Author Topic: Seen today (Read 1018575 times)

Pingu · « **Reply #1850 on:** 08 May, 2011, 07:38:19 pm »

Quote from: RJ on 08 May, 2011, 04:38:20 pm

Swifts flying around outside the flat this afternoon ...

Swifts here this evening - heard them before I saw them.

pcolbeck · « **Reply #1851 on:** 08 May, 2011, 07:46:02 pm »

Our housemartins are back and since it rained yesterday they are trying to construct a nest. Hope the new plastic sofits don't cause them a problem and that the stone wall will be all they need for adhesion.

Tourist Tony · « **Reply #1852 on:** 09 May, 2011, 08:03:19 am »

Quote from: andym on 08 May, 2011, 09:14:16 am

Well the swifts finally showed up on 5th May and had set up home in the external rafters of my apartment by 6th May. Still only seen/heard a few. Guess they arrived on the wind from the south? Been easterly for a week or 2. I think it's about the same date as last year despite the warm/dry April.
edit: this thread tells me they arrived on 30/4 last year (but that's probably a few days earlier than typical)

Blackbirds? thousands. Why do they always fly at your wheels if you disturb them while riding a bike?

Cuckoo - heard my first of the year. And maybe 2nd? Or did the first just fly closer to the path?

Pied Wagtails - a few.

Black Redstarts - seen a few at work, but none nesting near my place like the last few years.

Still only seen the one single cockchafer / maybug.

Puzzled...you have swifts nesting on your house rather than house martins? And pied wagtails rather than white ones? Pied is largely restricted to the UK.

clarion · « **Reply #1853 on:** 09 May, 2011, 09:32:22 am »

Quote from: chris n on 08 May, 2011, 04:44:37 pm

A cinnabar moth this morning - first one I've seen. Lovely!

Cool. I've never seen one, but, by chance, I was reading up about the cinnabar in out moths & butterflies book this morning. Beautiful. I understand MV's conflict.

Jaded · « **Reply #1854 on:** 09 May, 2011, 09:59:04 am »

A hare on yesterdays ride.

and a monstrous amount of roadkill, all nicely mashed up, then cleaned by the rain.

RJ · « **Reply #1855 on:** 09 May, 2011, 12:31:36 pm »

Quote from: Pingu on 08 May, 2011, 07:38:19 pm

Quote from: RJ on 08 May, 2011, 04:38:20 pm
Swifts flying around outside the flat this afternoon ...

Swifts here this evening - heard them before I saw them.

50 kmh - same birds??

Steph · « **Reply #1856 on:** 09 May, 2011, 01:35:48 pm »

Swifts on the Sussex coast on Friday.

Simonb · « **Reply #1857 on:** 09 May, 2011, 01:37:58 pm »

Cobwebs all over the bushes near Kingsworthy in Hants. Seen elsewhere as well.

Why so much of it? Anyone know?

Big piders?

border-rider · « **Reply #1858 on:** 09 May, 2011, 01:52:22 pm »

Quote from: Simonb on 09 May, 2011, 01:37:58 pm

Cobwebs all over the bushes near Kingsworthy in Hants. Seen elsewhere as well.

Why so much of it? Anyone know?

Big piders?

Caterpillars Strike Force

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1859 on:** 09 May, 2011, 04:27:21 pm »

Quote from: Mal Volio on 09 May, 2011, 01:52:22 pm

Quote from: Simonb on 09 May, 2011, 01:37:58 pm
Cobwebs all over the bushes near Kingsworthy in Hants. Seen elsewhere as well.

Why so much of it? Anyone know?

Big piders?

Caterpillars Strike Force

And

Caterpillar invasion turns cemetery into horror film set
| Metro.co.uk

PaulR · « **Reply #1860 on:** 09 May, 2011, 05:12:51 pm »

Peregrine over Honor Oak Park, south east Londonton, on Saturday at 5.30pm.

Funnily enough I had taken a call from a friend earlier in the afternoon who wanted my opinion as to whether the bird of prey he'd seen in Greenwich Park might have been a peregrine. I wonder if these are the Bankside ones, fed up with the poor quality of recent exhibits in the turbine hall.

andym · « **Reply #1861 on:** 09 May, 2011, 06:19:54 pm »

Quote from: Tourist Tony on 09 May, 2011, 08:03:19 am

Puzzled...you have swifts nesting on your house rather than house martins? And pied wagtails rather than white ones? Pied is largely restricted to the UK.

Might well be white wagtails. They look pretty similar.

Definitely swifts. In a small void between a wall and an external rafter, on the 4th floor. I think martins and swallows have white on them? These are completely black.

