Seen today

[rafletcher]

A Hummingbird Hawk Moth


Moth by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr

[rafletcher]

A small yellow bird, feasting on the blackfly on a Clematis in our garden.  No idea what it was. Not Yellowhammer, not Siskin, not Yellow Wagtail, although it closely resembled one but with a shorter tail, and no wagging! Never seen one before. Wasn't a finch. May have had a dark "eyeborw".  Lovely little thing.

Puzzling!  Greenfinches can look yellow:-

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=fufl4unD&id=2C19A98100D0048BBA088E271C4B8A31945BC795&thid=OIP.fufl4unD1OrI1gpEjGDCnwHaE8&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2flive.staticflickr.com%2f65535%2f49469271311_1a35d59481.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.7ee7e5e2e9c3d4eac8d60a448c60c29f%3frik%3dlcdblDGKSxwnjg%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0%26sres%3d1%26sresct%3d1%26srh%3d799%26srw%3d1198&exph=333&expw=499&q=Greenfinch+vs+Goldfinch&simid=607992147765387722&FORM=IRPRST&ck=325A1C371D24E4ADCC2EC1C37141C0FD&selectedIndex=0

But maybe someone lost a canary?!

It didn’t have a finches beak shape though, definitely an insect eater. And wrong “form” for a canary..

[Mrs Pingu]

Goldcrest?

[rafletcher]

I wish! They are about in the nearby Wendover woods, but are top of the high canopy birds. I did look, but this was bigger, about the size of a Dunnock - or indeed the aforementioned Wagtail. I'll have to go through our bird books. Sadly we've not seen it again.

[geoff]

Just witnessed a Sparrowhawk nabbing one of the resident sparrows right off our garden bird feeder.

It has since gone incredibly quiet out there!

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[Jurek]

Just witnessed a Sparrowhawk nabbing one of the resident sparrows right off our garden bird feeder.

It has since gone incredibly quiet out there!

Sent from my STF-L09 using Tapatalk

Surprised?

[rafletcher]

One of these on one of our sunflowers. Any ideas?

Moth? by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr

[Pingu]

Acronicta rumicis, the knot grass moth possibly.

[rafletcher]

Acronicta rumicis, the knot grass moth possibly.

Yep, I just found that one too, and think you’re right. Never seen one before, for something supposedly common.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Sparrowhawk, right outside the window.

It was very fat. Lots of sparrows and starlings round here.

[Peter]

"But there wasn't as many as there was a while ago."  Battle Of New Orleans  (Johnny Horton (US) and Lonnie Donegan (UK)

[Basil]

Gosh Peter. 1814?
You Silly Billy. 

[pcolbeck]

Having a glass of wine tonight on the patio a hedgehog scurried past me to drink from the terracotta dish (rescued from a huge plant pot that broke) that we fill with water for wildlife.
I have connected the dish to the drip system for the patio plant pots so it gets at least some water whilst we are on holiday as the drought is predicted to go on through September.

[Peter]

Gosh Peter. 1814?
You Silly Billy. 

Right on both counts, Basil!  You had to be there!!!

[rafletcher]

Not seen, but heard, the first harbinger of autumn. The geese from the local reservoir did a honking sweep over the house this morning.

[Wowbagger]

A couple of nights ago I disturbed a pair of muntjacs whilst I was cycling along a bridleway.

[The Family Cyclist]

I think I have a wasps nest in the willow stump. There's loads of them all over the growth as keeps growing from the stump

It's a 100 foot from house so they can stay as far as I'm although do need to trim the willow back as it's got too big again but will have to wait or try and do at dusk

[rafletcher]

What I assume is a juvenile squirrel from a second litter, brought in courtesy of our cat.

Prey by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr

[JellyLegs]

Numerous herons whilst cycling across the fens yesterday, fishing the drainage ditches at the field edges.  Also a badger crossing one of the many bridges over waterways on the approach to Goole from the south.  It was an inky black moonless night and I heard his claws scratching at the road surface as he ran before I saw him.  Their gait always makes me giggle.  It looks so ungainly.

[andrew_s]

What I assume is a juvenile squirrel from a second litter, brought in courtesy of our cat.

Prey by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr

It looks like an edible dormouse to me.
Does your location match the distribution "confined in UK to Chilterns and adjacent woodlands mostly within 35km of Tring"?

If so, or approximately so, it may be worth reporting to your local wildlife people.

[rafletcher]

We’re around 5km from Tring - so yes! It’s the second one she’s had this year. We’ve been here 22 years and those are the first we’ve seen - though the local hardware stores sell glis glis traps.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Not seen, but heard, the first harbinger of autumn. The geese from the local reservoir did a honking sweep over the house this morning.

On Sunday evening, above the Severn estuary, I saw a flock of ducks land in a field then about ten minutes later a flock of geese landed and chased them out! It was a field that had recently been harvested so I presume they were eating spilt grain, or maybe it was insects?

[T42]

I think I have a wasps nest in the willow stump. There's loads of them all over the growth as keeps growing from the stump

It's a 100 foot from house so they can stay as far as I'm although do need to trim the willow back as it's got too big again but will have to wait or try and do at dusk

We usually have a nest or two in the house walls every summer - half-timbered house.  You can get sprays with an injector nozzle to slaughter them with but they're no real trouble: if they come inside they usually go out again, especially if you wave something large & bright such as an A4 pad at them. We usually just let them go about their business. On year they left us a present in the loft: https://pbase.com/johnewing/for_sale_or_rent

By and large we like wasps - they're intelligent.  One year after having dinner in the garden a wasp settled on the edge of a dish that had contained some egg-based dish MrsT had made.  Over the next half-hour we watched that beastie carefully carve out small chunks of egg and ferry them 20-odd metres into the barn, back and forth without a pause.  Towards the end we were practically cheering it on.

Hornets are different. Around ten years ago we had them nesting in the gap between two floors. That was a different kettle of fish: they came down into the kitchen between the beams by the dozen and we were whacking them out of the air à la Serena Williams.  The fire brigade dealt with them for us.

[Wowbagger]

If you can tolerate a wasps' nest then it's best to do so. By winter the whole lot will have died, apart from the hibernating queens, and they don't re-occupy old nests. Paper cells don't have the reusability that beeswax ones do.

[rafletcher]

And another on the kitchen floor this morning….. this one much more edible dormouse-lik, possibly because it was a male, whereas the first one was the female. It also weighed more.

Dormouse redux by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr