Wildlife spotting

[BlodwynPig]

We get a handful of those goofy faces several times a week -- s/he's looking up at the bedroom window. I'm convinced it's because they hear Mr Attila snoring.

Poor beast, must give them the creeps. Like when we hear the fox screams.

[Menu]

Thank you for those pictures, Attila. Loved them. Especially the beautiful fox and fat hedgehogs.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

After being disappointed by the lack of wildlife captured on my new camera recently I saw rather too much 'red in tooth and claw' for my delicate sensibilities yesterday. I didn't know it at the time but when I was taking these pics the pigeon was still alive. It wasn't for much longer but it played on my mind for the rest of the day. Voltan (Man of Steel)? Man of Putty, right?

[Attila]

Awww, Voltan -- that is rough...I admit, I like all of the David Attenborough animal docos, but make Mr Attila switch over as soon as you know it's going to be one of 'those' scenes...

I haven't checked this morning's photos, but the funniest thing from last night won't be on them. I was reading before I went to bed last night, and heard 'crunchmmmffcrrunchcrunch' from just below the window. Hedgehog dining sounds like a rodent gnawing on wood, but this was much louder, open-mouthed crunching of foxes.

They have incredibly sharp hearing, so by the time I'd pulled open the blinds and curtain, he'd fled, but then he slipped back out of the shadows. I watched him eat for a while -- snatching a mouthful of kibble, pausing at every, single, tiny sound and looking up with great caution -- at the kitchen window below me, up at me (even as I stayed as still as possible), glancing backwards through the garden gate where someone down the street was having a party (yeah).

As he was eating, I saw Mr Gus slip in through the garden gate; Gus patrols the garden nightly, so we get lots of photos of him every night. He's not fussed about the foxes, but we have no photos of them together.

Mr Fox decided to slip away just at the moment Mr Gus came around the  corner of the back step. You know how when you startle a cat it will yoink up in the air like a puppet and dance off? That was foxey's reaction at being startled by Gus -- a clumsy, sideways ballerina's leap in the air with a startled snore-oink-snarl that sent him crashing into the backdoor, a snap of the teeth in Gus's general direction, then leap over Gus to vanish down the drive.

I went downstairs to see if Gus still had a head, and he was sauntering around the driveway like it was no big deal; normally if he's been startled or threatened himself, he's got a hell of a warcry and his tail explodes out in a brush about 3x its normal size. But he was in a fine fettle, and greeted me as usual. While I was playing with him, a couple of hedgehogs came through the highway hole between the garden fences, as they don't seem to give a toss if someone is out in the garden anymore, either; we've got loads of photos with them and the foxes, them and the cats.

Fox came back a few minutes later.

Mr Attila heard none of this, despite it happening about 10 feet away from him on the other side of the door, as he listens to stuff so loudly on headphones, it's clearly audible by anyone else in the house. He'll be deaf before he's 55.

[BlodwynPig]

Why don't you get a bivouac and sleep out with the wildlife one night?

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Thanks for the stories and pics, Attila, (I assume Mr Attila calls you Hun) I always enjoy them. It seems that as much as I think I love nature I'd actually prefer a Disneyfied version where majestic eagles still soar in cloudless skies but no fluffy bunnies get hurt.

[Attila]

Why don't you get a bivouac and sleep out with the wildlife one night?

I've been out late at night on Perseids nights -- I doubt the foxes would come around if a person were in the garden. I've heard the hedgehogs bumbling about when I've done late night star- and ISS-gazing on the back lawn, but none get close. Lots of bats, though -- always glad to see them flapping over head. Kinda irritated that my neighbours took down their enormous butterfly bush yesterday afternoon, as it overhung our garden wall, and attracted lots of butterflies, birds, and even the bats and sometimes owls at night. It also acted as an excellent barrier between our bedroom window and the horrendously shitty cigarettes Mr Neighbour chimney smokes all day.

Selections from last night -- i gnore the time stamp, as I keep forgetting to reset it!

