Author Topic: Seen today (Read 1018373 times)

Aidan · « **Reply #1275 on:** 22 May, 2010, 05:45:22 pm »

Barn Owl hunting over the fields about 10.30 this morning. See these fairly regularly, I reckon I've seen 3 or 4 this year, all in daylight.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1276 on:** 23 May, 2010, 05:48:24 pm »

Heard a sparrowhawk making its "ki-ki-ki" noise. There was a lot of commotion in a willow tree and said sparrowhawk emerged with something tit-sized in its talons.

border-rider · « **Reply #1277 on:** 23 May, 2010, 05:57:39 pm »

4 red kites at very low level, just beginning to spiral up on a thermal over the road, somewhere in deepest west-Wales

mattc · « **Reply #1278 on:** 23 May, 2010, 10:17:00 pm »

On Wednesday we had to swerve round a pretty big snake (rural Oxon Thames flood plain). Must check some pictures to ID it. It was big enough to put the wind up 2 of us!

This morning's club ride was plagued by squirrels acting like sheep i.e. running down the road away from us instead of simply stepping into the hedgerow. Odd.

Pingu · « **Reply #1279 on:** 23 May, 2010, 11:20:05 pm »

Yesterday we saw a buzzard flying off with its lunch, looked like a wee rabbit or possibly a rat. It was holding its noms in the aerodynamic fashion that ospreys carry fish.

Also saw a brown hare

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1280 on:** 24 May, 2010, 12:19:28 am »

Went badger watching with my brother. He often sees badgers in daylight, from quite close range.

We saw one badger at 8.35 - well before sunset. The trouble was that it either saw or smelt us and that was the end of that, apart from an hour being eaten alive by mosquitoes and shredded by thorn bushes.

border-rider · « **Reply #1281 on:** 24 May, 2010, 08:21:56 am »

Oooh yes, badgers

I was just turning into our drive on Saturday night at about 10:30, coming home from the Teifi Traveller, when I saw a pair of half-grown badgers playing in the road

TimO · « **Reply #1282 on:** 24 May, 2010, 05:29:22 pm »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 24 May, 2010, 12:19:28 am

Went badger watching with my brother. He often sees badgers in daylight, from quite close range. ...

Don't worry Wow, the Somerset Kamikaze Badgers will be out in force for the Solstice WARTY in a few weeks time.

L CC · « **Reply #1283 on:** 24 May, 2010, 06:23:34 pm »

Quote from: TimO on 24 May, 2010, 05:29:22 pm

Quote from: Wowbagger on 24 May, 2010, 12:19:28 am
Went badger watching with my brother. He often sees badgers in daylight, from quite close range. ...

Don't worry Wow, the Somerset Kamikaze Badgers will be out in force for the Solstice WARTY in a few weeks time.

Not neccesarily. Our new Govt has authorised a cull. The conservatives will shoot 'em and the lib-dems will stroke their heads afterward (^{TM ChrisS})

PaulR · « **Reply #1284 on:** 01 June, 2010, 01:43:21 pm »

Not so much today, rather over the weekend on the North Yorkshire Moors: cuckoo and curlews waking us in our tents at 3.30am and a lunchtime snipe sitting on top of a roadside cross in the middle of absolutely nowhere (well, near Ralph Crosses up above the head of Rosedale). Racing pigeons skimming low over the heather near Fylingdales. Lapwings cartwheeling above Chimney Bank. A grouse thinking about crossing a busy road at Hasty Bank and thinking better of it.

Regulator · « **Reply #1285 on:** 01 June, 2010, 02:03:08 pm »

A juvenile Greater Spotted Woodpecker in our back garden this morning...

...or rather on our fence. It seems to have realised that small insects live in the little gaps between the planks and the crossmember. It was hopping along the crossmember and sticking its beak into the gaps.

I do hope it becomes a regular visitor.

Flying_Monkey · « **Reply #1286 on:** 01 June, 2010, 09:11:30 pm »

Turkey vultures! I didn't think they bred on the island, but they do apparently. They are massive!

