Wildlife spotting

[Spoon of Ploff]

The Silver Washed Fritillary and White Admiral butterflies have started appearing in Bricket Wood. Place is supposed to be home to Purple Emperors as well, but over the years I've never even glimpsed one of the buggers.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Don't know much about moths and butterflies but that's a beaut.  Saw some cinnabar moths recently, mind you - fairly common but very striking.

Likewise, phes's kestrel - a great spot.

Quite a few buzzards were around today when I went out for a walk.  One in particular wheeled around overhead making a racket - I wondered whether there might be some chicks in a nest nearby.  Couldn't quite get a photo that did it justice, as it came pretty close and its brown feathers and white underside were quite vivid in the sunshine.  Managed to capture a couple of snaps before leaving it in peace -





Spotted a chaffinch (i think) on a fence nearby -



Last week I managed to snap a meadow pipit on a fencepost -



There is a juvenile golden plover at the centre of this picture I took on nearby moorland, but it's a bit small in the photo due to distance and limited photography skills and equipment!

[Gurke and Hare]

Fox came to visit my garden yesterday, and stopped for just long enough to pose for a picture.

[Cerys]

Buzzard and Frog, Private Investigators.

[BlodwynPig]

Fox came to visit my garden yesterday, and stopped for just long enough to pose for a picture.

Needs a hearty meal and a bath

[BlodwynPig]

Very jealous of your good cameras and eyesights, beautiful stuff

[Twonty Gostelow]

I got lucky with a fox tonight _^#MeToo about 3 hours ago. One of at least two siblings I'd seen occasionally over the last couple of weeks turned up apparently unaware of me standing at the edge of the field. Managed to film it for over 2 minutes less than 10 yards from me. It did see me eventually but hung around a bit longer, which an older fox probably wouldn't have. I doubt I'll get this close again without hiding in a ditch.







Spotted a bit of blue through the trees _^#MeToo a couple of days ago. I think that's all my good luck used up in one week now.

[bgmnts]

Pretty sure I saw a few rodents scurry past before I was within viewing range. Pretty sure they were rats, too big to be mice.

It was like a horror film.

[BlodwynPig]

So the idyllic bliss of lockdown wildlife is over for me...yesterday the dead rabbit and today the most heart wrenching moment.

The swans I have visited since early lockdown and surprised me with 4 cygnets a couple of weeks ago despite not seeing eggs... I paid a visit today after 4 days away because "I was busy". I noticed something was off as I approached the hidden glade. One swan was lying down - normally they are alert and upright at this time. I drew near and noted only 3 cygnets and the mother looked up and hissed at me. I suspected one cygnet had perished but also noted the father was not around and my stomach clenched. Sure enough as I made my way around the small lake I saw a bulk of white near the hedgerow. The carcass of the father, wings and feet still intact, ribcage poking up through a fly infested mulch of dark brown. Christ. Signs of a struggle and the body being dragged from the lake shore.

I cried as the intact family of Canadian geese looked on, sorrowfully.

I then gazed back at the mother and surviving cygnets. She was distraught, head tucked into body and the cygnets just ambling about, seemingly unattended and forgotten.

I don't know if a fox could do this, they can kill an adult swan, but most likely the swan can escape easily. Perhaps the fox went for all four cygnets and the father fought to the death. I saw no evidence of fox fur.

The worse thought is loose dog. Cretins do walk their dogs along the farm lane nearby, and it would just take one out-of-villager yoof with a frenzied pit bull to destroy Eden.

Perhaps a bird of prey? unlikely despite the odd looking feather I noted amongst the white finery of the dead hero.

In any case, I will call DEFRA tomorrow and get them to investigate (the birds are ringed). I'll pay for DNA and if it is "dog", start a Citywide campaign to identify the owner and bring him/her to justice (10 years prison for killing Queen's Animal).

[paruses]

Sorry to read about that blodwyn. Horrible discovery.

Report the ring number to the BTO. They hold that data. Did it have a davic (plastic orange/yellow. Black number letter combo) too or just the steel ring?

Will dig out the BTO link later if you don't have it.

[BlodwynPig]

Sorry to read about that blodwyn. Horrible discovery.

Report the ring number to the BTO. They hold that data. Did it have a davic (plastic orange/yellow. Black number letter combo) too or just the steel ring?

Will dig out the BTO link later if you don't have it.

OK, I didn't get the number as it would have required me to handle the carcass. I will look tomorrow. I am not sure if it was a steel ring or had colour - there are swans in the bigger lake and either this one or those had a reddish ring.

If you can provide the BTO link that would be great.

The lake is on 'private land' (Lord Ridley), so don't know if that makes a difference.

[bgmnts]

If some cunt has just let their dog maul a swan, I hope that cunt gets eaten alive by ducks and their corpse gets raped.

[paruses]

https://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/colourform.jsp?type=DUCKS_ETC

Should work - have to say it looks a daunting form but you just need to put the leg ring but in. If you do get the steel number the link to that is on that page too. Or email BTO: recoveries@bto.org (is on that webpage).

Unless these are owned by Lord Ridley like, say, racing pigeons then the rings will have been put on by a ringer. The rings are issued by the BTO under licence and they will tell you about the bird. Swans tend to be part of long term studies so the coordinator will be "pleased" to have the return.

Was thinking about it and the plastic ring is 3 or 5 letters and unique - long time since I have done any swans so that's the caveat. The bird should have a steel ring too which is also unique but the davics are put on as they can be read easily in the field and that should be sufficient (see caveat).

[BlodwynPig]

Thanks peruses. Any idea what could have caused the death? Owl maybe or badger? I was joking the other day to a friend that I'd seen a badger near the swans and fake posted a picture of a badger from this thread.... I am suspecting this all my fault.

