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Wildlife spotting

Started by Twit 2, August 06, 2018, 12:59:58 PM

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Twit 2

Even though 99% of wildlife has died in the last 2 months and the world will end Thursday week there's still the occasion to see a wild beast and be gladdened. Yesterday I saw two cool things:

1) Big fuck off seal at Cromer. Seals in Norfolk are ten a penny when 1000s of them line the beaches during their winter breeding, but this was just one on its own, frolicking 10m or so out past the bathers. First time I've seen a seal so close 'in the wild', so to speak.

2) Kingfisher on the Yare just out of Norwich. If you're out on a boat you get a good view of them fucking about on the banks. Hard to spot otherwise.

Jumblegraws

Quote from: Twit 2 on August 06, 2018, 12:59:58 PM
Even though 99% of wildlife has died in the last 2 months and the world will end Thursday week there's still the occasion to see a wild beast and be gladdened. Yesterday I saw two cool things:

1) Big fuck off seal at Cromer. Seals in Norfolk are ten a penny when 1000s of them line the beaches during their winter breeding, but this was just one on its own, frolicking 10m or so out past the bathers. First time I've seen a seal so close 'in the wild', so to speak.

2) Kingfisher on the Yare just out of Norwich. If you're out on a boat you get a good view of them fucking about on the banks. Hard to spot otherwise.
Always wanted to see a kingfisher. I saw kookaburras when I was in Oz, which I think are their antipodean cousins.

I like walking my cats at night on the golf course next to where I live, got some relatively decent footage of a couple of fox cubs the other bight.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Buzzards (or some other bird of prey) seem to be all over the place these days. They're quite mesmerising, circling around the sky with their distinctive T-shaped silhouette. I was walking the dog one time and I saw one on the ground. I tried to get close enough to take a photo, but the dog scared it away.

I don't remember ever seeing them when I was little. Have they been reintroduced to the wild recently, or was young me just too engrossed in my computer games?

Shoulders?-Stomach!

We get a fair amount of red kites in Yorkshire after they were successfully reintroduced. They're well shit mate, gas them all I don't really mean that

holyzombiejesus

I see quite a lot of deer where I live. Saw just the head of one floating in the canal the other day, which was nice. We get sheep breaking in to our garden too. There are bulbs that I planted 4 years ago that I have never seen flower because that fucking farmer can't keep his sheep contained and they keep coming down and nibbling the buds off. They did a load of shit on the lawn and I shovelled it up and put it on our soil and all manner of weird plants (well, not weird, but wheat and poppies) grew where I'd put it.

Hecate

I see deer too, in the forest up next to a stream where I live, someone's dog was chasing after them, and I see them in the farmers fields too.
I was walking along one day and thought "Ooh, look, the farmer must have put up a little scarecrow" and when I got closer I saw it was two deers just standing there in the corn field staring at me, I waved and they bounded off and then later on I saw another one in the other field. I love the way they bounce away when they see you.
I went for a walk at something silly like 3 in the morning the other week and saw a hedgehog. I know that's not that rare but it's still really exciting when you see one.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I've seen grass snakes twice in my lifetime. Once when I was a nipper and again a few years ago. By some strange coincidence, both of them had the front half of a frog sticking out of their mouths and trying to crawl away.

paruses

Now that CaB's gone all outdoorsy - I saw a porpoise last week when out kayaking. Also gannets and puffins. Very few seals but there are usually hundreds around Howth(north of Dublin).

Also saw a grey wagtail while walking home along the canal - which was nice.

kittens

saw a kingfisher and a heron on the same boat trip once. must have been about 7 years ago now so it's just a memory of a memory, but it's a good one.

Mr_Simnock

Quotedon't remember ever seeing them when I was little. Have they been reintroduced to the wild recently, or was young me just too engrossed in my computer games?

Me too I seem to notice more of them whence I din't in the past. Check this link out to see there is some truth in this - https://app.bto.org/birdtrends/species.jsp?s=buzza&year=2017

Endicott



Bit of deer stalking from Sat afternoon.

On Sunday I was over the same place with the dog, and on the way home suddenly realised she was prancing along with a bit of deer leg in her mouth. She'll find anything that dog, and be pleased as Punch. It was hard it tell what it was to begin with as she would not let it go, I thought at first it was a dead vole but it was too large, not a rat because no tail, also it appeared to have an arse at both ends. Anyway when I finally got it off her I reckoned it was a bit of leg, very furry.

Gregory Torso

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on August 06, 2018, 01:30:29 PM
both of them had the front half of a frog sticking out of their mouths and trying to crawl away.

Probably just frogs cosplaying as grass snakes.

BlodwynPig

Dawn hike today and saw five deer in the forest, a night heron, egret, crane, Caspian tern, some rabbits, and the usual chipmunks and squirrels...although the "red" squirrel they have here is quite cute



Night heron


None of them feeding today as it was about 42 degrees with the humidity.

A few weeks ago I got to see a Grizzly bear and cub and some bison and elk too in Yellowstone. Been a nice few weeks, but still no raccoon sighting despite them being all about my window at night.

BlodwynPig

Also seen Garter snakes, turkeys and coyote around my house too. And a bald eagle with chick.

Not looking forward to living back in England and spotting the odd pigeon.

Spoon of Ploff

Couple of times now I've seen a Little Egret on the banks of the river Colne where it coughs its way passed the big Tesco in Watford. I find myself wanting to apologize to it for the grim state of the place.

