of skeins of geese heading south yesterday evening.

[clarion]

Not today, but recently, in the outlaws' garden:

[Peter]

It's a comma, clarion, after the mark on the underwing.  (I expect you know that; if so, sorry!)

[clarion]

Sorry, yes, I should have said.  It's quite a pretty one, don't you think?

[Peter]

It certainly is.  We usualy get one or two passing through our garden but I haven't seen one this year.  Poor year for insects generally in the North-West, I think.

[Pingu]

Just been watching dolphins in the harbour - they were really close in & quite lively 

They were back again this afternoon.

[fuzzy]

Last night, whilst fettling in the shed, I heard the sounds of avian distress. Thinking one of the cats was taunting the local bird population I went to intervene. The noise was from next door so I peered through the undergrowth between us to find, about a yard away, a Blackbird pinned to the deck by a Sparrowhawk. Said Blackbird was struggling for all it was worth which caused a bit of a comedy moment when the Sparrowhawk tried to flee with its dinner on seeing me. It could only get to the other side of the garden where it decided to settle and finish the job.

I grabbed my camera but their was too much extanious shit between us so I couldn't get a photo. I went next door and, as I approached the door to ask if it was OK to get some images, the Sparrowhawk looked up from feasting, saw me and decided to take its by now inanimate dinner elsewhere.

[matthew]

It did better than the one in our garden last summer.

Our mog saw the sparrow hawk with its pigeon lunch and though aged still shot down the length of the garden. The Sparrow hawk chose to surrender its lunch rather than become lunch.

The mog was most pleased with this delivery service of an extra meal.

[rogerzilla]

A very unseasonable dead badger on the road into work.

[CrinklyLion]

We had a WOL accompany us for a mile or two back from the pubbe

[jogler]

WOL?

[RJ]

wol.

File under Strigidae

[L CC]