Heartbreaking seeing the female in mourning. I wonder if the cygnets will become neglected and if there is anything that can be done (not counselling)?

[DoesNotFollow]

Silver-studded blues at Holt Heath today:

[Pdine]

[Dex Sawash]

<ducks>

[paruses]

Thanks peruses. Any idea what could have caused the death? Owl maybe or badger? I was joking the other day to a friend that I'd seen a badger near the swans and fake posted a picture of a badger from this thread.... I am suspecting this all my fault.

Heartbreaking seeing the female in mourning. I wonder if the cygnets will become neglected and if there is anything that can be done (not counselling)?

Dog, fox, possibly mink. Can't see it being a badger unless there was a beef already between the two of them. Would be astounded if an owl was involved.

They have this bi-parenting model so if one dies then the other will raise the chicks at the nesting stage. No reason to think the cygnets will be abandoned but the mate does go through a mourning phase. The cygnets stay around for couple of years I think before joining  a flock. The parent might move on and pair up again.

I know/knew someone who had a 30 year study and he did say that although they supposedly mate for life they aren't particularly monogamous.

[Attila]

I am sorry to read about the swans, poor things.

We had a hedgehog massacre last summer -- walked out in the morning to retrieve the camera from the party palace, and absolute carnage. There were plenty of footprints from the culprit, whom we think was a badger. No more hedgehogs caught on camera the rest of that summer. We had caught a badger once or twice on the camera, and the prints seemed to match.

Lately though, we've had loads of photos every night of hedgehog visitors to the party palace, plus at least 3 different neighbourhood cat-regulars, and over the past two weeks, a nightly baby fox has come by (his mum was visiting for a while, looking very scrawny probably because she was nursing, and then about two weeks ago the kits started to show up). It's good to see them back; looking at the camera times, they start showing up around 10pm and hang out til sometimes after dawn.

[BlodwynPig]

I got up early this morning and made my way in the teeming rain to the site, sadness hanging over my like a shroud. I saw the female and cygnets on the small semi-island sleeping and the Canada geese on guard right next to them with their goslings somewhere hidden.

The body of the father had gone completely. I suspect maybe someone else called it in or it was taken away by a predator? I don't have the ring number sadly. Should I still report it.

My heart swelled briefly when I spied another grey-white bundle on the other side of the island, then dipped when it looked mangled and dead. Upon closer inspection it didn't look like a swan or animal, but no idea what it is.

As I left, the mother woke, we looked at each other for a few moments and she tucked her head back into her feathers. *tears*

[Buelligan]

Very, very, sorry indeed Blods.  You know what I think about all of this.  Hopefully it will inspire great swan support works of some kind.  Hugs to you.

[Dex Sawash]

They may figure out what swan it is from ring # of the other bird?

[paruses]

They may figure out what swan it is from ring # of the other bird?

Just typed out the opposite of what I've now realised - if Dex means extropalating the number from the ring/davic on the pen then yes I suppose the person who monitors them might know which have hooked up and be "pleased" to know the likely fate of the cob.

They may already have recovered the body if it was gone without trace this morning. Very sad.

[Twit 2]

Dead grass snake on the pavement:





It's grass snake, not concrete snake. Rookie error on the serpent's part.

[Buelligan]

Walking home last night, proper big, fully tusked, boar came pouncing down off the rocks above, paused, looked at me and then skittered across the path on his ridiculous little feet, real blimming close, and lolloped, complaining bitterly, off into the herb-smelling crepuscule.  Meaty fellows these sangliers.

[phes]

Saw a lovely orange roe deer from the train yesterday. It was a great day. I moved to a new town right before lockdown, I don't get on well with my work colleagues and don't own a car. I've been totally isolated socially and not seen a human that I know in almost four months. So the treat of seeing family, the joy of motion on an empty train and then seeing a roe deer in woodland edge ten yards from the tracks was fantastic

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Nice one, phes. Sounds like things are on the up.

I also spotted a roe deer yesterday, glancing up briefly before tucking into some shrubbery.

[BlodwynPig]

Walking home last night, proper big, fully tusked, boar came pouncing down off the rocks above, paused, looked at me and then skittered across the path on his ridiculous little feet, real blimming close, and lolloped, complaining bitterly, off into the herb-smelling crepuscule.  Meaty fellows these sangliers.

We are very meaty, and very hairy

Some "good news" on the swan front. I visited just now and there was nothing in the larger lake and my heart shrunk. But I visited the usually deserted smaller lake and the geese family were there and then I spotted the white of the swan family nestled in a secluded nesting spot. I had brought my binoculars today so didn't need to disturb to check that the 3 remaining cygnets were present, which they were.

Did some further detective work and followed a trail from the now disappeared father carcass up into the hawthorn hedgerows. Notice a few trails and in the gap between myself and farm field I spotted the foot...and it was the ringed foot. Just the foot and bone mind, so obviously the carcass had been dragged up by some fox or other beast and not recovered by human.

I did not take my phone so used the blood from my thorn cut arm to mark my t-shirt with the BTO number. I will enter it using the provided link above. Hopefully closure...and hopefully my human scent my discourage any more raids for a few nights at least

[Buelligan]

Heroic stuff, old pig, glad you are making the best out of an extremely distressing situation.  Hold fast, old hog, hold fast!

[BlodwynPig]

Heroic stuff, old pig, glad you are making the best out of an extremely distressing situation.  Hold fast, old hog, hold fast!

I can't bear to see the grief in her eyes, other than that I am strong and will continue to monitor.