Wildlife

Talk about anything.

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Jurassic
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Location: Helensburgh, Scotland.

Re: Wildlife

Post by Jurassic »

On this morning's ride home from work I saw six red deer hinds (running across the track in front of me and lit up by my helmet light) then a barn owl swooped overhead a little while later showing up white against the night sky and finally on the final leg of my commute a hare came charging down the road towards me before having second thoughts and ducking under a gate, into a field and making off at high speed. It's funny that often you see nothing and then other days you have multiple sightings.
redefined_cycles
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Location: Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Re: Wildlife

Post by redefined_cycles »

Not sure what these birds were. Looked like finches but I get confused with colours and names. The were mainly white with hints of black and there was hundreds of em in the courtyard (of the hospital) that could be seen from the ward I was working on today. There seemed to be one massive nest shared by the two trees!

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Twas a beautiful site and I took a little vid to share with the chap I was talking to as he couldn't turn round to look (what you could probably call 'a survivor'...)
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Kumquat
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Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2012 9:14 am

Re: Wildlife

Post by Kumquat »

Coypu here not otters.
More birds of prey than you could ever want to shake a stick at.
Hares, yes. Not many rabbits though.
Deer, cows and owls.
The frogs will be back soon too.
Grubby little urchin.
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benp1
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Joined: Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:36 pm
Location: South Downs

Re: Wildlife

Post by benp1 »

Spotted a badger on a ride the other night that was in a bit of park I didn't think had any in. It's very close to civilisation/roads/tube/home. There are a few muntjac here but little else. Was quite happy at that
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summittoppler
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Location: North Wales

Re: Wildlife

Post by summittoppler »

Not taken during a ride but here's the starlings doing there bit from an evening last week, so mesmerising!
Click pic to play video
Image20210216_172730 by Jeff Price, on Flickr
Last edited by summittoppler on Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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summittoppler
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Re: Wildlife

Post by summittoppler »

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Last edited by summittoppler on Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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PaulB2
Posts: 1952
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Location: Stafford

Re: Wildlife

Post by PaulB2 »

My youngest practically jumped into my arms this morning when a cat jumped out of the undergrowth at the side of the path right at his feet. I swear I could the cat's sniggers as it walked casually off again afterwards.
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ledburner
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Location: The worsted place in West Yorkshire,

Re: Wildlife

Post by ledburner »

Very good Paul 2, cat are wooden spoons!
About 30 year a go I believe I saw, a pine martin run across the path and disappear up into the trees . This was on the Cleveland way in a pine plantation after Rievaulx Abbey walking towards Sutton bank. (old Byland? ). I described it to wildlife photographer who were doing B+B they agreed it could be and I was lucky.
I've almost run over a red squirrel, I'm glad I didn't. It was near Loweswater following the C2C, it was the day after9/11 and foot & mouth was still rife.
The last autumn, I heard, then saw a green woodpecker in the local Wood. You can hear them, it is the first time I've sighted one. It does warm your heart.

Another red sq'l seen near Hawes in a reservation. They're so small.
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Warning - may contain value odded typos & ither mythspellings..
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JoseMcTavish
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Re: Wildlife

Post by JoseMcTavish »

redefined_cycles wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:21 am Not sure what these birds were. Looked like finches but I get confused with colours and names. The were mainly white with hints of black and there was hundreds of em in the courtyard (of the hospital) that could be seen from the ward I was working on today. There seemed to be one massive nest shared by the two trees!

Image
Tricky to tell from the picture, but they could be Pied Wagtails or Long Tailed Tits? I'm leaning towards the Wagtails...
redefined_cycles
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Location: Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Re: Wildlife

Post by redefined_cycles »

JoseMcTavish wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:50 am
redefined_cycles wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:21 am Not sure what these birds were. Looked like finches but I get confused with colours and names. The were mainly white with hints of black and there was hundreds of em in the courtyard (of the hospital) that could be seen from the ward I was working on today. There seemed to be one massive nest shared by the two trees!

Image
Tricky to tell from the picture, but they could be Pied Wagtails or Long Tailed Tits? I'm leaning towards the Wagtails...
Thanks for the info Jose... I did a search on both and they're definitely not long tailed tits... so must be/maybe pied wagtails... Looked amazing how they all flocked to the 2 trees...
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Alpinum
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Alpinum »

I know somebody who recently ran over a puking gnome.
pistonbroke
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Re: Wildlife

Post by pistonbroke »

Appropriate given where you're based. :lol:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomes_of_Z%C3%BCrich
tobasco
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Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2019 9:06 pm

Re: Wildlife

Post by tobasco »

May be a Bramblings Shaf, they can hang around in large groups and in trees.
redefined_cycles
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Location: Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Re: Wildlife

Post by redefined_cycles »

tobasco wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 10:13 am May be a Bramblings Shaf, they can hang around in large groups and in trees.
I just checked (bramblings)... Nah, these were definitely black n white... I think Pied Wagtails or simply zebra finches (assuming that zebra finches look black n white)... I might need to get out my bird book later :smile:
redefined_cycles
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Location: Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Re: Wildlife

Post by redefined_cycles »

Turned up for work somewhere in the Midlands, but the shift had been cancelled. Thankfully, or else I'd never had seen this beauty 'ballerina-ing' around the carpark/grasslands...

