Author Topic: Seen today (Read 1018580 times)

T42 · « **Reply #3875 on:** 30 November, 2014, 04:27:59 pm »

Somebody's idea of a weekend's fun:

Sorry for the blur: it was 3°C, I had thick cycling gloves on over frozen fingers, and the lights had just changed.

Otherwise, this is as close to a wild boar as I want to get.

clifftaylor · « **Reply #3876 on:** 30 November, 2014, 06:59:32 pm »

Where is this, and can I buy sausages??

hellymedic · « **Reply #3877 on:** 30 November, 2014, 07:18:32 pm »

A f***ing mozzie in my bathroom in the wee small hours this morning.

DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME OUT HERE?

T42 · « **Reply #3878 on:** 01 December, 2014, 10:01:44 am »

Quote from: clifftaylor on 30 November, 2014, 06:59:32 pm

Where is this, and can I buy sausages??

Dunno about you, but I certainly can. My chum Thierry does excellent wild boar salami.

As to where it is, the clue is in the number plate.

Andrij · « **Reply #3879 on:** 02 December, 2014, 05:04:18 pm »

A male Cardinalis cardinalis in the tree outside the study window.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3880 on:** 03 December, 2014, 11:25:33 am »

A greater spotted woodpecker in Priory Park. I heard a lot of long-tailed tits as well, but it was too cold to stop to watch them.

a lower gear · « **Reply #3881 on:** 06 December, 2014, 06:44:08 pm »

Friday 2:00pm, pleasant sunny afternoon, a fox ambled up our suburban street. The bins had been collected in the morning - maybe he was making his/her way home after a useful morning's tearing bin bags up...

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3882 on:** 16 December, 2014, 10:18:49 pm »

Sunday: a fleeting glimpse of a sparrohawk in Churchill Gardens. A little later, I spotted a greater spotted woodpecker whilst driving along at 50mph. All I could see was the silhouette and flight pattern, only later a bit of piebaldiness. I reckon it was in my field of view for less than a second.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3883 on:** 19 December, 2014, 05:37:21 am »

A nocturnal song thrush that thinks it's spring. The last time I recall a December song thrush was 10 years ago, over Christmas. It was very frosty and for a few nights it sang on the corner of Priory Park at about 1 am. I remember this very well as it was only a few days after my mother's funeral.

Steph · « **Reply #3884 on:** 20 December, 2014, 11:37:18 am »

Last night, at ten. Foot of the stairs to my front door. Two deer.

perpetual dan · « **Reply #3885 on:** 20 December, 2014, 12:36:20 pm »

While making lunch, a fox in next door's garden.

Crumbling Nick · « **Reply #3886 on:** 21 December, 2014, 06:08:34 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 19 December, 2014, 05:37:21 am

A nocturnal song thrush that thinks it's spring. The last time I recall a December song thrush was 10 years ago, over Christmas. It was very frosty and for a few nights it sang on the corner of Priory Park at about 1 am. I remember this very well as it was only a few days after my mother's funeral.

I'm not sure about their current habits. However, one of the memorable parts of my ride to join Frenchie's (acf) Christmas ride in Dec 2006 was the song thrushes singing well before dawn, but a little later than the robins.

Pingu · « **Reply #3887 on:** 25 December, 2014, 05:11:20 pm »

Wren, goosander, goldeneye, teal, treecreeper and lots of robins.

IMG_4523 by The Pingus, on Flickr

That's the treecreeper.