Crumbling Nick · « **Reply #1862 on:** 09 May, 2011, 10:07:30 pm »

Quote from: Mal Volio on 08 May, 2011, 07:25:17 pm

They like ragwort, which one is meant to eradicate on sight. Bit of a conflict there...they are lovely moths

We spend quite a lot of time clearing ragwort from the grassland nature reserves.

Grazing animals have evolved to eat around the stuff; I have a vivid memory of a field close to the Little Hay TV mast with a lot of horses and more ragwort (flowering) than grass.

However if the grass is mown for hay or silage, the ragwort is much less likely to recognised. So, if there is even the remotest possibilty that the grassland might be mown for a hay crop, the ragwort has to be removed. Those are the rules. It's a bit like H & S.

We do find ragwort plants with colonies of cinnabar moth caterpillars. It is sad

that they are to be excluded from the nature reserve.

Quote

We have housemartins nesting in the eves

Lucky you. Saw my first martins yesterday in the Cotswolds.
Are the droppings as good a fertilser as guano?

border-rider · « **Reply #1863 on:** 10 May, 2011, 01:15:17 pm »

Small Blue butterfly. That's good - not that common here

Pingu · « **Reply #1864 on:** 10 May, 2011, 06:46:31 pm »

Cycling to work this morning I saw a starling fall dead out of the sky

I had a quick look round but couldn't see any raptors.

border-rider · « **Reply #1865 on:** 12 May, 2011, 02:55:15 pm »

Swallows. In the kitchen.

I found one lying on its back in the middle of the floor, and had a strong word with Big Cat. It seemed unharmed but stunned so I picked it up and took it outside and it flew off.

An hour or so later i found 2 more fluttering round the windows inside the kitchen, so I suppose the cat is innocent and they were flying in through the open door and hitting the windows from the inside.

jogler · « **Reply #1866 on:** 12 May, 2011, 03:05:41 pm »

Quote from: Mal Volio on 12 May, 2011, 02:55:15 pm

Swallows. In the kitchen.

I found one lying on its back in the middle of the floor, and had a strong word with Big Cat.

Did he not Cat egorically deny it?

IGMC

RJ · « **Reply #1867 on:** 12 May, 2011, 06:09:53 pm »

Quote from: Pingu on 10 May, 2011, 06:46:31 pm

Cycling to work this morning I saw a starling fall dead out of the sky I had a quick look round but couldn't see any raptors.

Lack of raptors? Look no further: BBC iPlayer - Fair Game? Scotland's Sporting Estates

(A BoP probably wouldn't have let go ...)

GruB · « **Reply #1868 on:** 13 May, 2011, 07:05:34 am »

On the commute the other day I confirmed I now have yellowhammers.
They are a pretty little bird.

Today?
I have been treated to shagging sparrows by the back door. I'm sat here working and the cock sparrow has been having his way 6 times with the hen. Randy little buggers. She didn't seem to mind.

Bledlow · « **Reply #1869 on:** 13 May, 2011, 11:37:18 am »

Red Admiral a couple of days ago. Hordes of coot chicks, ducklings (there's one brood of 20+ by County lock, in the middle of Reading, goslings & cygnets.

Chris S · « **Reply #1870 on:** 15 May, 2011, 08:16:34 am »

Yesterday, a rather handsome male Cockchafer, at Chez boab:

L CC · « **Reply #1871 on:** 15 May, 2011, 09:01:43 am »

That photo needs a 50p for scale.
He was mahoosive, and the boab-lets were scared. Luckily, someone big strong and fearless removed him from the landing. (Me, not Chris S).

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1872 on:** 15 May, 2011, 09:12:42 am »

Quote from: Chris S on 15 May, 2011, 08:16:34 am

Yesterday, a rather handsome male Cockchafer, at Chez boab:

Fnaar fnaar.

corshamjim · « **Reply #1873 on:** 15 May, 2011, 09:24:35 am »

Quote from: Chris S on 15 May, 2011, 08:16:34 am

Yesterday, a rather handsome male Cockchafer, at Chez boab[/url]

Gosh I haven't seen one of those for decades.

Gaseous Clay · « **Reply #1874 on:** 15 May, 2011, 05:50:21 pm »

Rather sadly, a Jackdaw being opportunistic in our back garden and grabbing a fledgling sparrow that was rooting around the lawn. A few swift (no ornithological pun intended) pecks to finish the poor thing off, and then off it flew with it in its claws.

One of those images that your brain keeps reminding you you've seen, and that you could do without.

Oh well, nature etc.

Author Topic: Seen today (Read 1018575 times)

Simonb

border-rider

border-rider

border-rider

Chris S

corshamjim