Verena wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 7:22 pm

whitestone wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 8:44 am Lying in bed this morning there was a strange rattle from the cat flap. Cath got up to check as the cat was in the bedroom. It was a bird "trying to get in". Then it occurred to me that it probably wasn't trying to get in but was picking at the cat hairs on the cat flap door as lining for a nest. Adaptable thing wildlife

Our dog was sitting on the back step the other day looking longingly into the dining room, then we watched a little sparrow come up to his tail and start picking fluff out of it for its best brave or what?! He was totally oblivious....

Symbiotic relationship? Like those birds who perch on hippos' (not mother in law's) backs and eat the bugs or whatever. Bird gets fed, hippo gets debugged. Bird gets nested, dog gets tail coiffured.

Walk out on the Essex Marshes yesterday and had a good haul,
Barn Owl, Short Eared Owl, Marsh Harrier and a Spoon Bill were the noteworthy sightings.
The day previously a chap had seen a Golden Oriole but I was not so lucky.

Heard the first swifts of the year today in Shropshire

Owl update......2 chicks confirmed. Seen them both today out of the box exploring the surroundings with 1 of the adults flying around keeping an eye on them. Heres yesterday's pics
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sIF3yM ... p=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sQshtx ... p=drivesdk

HUX wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 5:33 pm Owl update......2 chicks confirmed. Seen them both today out of the box exploring the surroundings with 1 of the adults flying around keeping an eye on them. Heres yesterday's pics
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sIF3yM ... p=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sQshtx ... p=drivesdk

Oh God, that is so lovely. Bloody owls and their big eyes and swivelly heads ... how can you not love 'em?

We had the first swallows in the horse yard this week. Two pairs, one in with the donkeys and one in with the cob. Funny they chose the stables with the calmest equines. I spent an hour trying to get a nice pic on Wednesday but they are just too bleeding quick, and don't like hoomans in there.

HUX wrote: ↑Fri May 14, 2021 5:33 pm Owl update......2 chicks confirmed. Seen them both today out of the box exploring the surroundings with 1 of the adults flying around keeping an eye on them. Heres yesterday's pics
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sIF3yM ... p=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sQshtx ... p=drivesdk

So lovely. Thanks HUX for sharing

two owls chicks you say? superb!

I know we're probably not allowed to count "remote"/"second-hand" sightings, but I'll raise your owls and add two peregrine chips, I mean chicks... aww bless!

http://peregrine.group.shef.ac.uk/

https://twitter.com/WalkingSoftly02/sta ... f.ac.uk%2F

I hate cows, evil beasts. Along with happily killing people, they also wont pose for the camera:


Fen ponies. Some appeared to be, judging by what was hanging down between their legs, er, quite randy :

I've bored everyone I know to death with my beekeeping antics so here you go, just a quick video.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t4Aizb ... p=drivesdk

Just for info the small busy ones are female and they do all the work. The big bulbous clumsy one is a male. He doesn't really have a job, he just loafs about going from hive to hive eating and looking for a virgin Queen to mate with

At the end of one of the local cheeky MTB trails this morning, something long, slender and fast-moving caught my eye.

I stopped still and spent the next ten minutes watching a weasel terrorise a family of voles.

It all happened within six feet of me and the weasel seemed completely unaware that I was there. The poor voles obviously had more important things than me to worry about. At one point the weasel popped into a hole in the bank and about 30 seconds later the forest floor was covered in voles, sprinting for their lives in all directions.

This year’s top wildlife encounter so far for me.

That's a good sighting, very jealous!!

Classic case of not knowing what I was looking at. Yesterday I attended a meeting of residents of our valley to discuss objection to a proposed windfarm. The likelyhood of it happening is slim as most of the valley is protected due to it's flora and fauna. One of the leaders of the group said that there had been sightings of a pair of Golden Eagles which, if confirmed and verified, will stop the proposed wind turbines stone dead. When I got home I googled said bird and was shocked to see that the photos were identical to a big bird I'd seen a few days earlier when cutting the weeds in our almond fields! It circled around for about 5 minutes before moving down the valley, not to self, next time I'm out I need to take the phone with me! Tbh, I thought it was a Bonellis Eagle which are more numerous but this one was significantly bigger, I thought I was having a Father Dougall small or far away moment.