SteveC · « **Reply #3888 on:** 25 December, 2014, 07:44:30 pm »

Pied wagtail in the back garden. Not particularly unusual, in fact fairly common round here and we often get them across the road at the front, but almost never at the back. This was the first one we've seen in 2014.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3889 on:** 25 December, 2014, 08:21:18 pm »

Quite a few birds today whilst walking, although nothing out of the ordinary. In order of noteworthyness:-

2 kestrels. I referred to them as a "pair" but with hindsight I think they were in conflict rather than harmony
1 green woodpecker
13 swans flying in an echelon, numerous other swans on the ground
numerous waders, including curlews and redshank
1 little egret
1 heron
1 greenfinch
loads of gulls, pigeons and other "boring stuff"

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #3890 on:** 26 December, 2014, 10:16:49 am »

Not seen but heard: some variety of critter, beastie or varmint has taken up residence almost directly above my bed at Fort Larrington, where it exhibits scratching behaviour at all hours of the morning. Most likely suspect is a tree rat as there are plenty round here and tree rats in general have form for this kind of behaviour.

If it's a Mogwai I'm going home.

rafletcher · « **Reply #3891 on:** 29 December, 2014, 09:58:41 am »

For the first time in 15 years, we saw a bullfinch in our garden on the feeders. A lovely sight.

Deano · « **Reply #3892 on:** 29 December, 2014, 04:02:12 pm »

About a dozen seals lounging about at Seal Sands.

Also, while I was riding along, I saw a kestrel out of the corner of my eye come a-swooping down, all purposeful death aimed at some squeaky thing in the central reservation. But it made a slight miscalculation, face planted into the turf and flapped back up, looking distinctly woozy.

Auntie Helen · « **Reply #3893 on:** 30 December, 2014, 07:42:58 am »

Massive buzzard yesterday at the edge of the woods. It alighted on a branch and watched me, looming huge. As soon as I wrestled my phone out of my jacket pocket to take a pic it decided to head off.

Butterfly · « **Reply #3894 on:** 31 December, 2014, 10:17:09 pm »

A couple of weeks ago as I was riding along that rural paradise the river Wandle (entirely within greater London) I saw a Kingfisher

This excitement has encouraged me to detour that way a few times in the hopes of seeing it again. Yesterday we saw a pied wagtail and a grey wagtail and an egret, today we saw the egret again and a goldcrest! It gets better and better. To complete the set, we saw a yellow wagtail in malham when we were there last week.

spesh · « **Reply #3895 on:** 02 January, 2015, 05:36:02 pm »

Wowbagger · « **Reply #3896 on:** 03 January, 2015, 04:08:01 pm »

Morphy doesn't like going for walks on cold wet days, but some time late into the morning there is a tipping point at which the need is greater than the desire for warmth.

Anyway, today we delayed until about 2.30 and, fortunately, a break in the rain. The park was all but deserted other than a lovely young family in which dad was playing sploshy football with his daughter, about 5 years old I reckon. General hilarity ensued when Morphy nicked the tennis ball they had been playing with. We retrieved it and returned it to them.

A few minutes later we saw a green woodpecker alight on a sycamore trunk only to be followed within seconds by a greater spotted woodpecker, which mobbed it, and the green woodpecker flew away. I have never before seen both species at the same time, and certainly not interacting. It seems to me that, for a big bird, the green woodpecker is a bit of a wuss.

Basil · « **Reply #3897 on:** 03 January, 2015, 05:06:01 pm »

Out on a walk today. A lamb. In a field!
After 50 years of Archers listening, even I know that lambing begins at Christmas, but that is indoor lambing. I've never seen one in a field this early before.
It didn't have a ewe in attendance, and all the ewes anywhere near it appeared to be pregnant (I'm not an expert) and were ignoring it.
I fear that all was not well.
Not one of our neighbouring farm's fields, so I mentioned it to couple outside the next cottage we passed, in case it was information that needed to be passed on locally.

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #3898 on:** 03 January, 2015, 09:34:35 pm »

Quote from: spesh on 02 January, 2015, 05:36:02 pm

Nice photo! Is that through the window of your hice?

Jurek · « **Reply #3899 on:** 03 January, 2015, 09:37:33 pm »

Quote from: Sergeant Pluck on 03 January, 2015, 09:34:35 pm

Quote from: spesh on 02 January, 2015, 05:36:02 pm

Nice photo! Is that through the window of your hice?

'Hice' suggests you might be royalty