Wildlife spotting

[bgmnts]

YES! Caught the pigeon feeding her chicks. Her beak was open whilst her neck pulsated for a bit, then dove her head into the nest, like someone on chippy alley in cardiff vomming their lungs up.

Ace!

[phes]

I don't know - it's easy to get sidetracked and carried away when you're into something. Maybe microbes are fun to make.

I think it was more sitting alone on a beautiful island catching storm petrels and drinking a box of wine that drove the comment than a rigorous examination of theistic arguments. Have just remembered I said I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up living in a commune at some point. I do stand by that.

Understandable.

I'm probably within walking distance of numerous odball Welsh eco communes and not a day goes by when I don't think about faxing my manager a half pint of piss and setting off

[bgmnts]

Do it!

[BlodwynPig]

YES! Caught the pigeon feeding her chicks. Her beak was open whilst her neck pulsated for a bit, then dove pigeon her head into the nest, like someone on chippy alley in cardiff vomming their lungs up.

Ace!

[BlodwynPig]

Lucky escape for the mouse

[BlodwynPig]

I've just noticed the camera automatically assigns text to the photos - "A bird standing atop a grass covered field" (picture of blackbird in the garden) for example...bizarre.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Great photos of the hedgehoge / hoggo

I have seen a rabbit, sheep and cows in the Dales this morning. Prosaic, sure, but they all look pretty chilled out, which is helping my mood.

[Attila]

Yay, more hedgehogs!

I just put new batteries in the camera yesterday, tested it out, and it's not taking any photos. :(  Shame, as all evidence this morning points to another lively night at the party palace.

[BlodwynPig]

Yay, more hedgehogs!

I just put new batteries in the camera yesterday, tested it out, and it's not taking any photos. :(  Shame, as all evidence this morning points to another lively night at the party palace.

How long do your batteries last?

Im going to try the camera out in the wilds tonight by the big hole at the edge of a wheat field. Best result would be fox or badger, worst would be demon or camera gone. Means rising at dawn tomorrow though to go and retrieve

[Attila]

We've been getting about 6 mos+ out of batteries -- I'll have to check with Mr Attila. They last a good long while.

The issue has been the camera stops taking photos long before the memory card is full -- a new memory card resolves the problem, as does downloading photos off the card & reformatting.

Of course, not keeping the hundred or so it takes every night would probably help, too, but once you start getting lazy about culling them, next thing you know you've got 2000 photos on the card.

Because the party palace is directly below the bedroom window, sometimes I just lean out and watch the hedgehogs bumbling down below for a little while before I go to bed at night. Last night had a bonus view of the gibbous moon illuminating the clouds below it, and what I think was Mars hanging in the sky next to it.

Perseids reach their height later this coming week of course the three days when we'll be having (much needed) rain and thunderstorms. Every. Goddmand. Year.

[BlodwynPig]

I guess batteries will last longer with just photos, I'm down to 2 bars after 2 nights. It says remove batteries if you are not using, but then you have to reset the time each time.

I will put the camera in the field tonight and food in the garden and see if they come at the same time so I can get a real time view of them while the camera is elsewhere.

[Attila]

I think the video setting does eat up the batteries (as well as filling up the card).

I forget if I said this earlier -- hedgehogs really really like kitten kibble (chicken flavoured - don't get fish). I've also supplimented it on occasion with bug-flavoured suet pellets, like you can get for bird feeders. You can get bespoke hedgehog chow, too, but it's expensive (Spike's is a populAar brand). Don't leave out milk for them, as it's really, realy bad for them -- lots of clean water in a shallow dish is the way to go.

[ZoyzaSorris]

Just been camping in Sussex and whilst we were hanging about by a stream had a little jet-black mink zoom through our party, zipping amongst our feet. An ecological disaster of a species but very cute I have to say.

[BlodwynPig]

I think the video setting does eat up the batteries (as well as filling up the card).

I forget if I said this earlier -- hedgehogs really really like kitten kibble (chicken flavoured - don't get fish). I've also supplimented it on occasion with bug-flavoured suet pellets, like you can get for bird feeders. You can get bespoke hedgehog chow, too, but it's expensive (Spike's is a populAar brand). Don't leave out milk for them, as it's really, realy bad for them -- lots of clean water in a shallow dish is the way to go.

I have nature hedgehog chow, stinks to high heaven and full of fly larvae, so I've left that outside. Forgot the water last night, so will make amends tonight, although the camera will be deployed elsewhere so I won't know if it's being drunk by hedgehogs or evaporated.

[Attila]

Yay -- reformatting got the camera working again -- these are all actually from last night, between midnight and 6am, so ignore the time and date; still have to tweak those.

A lot of hedgehog action through the night.



A new baby fox I've not seen before (unless it's the smaller of the two girls who've been coming by. But the three main kits have stopped eating from the lower bowl, so that makes me think this is a new girl)









Morning magpie was back, around 5am as usual.

