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March 28, 2024, 01:49:19 PM

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Wildlife spotting

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

Previous topic - Next topic

paruses

Quote from: BlodwynPig on July 04, 2020, 04:48:24 PM
I can't bear to see the grief in her eyes, other than that I am strong and will continue to monitor.

Excelllent detective work blodwyn. I can tell you that all returns are appreciated even if it usually means the poor bird is no longer.

paruses

Rather loud thud against the French doors yesterday evening and looked out to find a juvenile song thrush looking very dazed on the step.
I popped it in a bag to give it some safe recovery time and then released it. It hopped off in the end jnto the bushes so hoping I don't find a dead juvenile song thrush later today. Seems clear though from this morning's investigations.
It was quite young and hadn't fully grown its secondary feathers (the part of the wing close to the body).
Hope this doesn't put it off flying.

Edit - is it easy to add photos off a phone on here?

gilbertharding

Spotted quite a few stag beetles round here lately. They look pretty amazing flying. Like, impossible.

Loads of swifts buzzing around yesterday too.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: paruses on July 06, 2020, 10:21:50 AM
Rather loud thud against the French doors yesterday evening and looked out to find a juvenile song thrush looking very dazed on the step.
I popped it in a bag to give it some safe recovery time and then released it. It hopped off in the end jnto the bushes so hoping I don't find a dead juvenile song thrush later today. Seems clear though from this morning's investigations.
It was quite young and hadn't fully grown its secondary feathers (the part of the wing close to the body).
Hope this doesn't put it off flying.

Edit - is it easy to add photos off a phone on here?

bit of a faff, but you can do it if you have slender fingers

BlodwynPig

Got a message from the BTO about the dead swan

QuoteRinging Scheme: London Ring Number: ZZ7334 Species of bird: Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)
This bird was ringed by Coleman & Coleman as age nestling, sex female on 15-Jul-2009 time unknown at Whickham Hill, Tyne and Wear, UK

So an 11 year old female, which is surprising because the remaining swan has a paler beak and less pronounced black ridge above the beak...so I automatically thought it was the female. I know males can care for cygnets, but not sure in isolation?

Barry Admin

I was taking to my Mum there and idly watching the bastard pigeons on the roof, and saw two of them kissing?! I thought, hmm, do they kiss tho, maybe just feeding each other. Looked it up and it seems to be a combo of both btw. Kept watching and they did it a few more times, and I was kicking myself for having left my phone in the flat, it was so fucking sweet and I have never seen that before. Then they cuddled up to each other, one putting their head on the others chest, before one one manoeuvred round the back and clearly bucked the other. Then they flew off together, it was beautiful. 

phes

Pigeons are lovely. I only learned yesterday about the extinct Passenger Pigeon, that once existed in such numbers (billions) that when they came together to migrate, the dense flock would pass overhead continuously for days at a time, darkening the sky and destroying anywhere they rested with untold amounts of excrement. Hunted and evicted to extinction. A beautiful bird

Shoulders?-Stomach!

That sounds horrific. All that shitting. Glad they're dead.

phes



Martha, the last known Passenger Pigeon. Imagine people felt a bit bad when they could put a name to the face. A different experience to tilling your field as nameless billions rain down blankets of stinging shit on your head from dawn to dusk and your wife won't let you back in the house for supper

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Typically as soon as I slag off pigeons they do something I can include on here.

Some daft pigeon cunt has built a nest on a tree right next to the main road. As we are on the 2nd floor I have the unusual vantage point of seeing down into the nest where there are two quite large but still fuzzy squabs. Pretty much nailed on road casualties but breathing for now.

gib


ZoyzaSorris

A Volucella species hoverfly I reckon (V. zonaria?), good hornet mimic

bgmnts


BlodwynPig

sorry for crap photos, but the cygnets now seem OK and loving life, father is also up and about (if it is indeed father)




Blue Jam

#1334
^^^ Arsed mate, cygs. Nah, that's lovely. Got an update on my local cygnets too:

Went for another walk round the lochs today and couldn't see the swan family, just a few white feathers where they had been a few weeks back. I did wonder if a sparrowhawk had bombed in and helped itself to some tasty treats. Nope- walked a bit further and there they were on the west side of the loch:



That fuzzy grey blob visible beneath the swan's undercarriage is a cygnet's heid, honest. Once again I used digital zoom and didn't get too close because as you can see that swan parent is an absolute unit and I didn't fancy getting my arm broken.

Also saw another swan parent being overprotective and embarrassing its teenaged offspring:



On the subject of babies, I saw this sparkly baby peacock butterfly too. It looked like it was studded with onyxes all twinkling in the sunlight, pretty glam:



I also saw a molehill being made before my eyes. I noticed the pile of fresh earth just ahead of me had some bits of earth flying out of the top and realised the mole must have been just beneath the surface. Very cool. Didn't take a photo because the mole didn't emerge.