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I do wish I had a better phone camera (S8)...

If I go consult my bird-book I reckon it's a.... I'm gonna go with a Woodlark (but the book doesn't show em as being spotted on mainland Britain) or a (something) pipit...
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Bearlegged
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Bearlegged »

More likely a thrush I'd say.
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Bearbonesnorm
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Yes, Thrush or female Blackbird ... hard to say as it's obviously under water :wink:
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redefined_cycles
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Location: Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Re: Wildlife

Post by redefined_cycles »

Bearbonesnorm wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:53 pm Yes, Thrush or female Blackbird ... hard to say as it's obviously under water :wink:
Yeah, it is a rubbish camera is it not...

Well, there we have it (mistle) thrush or female blackbird. Too large to be a tawny pipit and the skylark don't come this far it seems...

Thanks 'Wildlife-pros'... :-bd
tobasco
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Re: Wildlife

Post by tobasco »

Looks like a mistle thrush

Lot’s of thrushes prominent at the moment, singing their thing at dawn and dusk.

I find identifying birds is helped by getting their song and habitat, then refer to rspb website
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Ray Young
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Ray Young »

Five years ago I built a garden pond. I was amazed at how quickly aquatic insects and beatles appeared in it and after only six weeks I saw a common newt swimming in it. Unfortunately I've never seen it since.
I was hoping to attract frogs or toads but after three years nothing appeared. That third year on the last day of a bivi trip I rescued some tadpoles from certain death in a puddle that had almost dried out by transporting them in a spare water bottle and put them in my pond.
Last year two frogs appeared, one male, one female and they laid a clutch of spawn which led to lots of tadpoles. Unfortunately on a very windy night an almost empty box of slug pellets got blown into the pond and within days all the tadpoles along with half the water snails in the pond had, much to my dismay, died. I've no idea where the box of pellets came from, maybe a neighbour's garden
Fast forward to this year and joy of joys, eight frogs and one clutch of spawn in my pond. Now with eight frogs you'd think I'd have more spawn but I'm pretty sure that seven of the frogs are male so I'll just have to be content with what I have for now and hopefully no wind blown poisons in my pond this year.
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Bearlegged
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Bearlegged »

Full story in the Today's walk thread, but here's the herd of red deer I met this morning:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMprRYvBiEA/
belugabob
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Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2015 8:20 pm

Re: Wildlife

Post by belugabob »

Had a buzzard flap down out of the roadside trees, and into the undergrowth on the other side.
Just then I saw what he was up to - red deer roadkill in the undergrowth.
Must have disturbed the Buzzard, whilst he was eyeing it up.

Saw a nicely active anthill, in the forest, too - things are livening up
redefined_cycles
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Re: Wildlife

Post by redefined_cycles »

Woke up at about 0345 this am. The thought occured to me that I should just repack my gear into the 'car' bag and go back to bed but common sense prevailed.

Departed at about 0408 and needed to ride in a hurry as no-one likes a late-comer, especially on the morning after they've been working through the night and knackered. Mid ride I thought a few times about my camera and it's inability to take the bird shots as they're always so fast. Til this point it was only the little cuties that are rhe size of a hand/fist or less.

In my thoughts and after taking a pic of the sunrise, I imagined putting up a post on this here forum titled 'what budget camera to take sniper-pics'. Next minute I'm staring what must've been a Buzzard in the face. Sat on the hedge on the side of the road. Last time this happened I thought I'd come across a greater bird of prey than what it was. I was beside myself...

It was about 2018 with a commute to Scarbados and I was 70ish miles in of an 85 miler. I was beside myself and quickly tried to get into position for a pic but it just looked indifferently at me and dropped back over the hedge, just like a paraglider and flew off low to the farmland. I frantically jumped through the bush, causing lots of cuts and still didn't manage to get a pic...

So today, with that lesson in mind, I quietly parked about 10m away behind a tree. Then tip-toed across to get in position. Just as I pulled my camera up, it flew away. But not falling backwards and away into the trees. Did I get the pic, erm, kind of :sad:

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It was behind the big tree on the right and then flew away and rested in them trees to the left. Or maybe it qas all just a big hallucination as I've never seen one here in the past 5 years or so of riding along!

Which camera do I want (budget, less than £100 but needs to be small enough for the framebag :smile: ). Good reminder to me of why I/we do these commutes (and thanks Oh Allah for these beuatiful opportunities).
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psling
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Location: Forest of Dean

Re: Wildlife

Post by psling »

That'll be a lesser spotted wotsit Shaf [Latin name: d'youthinkesaurus] :cool:
We go out into the hills to lose ourselves, not to get lost. You are only lost if you need to be somewhere else and if you really need to be somewhere else then you're probably in the wrong place to begin with.
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