RichForrest · « **Reply #1287 on:** 01 June, 2010, 09:18:54 pm »

On Sat' night on my way to Wetherby
4 owls, flying alongside me
1 badger, run across the road to get out the way
1 deer, stood in the road then bounded across the field and over the stream

Great to watch

Pingu · « **Reply #1288 on:** 01 June, 2010, 11:56:07 pm »

The weekend's fare:

Aberdeenshire red kite, dipper, brown hare, red deer in a field in Tongue, buzzards, some seals, unidentified terns. At a cake shop, bolshy siskins, red squirrel, GSW, 3 varieties of tit.

And a male chaffinch which seem to have fungus growing on its left foot & on its left leg and it was missing its left eye - creepy looking.

jogler · « **Reply #1289 on:** 02 June, 2010, 07:47:18 am »

Quote from: Pingu on 01 June, 2010, 11:56:07 pm

The weekend's fare:

Aberdeenshire red kite, dipper, brown hare, red deer in a field in Tongue, buzzards, some seals, unidentified terns. At a cake shop, bolshy siskins, red squirrel, GSW, 3 varieties of tit.

And a male chaffinch which seem to have fungus growing on its left foot & on its left leg and it was missing its left eye - creepy looking.

we get them hereabouts too:often seen driving motor cars

rafletcher · « **Reply #1290 on:** 03 June, 2010, 01:50:34 pm »

Our Bluebird chicks taking their first interest in the outside world - so expect them to fledge today or tomorrow

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1291 on:** 04 June, 2010, 04:11:21 pm »

A rat. Nothing surprising there, see a few every day (alive and dead), but this one didn't run away when I approached. It also had two large wounds on its left hind-quarters. Perhaps it had rabies???!!!

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1292 on:** 05 June, 2010, 02:02:37 pm »

A praying mantis, flying around our room last night then jumping from wall to wall. Soon it settled down and we spent a good while fascinated by its pupils visible behind horizontal slits - don't know whether you can call them eyelids - in the bulbous eyes, its mouth opening and closing as if eating - but if it was eating it had caught something too small for the human eye; a mite, maybe? - and then cleaning its front limbs, and its antennae waving asymmetrically in the air.

Tourist Tony · « **Reply #1293 on:** 05 June, 2010, 02:46:26 pm »

Riding down the cycle track from Gatwick, by the fetid Gatwick Stream, on the new smooooooth tarmac, to Crawley. Firstly, a goldcrest, hopping out of a bush to sit on a wire fence for me to watch, and then, of all things, a full-throttle nightingale.

Bledlow · « **Reply #1294 on:** 05 June, 2010, 05:10:50 pm »

Black swan with three cygnets. Approached by a dog while we were feeding them. The mother backed off slightly, ushered the cygnets behind her, & adopted a threatening pose. The dog dithered a bit, then cocked its leg in her direction. Well! Nice bit of body language, eh?

Sergeant Pluck · « **Reply #1295 on:** 05 June, 2010, 10:26:17 pm »

Just now, in my garden: an entire squadron of frogs

Maybe a dozen or so, in my bone-dry garden with no water that I know of within the area. What's going on?

RJ · « **Reply #1296 on:** 05 June, 2010, 10:34:08 pm »

Quote from: Sergeant Pluck on 05 June, 2010, 10:26:17 pm

Just now, in my garden: an entire squadron of frogs Maybe a dozen or so, in my bone-dry garden with no water that I know of within the area. What's going on?

Next up: lice

Plagues of Egypt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tourist Tony · « **Reply #1297 on:** 06 June, 2010, 09:27:39 am »

On the way to work today, a badja.
Unfortunately, supine in the road.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #1298 on:** 06 June, 2010, 10:01:27 am »

I went past that at about 0800 ish. When I went past the other way on the way home a bit later it had gone.

But I did see a couple of (live) deer in the field where they keep the ILS thingy.

(for non locals, this is a field a stone's throw from the end of the runway at Gatwick)

Chris S · « **Reply #1299 on:** 06 June, 2010, 11:43:49 am »

Quote from: Tim Hall on 06 June, 2010, 10:01:27 am

But I did see a couple of (live) deer in the field where they keep the ILS thingy.

This should be made Technical Speak.

ATC: "Turn left heading 290, report established with the ILS thingy."

Author Topic: Seen today (Read 1018373 times)

border-rider

border-rider

Flying_Monkey

Chris S