Seen today

[Ham]

They'll be black grey sqls rather than black red sqls 

And the laydees will be Ms Sqls ....

IGMC

[Ruth]

Cormorants.  Gulls.  Sparrows.  The yellowest finches I've ever seen.  A raccoon.  And lots of turkey vultures.

[mrcharly-YHT]

No bears? we want photos of baars

[Auntie Helen]

Storks in a field in Germany.

[Juan Martín]

That's nothing! This morning, some miles from anywhere really but between Bethersden and High Halden in Kent, a peacock. Or as I said to myself as I stood the Royal on its nose and went back for another look a f***ing peacock; positively identified as I watched it scuttle through a hedge ...a cock I think but missing a good deal of its tail - do they shed them periodically?

It could have been a huge mutant pheasant I suppose ...I say that because a couple of months ago, as this morning, I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye bustling away through the hedge and my first thought was: pangolin! But then I got a grip and realised it was probably a hen pheasant ...but now I'm not so sure.

[Pingu]

14 seals, buzzards, llamas, alpacas & a fox  I hardly ever see foxes.

Anna nother dead badger 

(click to show/hide)

cgcdhidj.jpg by The Pingus, on Flickr

[tiermat]

A couple of new ones today (for me), due to taking a different route into work.

a brace lot of partridges, flying out of the undergrowth as I approached
a raptor, of some description, not a Red Kite, it was bigger, and mean looking, flew out from between some trees and shadowed me for a 100 meters or so then disappeared into a field.
Mrs tiggywinkle, a live one this time (I have seen 3 dead ones over the last few weeks)

[clarion]

Hundreds of dead and dying wasps in our meeting room.  No evidence of a nest being built, or how they got in, and we haven't used any waspkiller, as they are just dying anyway.

Curious.

[Bledlow]

A couple of new ones today (for me), due to taking a different route into work.

a brace lot of partridges, flying out of the undergrowth as I approached
a raptor, of some description, not a Red Kite, it was bigger, and mean looking, flew out from between some trees and shadowed me for a 100 meters or so then disappeared into a field.
Mrs tiggywinkle, a live one this time (I have seen 3 dead ones over the last few weeks)

Bigger than a Red Kite? AFAIK that means an eagle, which seems unlikely.  A Goshawk is about the same size. Could that be it?

[tiermat]

Could have been, my usual way of identifying Goshawks* wasn't any use yesterday.

*They are one of the few raptors, that I know of, that have grey underwing and chest feathers.  Obviously as the bird had it's back to me I couldn't see those!**
** My other mehtod is to see what it is eating, if it is one of the neighbourhood cats, it's a Goshawk...

[Mrs Pingu]

A stoat, running round in circles like a mad thing in the middle of the road
A (red, the one true) sqrl. It ran off the road and then leapt athletically  into a tree

[menthel]

Kingfisher in Morden Hall Park! Saw it and heard it calling.

[Pingu]

Several skeins of geese yesterday & today.

[clarion]

Over the weekend, at Kingston near Lewes, we saw a great many swifts, donkeys, pot-bellied pigs, goats, alpacas (it is a sort of wildlife farm), a hole we think was badger-sized (though no badgers), and (my highlight) a weasel.

[Wowbagger]

Are you certain they were swifts? They usually migrate in August. Swallows hang around for a lot longer - we saw lots yesterday.

I noticed yesterday when I was looking at the Southend RSPB website that last year one of the main contributors saw a swallow on the sea front at Canvey on 27th November. I recall making a note of a pair of house martins on Westcliff sea front on 20th November 1976, which was a glorious warm day when the temperature was only a little short of 20°C. I have never seen swallows or martins later than early October in other years.

[clarion]

We had that debate, and had a good look at tails.  There were some martins, but definitely swifts.

To be fair, we were all but as far South as it's possible to get in the South East.

[Riggers]

He's mistaking Swallows for Swifts Baggers. Fool!

We saw lots of House Martins and Swallows at the weekend in Surrey. Must surely be the last knockings now.

No Swifts to report.

[tiermat]

As I went to the supermarket at lunchtime I saw a bird I hadn't seen before.

Roughly about the same size as a pigeon (probably a bit smaller), all a sort of mid-brown (maybe even described as beige) colur, with a blue flash on the wing.

Any ideas?

[menthel]

As I went to the supermarket at lunchtime I saw a bird I hadn't seen before.

Roughly about the same size as a pigeon (probably a bit smaller), all a sort of mid-brown (maybe even described as beige) colur, with a blue flash on the wing.

Any ideas?

Jay?

[clarion]

He's mistaking Swallows for Swifts Baggers. Fool!

We saw lots of House Martins and Swallows at the weekend in Surrey. Must surely be the last knockings now.

No Swifts to report.

Definitely not swallows.  The tails weren't long enough.

[Riggers]

Mine were definitely Swallows.

Yours might have been bats!

[tiermat]

As I went to the supermarket at lunchtime I saw a bird I hadn't seen before.

Roughly about the same size as a pigeon (probably a bit smaller), all a sort of mid-brown (maybe even described as beige) colur, with a blue flash on the wing.

Any ideas?

Jay?

<sfx: typing>
Oooo, yes, that's the one, oddly enough, in forty*coughcough* years I have never seen one before!

[menthel]

As I went to the supermarket at lunchtime I saw a bird I hadn't seen before.

Roughly about the same size as a pigeon (probably a bit smaller), all a sort of mid-brown (maybe even described as beige) colur, with a blue flash on the wing.

Any ideas?

Jay?

<sfx: typing>
Oooo, yes, that's the one, oddly enough, in forty*coughcough* years I have never seen one before!

They are funny birds, quite reclusive for being members of the crow family but rather pretty all the same. They are quite common though.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Interesting but dead animals

Badgers, two, on the A64. Biggish ones, too.

Rather rarer, a very large weasel. So large I wondered if it was a small stoat at first.

[fuzzy]

From another thread-

An hygienic Robin-