Fox around the time I was watching from the bedroom window



Mid-crunch and cautious



Many photos of fox 'n' 'hog last night, as usual



Fox watches a bug or a slug? We get lots of photos of fat slugs hanging around the party palace, too.







Morning robin trying to steal the last of the wild strawberries



Morning magpie caught in take-off mode



Voltan heh. We don't have any nicknames for each other, strangely enough, even though I get called a whole variety of things by folks at work (there are only three Americans in my dept, all women, but I'm the only one who's been saddled with various nicknames or people endlessly trying to make me laugh during meetings or a lot of mick-taking. I cannot imagine the reaction of the other two Yankeedoodledandettes in response to the sorts of things that get said to me). I'm with you -- I know it's a rough world out there in nature; I had a little farm carved out of a rather wild expanse of woods in southern Virginia for a while, and we saw some shit, even there (not being able to stop my dogs from flushing out a den of feral cats and kittens being one of the worst memories I have). So when it comes to nature documentaries...yeah...I tend to stick with the tamer ones. Just can't do footage of penguins separated from their mates and falling into crevices and all that :(

I did like, though, that mad segment showing all of those snakes rising up like something out of a Ray Harryhausen film.

[s for anyone just getting started with their camera -- these selections from last night are from out of around 200 -- since May, we've caught well over 9700 photos on this sd card -- the majority of them empty of creatures, blurry, many cats, our legs as we walked past, etc. So don;t worry if you still haven;t had interesting ones yet.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Yes, that snakes clip was like something out of a nightmare. I'll hopefully post some pics as soon as I get something nocturnal that's not the mysterious, extravagantly fluffy black cat that paid us a couple of visits to scoff the doggy kibble last week.

[Attila]

Yes, that snakes clip was like something out of a nightmare. I'll hopefully post some pics as soon as I get something nocturnal that's not the mysterious, extravagantly fluffy black cat that paid us a couple of visits to scoff the doggy kibble last week.

So many neighbour cats drop by ours at night. Unless we know them, we've given them all new names. Mr Jingles and Blackie are two we don't know except from the camera. Loads of Mr Gus, who lives next door, and occasionally a visit from Arthur, the geriatric ginger & white cat from down the street. (He was being a street cat again after the renter-neighbours who took him in were evicted last xmas, but another neighbour has built him a wonderful cat-house, with a raised ramp for him to walk into it, and lots of soft cushions/blankets to sleep on. So he sleeps in the pile of leaves next to it :3. It's much closer to his actual owner's house, so he doesn't have to go as far to get fed, kibble, shelter, etc. as coming up to our house.)

[BlodwynPig]

I've left the camera out near the swan pond, by the hawthorn hedgerow where I found the swan foot. It looks like a trail for foxes/badgers in and out of the cow field that is adjacent. Dumped a load of chopped apple and some kibble, so hope there may be something when I retrieve it, although the battery was on 1 bar and it was windy, so probably loads of images of blowing grass before the battery gives up.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

... another neighbour has built him a wonderful cat-house, with a raised ramp for him to walk into it, and lots of soft cushions/blankets to sleep on. So he sleeps in the pile of leaves next to it :3. It's much closer to his actual owner's house, so he doesn't have to go as far to get fed, kibble, shelter, etc. as coming up to our house.)

Ha! Some people really do go overboard in their cosseting of pets.

This coming from someone who bought his dog a set of soft steps so he could get on our bed more easily. He's never used them, preferring instead to get my attention so I'll get out of bed and lift him on.

[Attila]

Ha! Some people really do go overboard in their cosseting of pets.

This coming from someone who bought his dog a set of soft steps so he could get on our bed more easily. He's never used them, preferring instead to get my attention so I'll get out of bed and lift him on.

Thing is, Arthur isn't even their cat! The woman who owns him is in her 90s, and doesn't take care of him at all. He's looked after by several of us on the street, poor old guy.

My mom had a set of soft steps for her dogs when they got too stiff and elderly to climb up into her high bed; then later one of her cats used it.

[Blue Jam]

Cygs update:



Daddy Swan LIVES! Don't know where he buggered off to last time, presumably he wasn't off philandering because swans mate for life, but the wife and kids weren't happy so it was nice to see him back.