There was a pheasant strutting about nearby, emitting its horrible mating call. If that's what gives girl pheasants the RFH they must be pretty dumb. No wonder pheasants are slow and stupid and are always getting shot and eaten. Nah, it was pretty cool, bit too far away to get a decent photo though.

gib

Quote from: ZoyzaSorris on July 09, 2020, 03:48:26 PM
A Volucella species hoverfly I reckon (V. zonaria?), good hornet mimic

nice one Zoyza, cheers

paruses

Quote from: BlodwynPig on July 07, 2020, 03:20:43 PM
Got a message from the BTO about the dead swan

So an 11 year old female, which is surprising because the remaining swan has a paler beak and less pronounced black ridge above the beak...so I automatically thought it was the female. I know males can care for cygnets, but not sure in isolation?

Glad the BTO got back so soon. That was ringed by Bert Coleman's group. Very nice (and also cantankerous) man who had a really long running swan study amongst other things. He died in January (was 84). Glad the cygnets are ok.

Am enjoying the insect pics. Can anyone recommend a good hover fly id book?


BlodwynPig

Quote from: paruses on July 10, 2020, 11:02:28 AM
Glad the BTO got back so soon. That was ringed by Bert Coleman's group. Very nice (and also cantankerous) man who had a really long running swan study amongst other things. He died in January (was 84). Glad the cygnets are ok.

Am enjoying the insect pics. Can anyone recommend a good hover fly id book?

nice bit of info.

Can you confirm if a female swan can have a darker orange beak than the male and a more pronounced black bit above it? Still confused, because the swan that is still alive looks smaller with a paler beak and I always assumed that was the pen.

edit: just checked, that knob at the base swells during breeding and then subsides...so perhaps the knob has subsided in the male.

ZoyzaSorris

Quote from: paruses on July 10, 2020, 11:02:28 AM
Glad the BTO got back so soon. That was ringed by Bert Coleman's group. Very nice (and also cantankerous) man who had a really long running swan study amongst other things. He died in January (was 84). Glad the cygnets are ok.

Am enjoying the insect pics. Can anyone recommend a good hover fly id book?

Britain's Hoverflies by Morris & Ball is what I've got and basically the main one for field ID I reckon.

Twonty Gostelow

Got video of a very wet young woodpecker on the peanuts. In the second videoshot you can see its long tongue darting out. Difficult to see that in real time.




Brian Freeze

Fantastic woodpecker action, lovely stuff.

Just seen one of our local bats doing its thing, flying round and feeding and all that, never seen it at this time before.

DoesNotFollow

Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly


QDRPHNC



Found this raccoon sleeping in my driveway this morning. Hope it's ok. It's unusual, but not unheard of, to catch them asleep on a pavement or something. Doesn't seem to be in distress, anyway.

Blue Jam

TRASH PANDA!

Got a better photo of the cygs today:



Random human for scale. Again I didn't get close but they had a bit of a crowd round them feeding them bread and they seemed pretty docile- the cygs were even letting people pet them and the parents didn't seem arsed. They've gone all docile on Hovis.

At the other loch someone was feeding the smaller but much more aggressive swans and a couple of them were hissing at each other and biting each other's necks in the scrabble for stale bread.

Saw two red kites as well which was pretty cool especially as their numbers have been declining.

Blue Jam


BlodwynPig

Good to see Boris social distancing for once

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Blue Jam on July 11, 2020, 07:23:35 PM
PSA: Do not feed swans white bread. Or beefburgers. They like peas:

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/opinion/arthurs-seat-park-rangers-advice-feeding-swans-may-surprise-you-hayley-matthews-1381650

I thought it was common knowledge.

The water bird I've been seeing with four chicks the last few days (only 2 today it seems) is a Little Grebe - thanks to the first human I've seen in the area for 2 months.

Blue Jam

I knew bread was a no-no, didnae know about peas though. Might bring a bag of frozen peas they can set their Birds' Eyes on next time.

Pah, these are Scottish swans, they'd rather have a Glasgow salad I'm sure.

bgmnts

Dull as fuck but watching a good old pigeon fly back and forth between trees, ripping off twigs from one and delivering them to one of the branches of the other. Of course the branch is shrouded in leaves so I cant quite see the female pigeon but I see something there moving.

Would love to see a baby pigeon.

Edit - ha! The nutter forgot his three branch system and entered a different part of the tree and panicked, flying around in an arc until I found a different, closer position. Mental head.

Blue Jam

Baby pigeons are ugly bastards.