Wildlife spotting

[paruses]

Started to hear the long tailed lot in numbers now which is great.

Swifts galore in the sky first thing. About 12 whizzing round their breakfast buffet of insects. They were so high they looked like a cloud of flies that would then flip to one side and show their scythe shape. Marvellous.

[Attila]

Apparently the fox that had been visiting the hedgehog party palace was a vixen, as two kits have shown up at various times during the night to partake & share palace facility with Spikey Fruit and another hedgehog who has a really long face like.

[Buelligan]

Started to hear the long tailed lot in numbers now which is great.

Swifts galore in the sky first thing. About 12 whizzing round their breakfast buffet of insects. They were so high they looked like a cloud of flies that would then flip to one side and show their scythe shape. Marvellous.

And the rush of air noise they make when they're wheeling and cutting around you.  The motorcyclists of the air, I think.  Love them.

[Blue Jam]

Cuntbeak feasting on a nice bit of roadkill pigeon out by the bins yesterday. I beat a hasty retreat when it started getting all "WHAT YOU LOOKING AT?"

[NattyDread 2]

Saw a porpoise out on the loch at the weekend. It came really close too. Also a big fuck off Lion's Mane jellyfish, which I'm not so thrilled about as I'm in there there all the time without a wetsuit.

[Head Gardener]

Loch Ness Monster spotted (again)

[BlodwynPig]

Saw my first dragonfly of the year today. Massive beast, maybe 8 inches? Hawker? Dunno, sun was behind it so it just looked black.

[BlodwynPig]

For the dumb amongst our readers

[bgmnts]

Poor crow with what looked like bumblefoot perched and limping on my balcony, on a flooded pot plant, taking sips.

After it flew off, I went out and saw my sleeping cat, a black feather by his stupid head.

I did wonder for a few seconds but nah.

[Buelligan]

I love your descriptions bgmnts.  Have you ever read Cold Comfort Farm?

[bgmnts]

Thank you, if my cameraphone wasn't so abysmal I could just snap it.

I have not read that no, worth a go?

[Buelligan]

You definitely should read it, everyone should.  It might help to read some genuine 20s / 30s rural-gloomsters before, just dip in maybe so's you get the idea.  I love it but then, I am a bit Flora Poste.

[bgmnts]

Well thanks for the suggestion, its on my wish list.

Honestly dont think I could live anywhere that doesn't have some form of rudimentary wildlife and a lot of greenery. I dont know how city folk do it.

[Buelligan]

I lived in central London (right next to Tower Bridge) and worked on the 19th floor of something.  I turned that office into an orchid house and thought about jumping out of the window (but they were sealed).  Ran away and never looked back.

[bgmnts]

Good on you! We've just become so disconnected from it all, it depresses me.

[paruses]

Bumper day for butterflies yesterday: a cloud of meadow browns, some brimstone, maybe a green veined white, and was very pleased to spot a ringlet too. All in the space of one stretch of land. Blackcap and garden warblers and song thrush chattering away in the background.


Am I right that someone on here does some moth trapping?

[DoesNotFollow]

Saw several solitary tunnelling wasps and bees on a clifftop walk yesterday, along with hundreds of holes of other individuals. Lots of beewolfs (honey bee-killing wasps) and wasps probably of the genus Cerceris, as evidenced by dead weevils outside some of the holes, along with a few yellow-legged mining bees. Fascinating to see.

[Twit 2]

Miner bees, you say? Seven of them "digging up diamonds by the score"? Sure you weren't clapped out, acid-ruined in a squat?

[BlodwynPig]

A wizened Gordon the Gopher in a pair of Phil's old headphones

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Am I right that someone on here does some moth trapping?

Damon Pasta will snare moths in his arse upon payment of a quid coin.

[Twit 2]

Damon Pasta will snare moths in his arse upon payment of a quid coin.

I did a kick-arse late night moth and bat survey in a cemetery at night. Think I mentioned it earlier in the thread.

Here:

Well I had great fun. We were based in Norwich's main cemetery, which is fucking enormous. Couple of moth traps going off generators. We were there till 1 am and counted 50 different species of moth. We also had a bat sonar detector and went tramping around listening to bats. Also spotted 4 hedgehogs, a fox and an enormous fallow deer. The land has never been interfered with, sprayed or excessively cut back so it's absolutely teeming with wildlife and interesting flora. In the wake of all the environmental concerns it felt great to be a part of this. The moth experts were lovely to talk to, they could identify moths and give their latin binomials like it ain't no thang. Some of the moths viewed under magnifying glass were stunning.

[Brian Freeze]

We've got around a quarter of the pond skaters we used to have. Familial cannibalism apparently.
Which is nice isnt it?

Have stuck the camera near the badger setts overnight. Hope its still there in the morning.

[Brian Freeze]

Camera didnt get nicked.
Magpies had polished off the peanuts within half an hour of us leaving them out, and then four hours after that:-



I reckon there were about eight of them, difficult to count from 3 stills and 30 seconds of video so thats best guess. Plenty of sniffing of the camera, the audio picks up the snuffling pretty well.

[BlodwynPig]

Camera didnt get nicked.
Magpies had polished off the peanuts within half an hour of us leaving them out, and then four hours after that:-



I reckon there were about eight of them, difficult to count from 3 stills and 30 seconds of video so thats best guess. Plenty of sniffing of the camera, the audio picks up the snuffling pretty well.

wow...will invest in one of these I think

wouldn't it be daylight at 21:30 ?

[Brian Freeze]

It was pretty dark and moody by half nine here and we picked the sett thats hidden deepest and darkest in the undergrowth so it will have switched to black and white photos and videos.

[BlodwynPig]

It was pretty dark and moody by half nine here and we picked the sett thats hidden deepest and darkest in the undergrowth so it will have switched to black and white photos and videos.

are they on your land?

[Barry Admin]

Spotted a few leeches lately.

[Brian Freeze]

are they on your land?

No they are in the clough behind the graveyard. Is there something we should know?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Some of the moths viewed under magnifying glass were stunning

Others, drab and worthy of sneering dismissal.

[phes]

I was sitting on a bench in a field and walked about 10 meters away to look at a butterfly, turned round and there was a kestrel sitting on the bench. So I've been sat about 8 meters away, watching it go through its chill out routine while eyeballing me for about 20 minutes. Thank goodness I had a good pair of binoculars with me. Astonishingly beautiful bird, with its vivid grey blue neck and dusty brick back. It went through a full leg and wing stretching routine before settling down like a duck. Then it begun to rain and it took off belting across the field a meter or so parallel to ground and screeching, met by screeching from the trees across the field. Only had my phone with me sadly.