Today the swans and cygs seemed much happier and were being all friendly and gladly gobbling up the pumpkin seeds I brought for a change. Turns out pumpkin seeds are better than sunflower seeds because they float. Peas are even better but Saino's only do snack packs of wasabi peas and I'm not giving wasabi to wildfowl.

Cygs are starting to get their big boy plumage now and are almost as big as the fuckin' unit that is their dad.

Two of the lochs here apparently have otters. Didn't see any today but will keep an eye out.

[Menu]

This is the best bit of this entire website. Love it. I just wish I might one day meet a hedgehog. I think the gardens round here are too cookie cutter. :@<

[Attila]

Ooh, lovely swans, Blue Jam. I did a conference one summer in Lincoln, and the river there had several swan families, little beepers swimming around after the mother ship.

I've moved the camera to a slightly different part of the back garden to capture all the comings and goings out of the garden gate. The first night I moved the fox bowl, but they were really unhappy with its new location and didn't eat much; too exposed, I think. I put it back in its original shadowy spot and they've eaten everything. I'm curious to see what we got last night, as the first night we got photos of the foxes playing around on the back step and standing on the catflap! (it pokes out of the back door a bit, like a narrow ledge).

[BlodwynPig]

Ooh, lovely swans, Blue Jam. I did a conference one summer in Lincoln, and the river there had several swan families, little beepers swimming around after the mother ship.

I've moved the camera to a slightly different part of the back garden to capture all the comings and goings out of the garden gate. The first night I moved the fox bowl, but they were really unhappy with its new location and didn't eat much; too exposed, I think. I put it back in its original shadowy spot and they've eaten everything. I'm curious to see what we got last night, as the first night we got photos of the foxes playing around on the back step and standing on the catflap! (it pokes out of the back door a bit, like a narrow ledge).

can they fit through the flap? put some kibble the other side and you might have an invasion of creatures

[Attila]

The flap is currently closed and locked (and we have a block across its window to keep from tormenting cats who can see in or out -- at the moment, we can't have our three roaming).

But if it were operational, the foxes could easily get through it -- there are a couple of bigger foxes who come by, but there are one or two who are clearly about the size of the larger cats who visit the party palace.

(It's one of those flaps that the cats need a keyed chip to open, so not worried about vulpine visitors once we're back in operation. That said, when I was living at my mother's about 10 years back, she had a flap on the greenhouse to the outside, and from the greenhouse into the house itself, and we had a fox come in to the greenhouse through the flap. The resident cats went nuts at the intruder, and in its haste to get back out of the flap, took the entire greenhouse door with it.)

[BlodwynPig]

In Canada during the summer I left the door open as I snoozed on the sofa. When I woke up there was a black squirrel and a chipmunk rummaging through a pile of nuts from an overturned bag on the floor. I was in no hurry to get them out but I was subsequently warned by the landlady that rodents weren't allowed in the house.

[Attila]

Catch up from the past couple of days; still been too lazy to correct the time on the camera, soz.

Some reverse angles from the usual party palace cam:

The camera is sat on a tripod just to the right of the party palace, as we were curious about the comings and goings through the garden gate.



The foxes didn't like their bowl out in the open next to the bins, and were a lot more skittish in the photo set from that night.



He's stood right up against the back door here, and other photos show him stood on the ledge of the catflap



Looking up towards the bedroom



The hedgehogs didn't give a toss about the fox bowl being moved, and chowed down on dog kibble all night







Last night was a reverse angle -- the party palace is out of sight, just to the right of that square dish in the background



Fox hears the camera (it makes a slight click when it photographs.






Big crow

[AliasTheCat]

Saw this wonderful Hummingbird Hawk Moth on Thursday. I've never seen one before but it was beautiful. It moved exactly like it's namesake and we only realised that it was a moth when we saw it's antenna.
   
Sorry for the picture quality, it's a still from a video I took of it flitting from flower to flower.

[BlodwynPig]

Swan advice needed.

