Seen today

[Ruthie]

A mouse trotting the whole length of Bondgate in Darlington on the pavement.

Bondgate is a major throughfare in Darlington town centre.

Was it

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Father Christmouse?

Yes, that's mine, over there. The red one with the white fur trim and the big-buckled belt.

No.   It was a little mouse with clogs on.

[Peter]

That's fabulous - now I'm a bit deflated but will still say, "Kingfisher"!

[DDCyclist]

When I was at college in 'Darlo' I saw a group of hooligans stamping the life out of something and screaming "it's a rat, it's a rat - kill it!"

Err - no. It was a water vole. Fecking idjits.

[Peter]

They'd have been eejits whatever it was.

[woollypigs]

A Barn Own, been a while since I have seen one so close.

[Basil]

A Treecreeper. 

On a tree.

Creeping.

[Wowbagger]

Three buzzards and, later, two more buzzards. Also, quite a lot of fieldfares.

[rafletcher]

A hare, well, haring (sp) across the field opposite this morning.  And two red kites in another field, one in a small tree, the othe stood on the ground, this afternoon.

[jamesld8]

A buzzard eating its fill of roadkill pheasant, cormorant flying over (nearest coastline 50 miles away), about 100 fieldfares in orchards and a goldcrest in the garden

[SteveC]

A buzzard eating its fill of roadkill pheasant, cormorant flying over (nearest coastline 50 miles away), about 100 fieldfares in orchards and a goldcrest in the garden

Cormorants are quite happy on freshwater, so I wouldn't be too surprised at that. Nice though.

[jamesld8]

A buzzard eating its fill of roadkill pheasant, cormorant flying over (nearest coastline 50 miles away), about 100 fieldfares in orchards and a goldcrest in the garden

Cormorants are quite happy on freshwater, so I wouldn't be too surprised at that. Nice though.

they , as with goosanders, seem be on increase locally, up to 5 have been sighted on Llandrindod wells lake in last few months---maybe rough coastal conditions have pushed them in and being opportunistic they recognise the easy pickings on a lake ?  The fish eating goosanders, sometimes 20 or so, have also learnt that bread (thrown out for ducks, swans) is quite palatable !

[Pingu]

Otter in the harbour just now 

[perpetual dan]

Not an unusual spot, but a very friendly (hungry) pair of robins shared a bush and watched me having lunch in the local nature reserve today.

[Wowbagger]

A song thrush giving it large in the park today. I think the song thrush is my favourite song bird, with the exception of the nightingale, and you don't hear them that often round here, and when you do it's pretty much only in May.

I also like a good look in the various bits of water we pass to see if I can see any fish. In the summer you can usually see quite a lot of the enormous carp that live in the lake but they make themselves scarce in the winter. However, there are some pools below the main lakes which are fed by the lake's overflow pipe (the lakes are fed by a natural spring, which presumably is why the Saxons, and later the Cluniac monks, decided to live there) which are shallower and, at this time of year, crystal clear, unless the ducks have been stirring them up. In the first pool, there is a small shoal of roach, which seem to be growing rapidly. A few months ago the biggest I saw was about 6" long. Now the biggest is getting on or 12" long. They are quite wary and when I get too close they zoom up to the other end of the pool. I'm pretty sure there is a small pike in there as well, but I have only seen this creature twice, both times fleetingly, so I'm not 100% certain it is a pike.

The second pool was duck-infested today so I didn't see anything, but I usually do. There are about half a dozen much larger fish in there, mostly common carp up to about 6lb I would guess, but there is also one koi, which stands out clearly because of its goldfish-like colouring, and I think that there is also at least one large tench.

[Ruthie]

I wonder if fish get lonely.  Poor old tench, all by himself.  Maybe depends on species, some being more social than other.

eta:  it seems that, yes, they do get lonely.  I'll be ending up vegan at this rate.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/threads/do-fish-get-bored-or-lonely.125870/

[jamesld8]

@ Lledr Hall near Betws Y Coed a couple days ago bird feeders were doing good business with blue tits, coal tits, nuthatch right at window, and a great close up view of a Jay which has the wonderfully evocative Welsh name of `Sgrech y coed`   

[Ruthie]

At a friend's house near the river yesterday,  a family of long tailed tits,  dippers,  a heron,  hares,  mallards. Great place to live.

[L CC]

I wonder if fish get lonely.  Poor old tench, all by himself.  Maybe depends on species, some being more social than other.

eta:  it seems that, yes, they do get lonely.  I'll be ending up vegan at this rate.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/threads/do-fish-get-bored-or-lonely.125870/

Or, in the 'not news' department, Pet Owners Anthropomorphise Their Animals.

[Ruthie]

I wonder if fish get lonely.  Poor old tench, all by himself.  Maybe depends on species, some being more social than other.

eta:  it seems that, yes, they do get lonely.  I'll be ending up vegan at this rate.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/threads/do-fish-get-bored-or-lonely.125870/

Or, in the 'not news' department, Pet Owners Anthropomorphise Their Animals.

Salt, vinegar and mushy peas with mine then.  Ta!

[L CC]

No problem.

Supplier of pseudo rational arguments for slack morals since 1982. 

[Wowbagger]

I wonder if fish get lonely.  Poor old tench, all by himself.  Maybe depends on species, some being more social than other.

eta:  it seems that, yes, they do get lonely.  I'll be ending up vegan at this rate.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/threads/do-fish-get-bored-or-lonely.125870/

I think that bottom-feeders (fnaar fnaar) of different species often form large shoals and even interbreed! Many moons ago my brother, a couple of pals and I were fishing for eels at Abberton reservoir, a vast stretch of water just south of Colchester. I think it had been a fairly slow day when suddelny, almost simultaneously, we all got bites* and all caught enormous roach, all in excess of the British record, which at the time stood at about 4lb. On closer inspection we concluded that they were roach-bream hybrid, and therefore not eligible for any record, even though they were very remarkable fish. We concluded that, because this only ever occurred once in several years of fishing at Abberton, that it was just pot luck that on that particular day the shoal happened to be in our vicinity, rather than in a different bit of reservoir over a mile away.

*since we were ledgering we actually got runs, but one doesn't say that sort of thing knowingly on this forum

[Steph]

Three buzzards and, later, two more buzzards. Also, quite a lot of fieldfares.

Definitely Buteo buteo and not lagopus?

[jamesld8]

 very rare morning, perfect winters day; after overnight fog had cleared leaving trees glistening with white hoar frost  ---so beautiful--- and clear blue skies, sunny ---a single song thrush singing away from very topmost of a 60foot high Sitka, as if Spring despite being -6c at time. Lovely to see and hear 

[Wowbagger]

Three buzzards and, later, two more buzzards. Also, quite a lot of fieldfares.

Definitely Buteo buteo and not lagopus?

I don't think I have ever seen a rough-legged buzzard. If I did, how would I tell the difference?

[madcow]

Around half a dozen long tailed tits on the bird table and in the shrubs nearby.
They seem to feed later in the day than blue tits and are more gregarious. At first,I thought that they were young wagtails but perusal of my Observers Book of British Birds soon identified them.

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