Pijlstaart

The hill I live on is known for it's crows, and I've been attacked by the crows. Work has a lot of squirrels, and although I have been promised teddy bears, I haven't seen any.

Galeee

Happy to see a pair of mistle thrushes on the bird table today, and a juvenile woodpecker last week.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Galeee on August 07, 2018, 10:12:37 AM
Happy to see a pair of mistle thrushes on the bird table today, and a juvenile woodpecker last week.

I fed a downy woodpecker a month ago from my hand. It's underbelly was so soft and....downy. Beautiful.

holyzombiejesus

I found 2 caterpillars and a chrysalis on my living room curtains today. Don't know whether to detach the chrysalis. I really want to but imagine it will kill the soon-to-be moth inside.

shiftwork2

Noble and fearsome sparrowhawk in the garden last weeK, chomping on a sparrow. The birdbath was quiet for a few days afterwards.  Beautiful creature though.

Gregory Torso

This summer our complex has been invaded by what I have been calling "daddy shrews". Everyone else calls them mice, but mice are they fuck. They're long, close to the ground, velvety christlike moles, almost ribbons when they move. They quibble and peep  in the bushes and are always running under and over people's slippered feet.
The management got in some spare cats to try and subdue the rodents, but the cats were useless, and just went up on the playground equipment and stood there mewing redundantly as wave after wave of long mice broke over the rubber ground. That's all I've got really: long mice and useless mews.

BlodwynPig

Shame you didn't have any mewls to cart them away

Buelligan


manticore

Quote from: Spoon of Ploff on August 07, 2018, 07:31:36 AM
Couple of times now I've seen a Little Egret on the banks of the river Colne where it coughs its way passed the big Tesco in Watford. I find myself wanting to apologize to it for the grim state of the place.

The Little Egrets love the Colne, I can see them often out of my window overlooking the Colne Estuary. They've had a resurgence in recent years because of decreased levels of pollution, so not everything's totally bad in the world.

They have a funny walk, bit like a chicken.

kngen

After living in London for a decade, it's quite a trip to see some actual wildlife out in the wild,. It's, as the OP says, a pleasant reminder that not every aspect of our lives has been monetised or eroded due to lack of monetary value.

So yeah, I get quite giddy when I see fireflies or hummingbirds or chipmunks in my yard - all the stuff of American childhoods that I read about from afar.


Brian Freeze

Recent highlights have been finding a sea slug,  a couple of washed up and dessicated pipefish and marvelling at the incredible aerobatics of seabirds doing their utmost to escape the attentions of Skuas.

ZoyzaSorris

Recently stayed in Golspie for a week for my father-in-laws 70th, they have a house up there, it was bloody lovely. Hot as the med, clear seas. So bright and still, it was like an aquarium, i could wade up to my chest with a net and swipe marine creatures from the sandy bottom and amongst the gardens of bladder wrack to impress the kids with.

Best thing I got was a bobtail squid, or 'little cuttle'. Quite impressed with my catching abilities on that one. Kept changing colour in the net, getting black and angry. Then when released, it fired out a burst of ink and then instantly changed colour to be invisible against the sand, jetting off at high speed leaving an inky ghost of its own shape hanging in the water. Amazing to watch. Also pipefish, baby flounders, brown shrimp, opossum shrimp, scorpion fish and crabs. One of my best mornings ever.
Also lots of seals and a couple of ospreys. Nice times.

As for wildlife, Ive got a fair bit in my garden in London, so wont hear the city done down too much.
Ive had sparrowhawks in the sycamore, peregrine falcons being mobbed by swifts overhead, packs of squirrels and foxes runing riot, wheeling flocks of parakeets, a heron landing on my fence, a purple hairstreak and various species of dragonfly and damselfly checking out my pond, a song thrush smashing snails to bits on my lawn, hordes of goldfinches gorging on the milk thistles, blackcaps and jays flitting furtively about in the canopy, wrens and blue tits nesting in the understory.

Also get little egrets, cormorants, mandarin ducks and kingfishers down the river in the local park behind my house.

Its a lot more than I see in much of Britain's desolate and raped countryside.

Some of the countyside is lovely of course, every year i go with a bunch of mates to wild camp for the weekend in a plot of wood in the weald that my dad bought years ago when his dad died. The weald is amazing. Highlight this year was when everyone else had crashed about 7 in the morning and me and one intrepid pal went for a stimulant-fuelled wander amongst the glistening dew and sunbeams of the glades and rides and we stumbled across a huge red deer (not often found in the weald) that bolted through the open wood just ahead of us with incredibly touching and profound grace, then it was gone, and just the buzzing of hoverflies pollinating the heather again.


Twit 2


Gregory Torso

Seriously, do we have any like rodentologists on here can help me out identifying these long mouse things. I've tried googling "Chinese shrew", "Chinese king mouse", "Sausage mouse", "Asian shrew dads", "Emperor Mouse or Shrew", "Sausage Mole", "Penis Rat", "Chinese Bamboo Fur Snake", "Asian Long Vole", "Penis in bush", "Desmond's". some are close but these things are pretty big, anyone?

I spent about twenty minutes just sitting silently in my garden earlier this morning, and I must have seen at least three wasps. Everyone should make time to just stop and look at the beauty that's all around.