Seen today

[border-rider]

Weasel ?

[Auntie Helen]

I thought weasels had quite visible tails. We see them regularly round here (and stoats too) and they're like cartoon animals as they can change direction instantly.

Last night driving home from the pub I saw a pair of green eyes in the verge beside the quiet road. We realised it was a badger, who then decided to step out in front of the car and trundle across the road. Fortunately we stopped in time. He then stuck his head in a hole in the bank beside the road (back end still sticking out, just like my dog does - she thinks you can't see her now) and we carried on.

[border-rider]

I think you're right re the tail, but I couldn't think of anything that fits the description without much of a tail...

If it's 10" long and slim it's likely going to be a mustelid of some sort, I think.  Orange sounds weaselly...

[Snakehips]

Today seems to be the day for the magpies to plunder the blackbirds' nests. I had hoped it wouldn't happen this year. Council contractors removed the magpie nest on Monday while tree pruning in my street so I figured that without extra mouths to feed the magpies might leave the blackbirds alone.
I heard a commotion , two blackbirds were trying to fight off a pair of magpies from a nest about three gardens away. Then one of the magpies turned its attention to the nest in the tree at the end of my garden. No messing , it flew straight in to the tree directly at the nest. In a futile gesture of solidarity with the blackbirds I ran out and shook the tree and the magpie flew away. It was then that I noticed the two dead fledgelings (one decapitated) on my lawn , presumably dropped by a magpie on an earlier raid.
I find it odd that the magpies don't come down for the meal that is lying there waiting for them on the lawn.
Do they kill for pleasure ?

Snake

My Library


 

[plum]

Yes having read you thoughts and googled weasel it does look like the best candidate. It went by fairly quickly, I probably didn't see the tails. That's pretty cool I don't remember ever seeing anything like that before, don't get many daytime creatures in Brum.

[pcolbeck]

My first lapwing of the year. There used to be huge flocks of them round here but not these days.

[Tim Hall]

Green Woodpecker on NCN21 near East Surrey Hospital, as I had a lunchtime pootle.

[Rig of Jarkness]

Mrs C cleaned the windows at the back of the house last week.  Ever since we've been beseiged by a variety of small birds attacking them.  Mostly chaffinches and robins from what I can see.  I presume they can now see their reflections and are seeing them as a threat.  The windows weren't that dirty to look through, but I guess that the thin coating of dust made all the difference in preventing a reflection.

[Snakehips]

Looked out of the window first thing this morning and saw this little creature tip-toeing about.



Could have been this chap or its family that cleared up the dead birds on my lawn on Thursday (see previous post)

Snake

[Mrs Pingu]

Ubiquitous buzzards, 3 deer (Roe, prolly) and a lizard

Oh, and a dead badger 

[andym]

1 Bambi
1 long mousey rodenty type thing (maybe 1inch wide but long, 10cm-ish, and milk chocolate brown)
1 Squirrel.  Looked like a red squirrel, but bigger. Much redder than a UK Grey. Maybe we get different squirrels in Germany?
2 Birds with yellowish front, light brown back, and had ear tufts.

edit: birds look like crested tits

[Mrs Pingu]

1 Squirrel.  Looked like a red squirrel, but bigger. Much redder than a UK Grey. Maybe we get different squirrels in Germany?

Red sqrls come in different colours. We saw a Black red sqrl when we were in Germany, running across the road in front of a group of people who looked like they'd just been at a funeral, spookily.
Bit like this one: File:Squirrel germany.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[toekneep]

Lots of interesting birdlife over the last couple of days as we were enjoying a short break on the Lancaster Canal and the Lune Estuary. But by far the most thrilling sighting of the weekend was a solitary swallow seen today. Made my heart sing.

[Crumbling Nick]

Very out of date by now, but...
On the way to Lunnun 8 days ago, there were numerous red kites. The good lady at the Falcon Inn said that someone in Thame was probably feeding them, since they occurred in agitated flocks. I subsequently saw such a flock of 20-30 kites over Watlington and stopped to watch. The birds were, circling, wheeling, diving, maybe even tumbling, in a way that looked more like a display for the mating season than a feeding frenzy. I didn't see any of them diving to field level. It was an incredible display of aerobatic skill, way beyond the effortless gliding that seems the norm. Has anyone any idea what was going on?

[pcolbeck]

Three toads when the builders lifted the yorkstone slabs that form a path along the back of our house. Funny thing is I have lived here ten years and never seen a toad in the garden before, newts and frogs (next door has a pond) but toads no.

[mike]

am sat at my desk watching a woodpecker attacking the peanuts in the birdfeeder 5 meters away.  Such aggressive pecking, sounds like someone hammering in nails!

Sadly, the camera is in the house.   There's a bluetit on the other side of the feeder now too, and a finch of some sort picking up the crumbs underneath.  Cool.

[Bledlow]

Yesterday, actually. Woke up to find pigeon feathers all over the garden. Hypothesised that there had been a pigeon/cat interaction, resulting in a reduction in the pigeon population.

While pottering about by the bird feeder later in the day, I was scolded vociferously by a rather scruffy blue tit. Definitely aimed at me: it was looking me straight in the eye, from no more than 2 metres away. I think it was complaining that I was between it & dinner. Cheeky little bugger. Who does it think provides the grub?

[andym]

a number of May Bugs.  (They're dumb creatures, and obviously can't read a calendar either)

[nicknack]

Buzzard. Not exactly remarkable but for the fact that it was the nearest I'd seen one to home - only just outside Sittingbourne.

[LindaG]

A brown hare.   

[JStone]

Last Friday, a pair of otters - 1 adult & 1 young - foraging along the coast by Kyleakin (Skye)

[Auntie Helen]

A stoat running away from me, then diving into the hedge.

[Wowbagger]

A heron, looking a little lost standing as it was in a field of what I think are going to be peas, and being dive-bombed by a gang of black-headed gulls.

[CAMRAMan]

Buzzard. Not exactly remarkable but for the fact that it was the nearest I'd seen one to home - only just outside Sittingbourne.

I saw one flying over my house the other day in Warwick, which is nothing remarkable maybe, but I've never seen one here before and it was being harangued persistently by a crow, so I assume it's an occasional visitor.

[Riggers]

NickNackers and Warwickestershirelad, interesting comment about sightings of buzzards over towns as I too saw one last weekend over Brighton, just calmly floating around, which got all the Herring gulls in a bit of a flap. They didn't go near it, and he/she was unconcerned by them.