Wow... Seeing a golden eagle Duncan... That's 'life complete' territory for me. I thought (like a thicko) I'd seen some sort of eagle going to scarborough once but then Bob highlighted it being a Buzzard (it was).

Anyway, today finishing work and seen this. Charcoal black and lovely with a white streak across it's eyes...

Anyway, today finishing work and seen this. Charcoal black and lovely with a white streak across it's eyes...

Pied wagtail I believe

boxelder wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 10:16 pm

Anyway, today finishing work and seen this. Charcoal black and lovely with a white streak across it's eyes...

Pied wagtail I believe

Thanks for that... I could have sworn I was in Madagascar for a mo when I saw that

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sat May 22, 2021 8:15 pm Wow... Seeing a golden eagle Duncan... That's 'life complete' territory for me. I thought (like a thicko) I'd seen some sort of eagle going to scarborough once but then Bob highlighted it being a Buzzard (it was).

Anyway, today finishing work and seen this. Charcoal black and lovely with a white streak across it's eyes...

Get yourself up to the Isle of Harris then. I saw loads last visit.

https://www.visitouterhebrides.co.uk/se ... lden-eagle

Thanks so much Dave... I shall indeed get myself there God-Willing..

Spotted on and around the farm last week:

Wild boar
Roe, fallow and muntjac
Buzzards
Red kite
Hare
House martens
Pipistrelle
Skylark
A multitude of tiny insects living inside some rotten logs - no idea of the names of any of them!

Unfortunately someone has, no doubt with good intentions, released into local farm land several foxes that appear to be from a rescue centre. They have no idea what to do with themselves and are picking off the easiest chooks from everyone's hen houses willy nilly. All that work in rehabilitating them only for them to be shot the next day. Quite sad.

Very very good news: 3 baby barn owls living in my sister's shed at Llandeilo. Being visited by the ring man today:



Very very bad news: local feline has knocked the wren's nest off our shed and left bits of baby wrens (as mentioned here in Cheery Friday only yesterday for fux sake) on the path. I FUCKING HATE THOSE SCUMBAGS. Why would anyone willingly offer accommodation to a mass murderer, who does it for fun? Dogs, fine, perfectly civilised usually, and they like a laugh too. But not those psychopaths. There. I've said it. If this confession suddenly removes 50%+ of potential bikepacking partners then so be it. Not to mention the vile pile of sick it also left outside my shed door. "Nature". No, it is not.

Oh, and if it goes anywhere near our baby blackbirds something unpleasant will occur. And not to the blackbirds.

RIP wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 7:12 pm Very very good news: 3 baby barn owls living in my sister's shed at Llandeilo. Being visited by the ring man today:



Very very bad news: local feline has knocked the wren's nest off our shed and left bits of baby wrens (as mentioned here in Cheery Friday only yesterday for fux sake) on the path. I FUCKING HATE THOSE SCUMBAGS. Why would anyone willingly offer accommodation to a mass murderer, who does it for fun? Dogs, fine, perfectly civilised usually. But not those psychopaths. If this confession suddenly removes 50%+ of potential bikepacking partners then so be it. Not to mention the vile pile of sick it also left outside my shed door. "Nature". No, it is not.

Sorry to hear it Reg...

Thank you. Obviously 'nature' is busy killing itself all over the place all the time. But generally not for fun. For food usually. Unless you're a/ homo sapiens(?), b/ felis catus. And my apologies for my intemperate language but I chose it carefully.

Local feline did same with my missuses goldfish. Not one but 2... then the 3rd died of stress I think. They was properly covered up and protected too.

Left the last one in the garden after managing to knock it out of the water. Not gonna lie, I didn't feel the same anger as her but I know where she was coming from. Given up on trying to keep goldsih in the big tank outside now...

Followed a small herd of deer up a bit of singletrack for a while on the KAW the other day. Was amazing.

Dolphins and a seal

If you really squint on this picture, you can see the fin