[Twit 2]

On the river yesterday saw a merlin flying overhead (no photos as he was flying quite fast) and this kingfisher attempting to catch a fish (brought the bastard boat to his branch and waited for him
him to pounce):

https://streamable.com/zs0rm0

[Attila]

On the river yesterday saw a merlin flying overhead (no photos as he was flying quite fast) and this kingfisher attempting to catch a fish (brought the bastard boat to his branch and waited for him
him to pounce):

https://streamable.com/zs0rm0

Lovely!

[BlodwynPig]

Lovely!

how do you sex fox kits?

[Blue Jam]

how do you sex fox kits?

Very noisily, judging by what I hear every night.
BOOM BOOM!

^{Ahahahaha geddit that's a Basil Brush reference and Basil Brush was a fox LOL}

[Attila]

how do you sex fox kits?

In our case, anyway, it's from having a lot of photos of baby fox bottoms pointed at the camera as they chow down on puppy food every night. The boy's got a clear set of fuzzy foxy knackers, and the two girls are yer basic looks-like-girl-dog-bottoms from behind.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

There's a bird of prey that lurks in our back garden. Not sure what kind, I've only caught a glimpse of it once. Maybe a kestrel or an osprey. Anyway, went out there and it's gone and twatted in a pigeon. All that's left is feathers, about two bones and a small bit of gore, which for some reason it decided it didn't fancy. What's the deal with birds of prey, do they just eat the entire thing there and then, or carry it off and finish it?

I was a bit upset initially. Can't be very nice to be happily going about your business, having a bit of a coo, then some big bastard decides to eat you alive. Then I realised that all wild birds tend to live short lives, with violent deaths, and thus the circle of life continues.

I presume it was the bird of prey. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.

[BlodwynPig]

In our case, anyway, it's from having a lot of photos of baby fox bottoms pointed at the camera as they chow down on puppy food every night. The boy's got a clear set of fuzzy foxy knackers, and the two girls are yer basic looks-like-girl-dog-bottoms from behind.

Is bottom the American word for fanny?

[kalowski]

There's a bird of prey that lurks in our back garden. Not sure what kind, I've only caught a glimpse of it once. Maybe a kestrel or an osprey. Anyway, went out there and it's gone and twatted in a pigeon. All that's left is feathers, about two bones and a small bit of gore, which for some reason it decided it didn't fancy. What's the deal with birds of prey, do they just eat the entire thing there and then, or carry it off and finish it?

I was a bit upset initially. Can't be very nice to be happily going about your business, having a bit of a coo, then some big bastard decides to eat you alive. Then I realised that all wild birds tend to live short lives, with violent deaths, and thus the circle of life continues.

I presume it was the bird of prey. I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.

How big is it? Osprey are pretty big in my experience. Could it be a sparrowhawk?

[Attila]

Is bottom the American word for fanny?

Bottom as in what you sit on -- fortunately, when a baby fox lifts his/her tail and reveals said bottom, you can see whether there's boy parts or not :)

(I gotta admit, it used to drive me nuts when I had my sheep, and needed to query the person from whom I bought them about various health issues and maintenence. That woman would not use any proper terms for genitalia, and it was irritating listening to an otherwise well-educated person (she taught high school) referring to the pee-pee and the woo-woo when trying to determine if my wether Demon Baby had a urinary tract infection or not.)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Baby coots and ducklings this morning. The ducks have been rampant this year.

[Twit 2]

I bet they have you dirty bollocks.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

How big is it? Osprey are pretty big in my experience. Could it be a sparrowhawk?

Yeah, I've since been told it's probably a sparrowhawk. There's another two piles of feathers and guts there this morning, so it's dispatched an entire family now. If only I could catch it at it, I'd give it a telling off.

[phes]

Yeah almost certainly. It's what they're built for, navigating pokey garden spaces full of obstructions. Kestrels will visit gardens but they're much less suited and so it's much less frequent.

Love Kestrels. Found out recently that average lifespan is only two years, though they can survive a great deal more.. Collisions, starvation through competition, land use change, winter etc etc. Tough old life

[Attila]

Apologies for my skinny legs, but at first I didn't realise there was a hedgehog wedged into the party palace when I went out to refill everyone's bowl last night.



It wasn't until I was actually crouched down and reaching for the bowl that I realised someone was in it.

Also, lots of fox action last night

[Attila]

Party Palace has turned into the hedgehog hook up palace: early in a sequence of photos that captured a courting dance leading to prickly sex:



Blodwyn asked in another thread how the foxes and hedgehogs got on -- they're not bothered by each other, and we get lots of photos of them chowing down together



Really busy last night -- several times we had 3+ guests



And as usual, morning magpie coming by to grab leftover kibble