There have been two new arrivals on the lake. Two adult swans looking in fine fettle. I don't know if they arrived by themselves or were dropped there by the RSPB, they look ringed. Anyway, the day I first saw them I thought they were the two remaining cygnets all grown up (miraculously going from grey to white in 2 days). Of course not. I saw the mother was in the smaller pond but could not see the cygnet. Returning to the big lake I saw the new swans attacking the cygnets in the reeds. The cygnets were frantic and tried in vain to out swim the male across the lake. He was ultra aggressive. Eventually they found refuge in some more reeds.

Since then, I saw the cygnets and mother had escaped to the smaller pond and thought that was that, but last week the new adults had moved to the smaller pond and the others were on the bank near the trees looking nervous. I went round to give them some food and the cobb saw me and came ashore doing some horrible, sinister movement that reminded me of Brian Dennehy in To Catch a Killer - a John Wayne Gacy menace-shuffle towards the cygnets. They once more retreated into the woodland and were pursued.

Today, the same again, I came with apple but they didn't want any and then the cobb once more came out doing a Gacy with shrugging wing movements. I managed to get in between and it retreated, some fear perhaps, although I was nervous too, its a biggun. The mother and cygnets look shattered - I don't know if they have access to any water or have to go in the depths of night when the other two are resting. The mother had some feathers on her beak that may have been from a defensive fight. As I was leaving I looked back and saw the bloody cobb going for them again.

It's exhausting for me, so it must be terrible for them. After all the tragedy in the past 6 months, I don't want these two to perish because of some colonial cunt. I've read the males are very territorial when older cygnets are around. I reckon it'll be another 5 or 6 months before they will get flying wings, so I don't hold out much hope.

Any tips will be welcome.

[bgmnts]

Jesus that's crap. Fuck knows what you can do, call the rspb and ask for guidance?

[BlodwynPig]

It's like a medieval siege.

[Buelligan]

Jesus that's crap. Fuck knows what you can do, call the rspb and ask for guidance?

Yes, that seems wise.  TBH, I know it's awful but nature is red in etc, we get attached to people and animals but we have to remember that nothing is permanent, we do our best and have to accept what follows.

Maybe, if you can make sure that there's no competition for food, that might take some pressure off but talking to the RSPB, as bgmnts said, is your best bet IMO.

[BlodwynPig]

I don't feed them normally, but thought they looked a bit wan after the usurpers arrived.

Nature is red, but I'm going to fight for these. I'm sure the RSPB will just say "aye, nature is red".

[Buelligan]

Yes, I expect they will but it can't harm to ask.  And maybe the feeding thing might help, you know, nature is harsh but it doesn't waste energy.  If the newcomers don't need to fight over resources perhaps they'll keep to the big pond and leave the little one to the little ones.  Make sure you give them good stuff though (I know you will).

[BlodwynPig]

Yes, I expect they will but it can't harm to ask.  And maybe the feeding thing might help, you know, nature is harsh but it doesn't waste energy.  If the newcomers don't need to fight over resources perhaps they'll keep to the big pond and leave the little one to the little ones.  Make sure you give them good stuff though (I know you will).

Well I thought they would have stuck to the big pond, but oh no, they moved to the little one and are always at the outer edge watching the cygnets in the scrub and bushes. I tried to direct the mother to the big pond today (perhaps the newcomers are looking for nesting sites in the relative seclusion of the small pond?), to no avail. I think they are just trying to wear them down until they perish.

[Buelligan]

I agree.  That's why I think your best hope is convincing them the big pond can supply all of their needs. 

[paruses]

The RSPCA would be your best bet (the RSPB aren't set up for this kind of thing). Although the RSPCA probably wouldn't send out an inspector until there's significant injury to one of the swans they might be able to put you in touch with a local swan rescue setup who would take a more active interest in the situation.

Sounds like it's a natural territorial dispute that would only end when one party fucks off or is killed, sadly. Good on you for helping but I would say you are on a hiding to nothing trying to placate things and offer more attractive pastures to the aggressor.

RSPCA / swan rescue for advice would be my suggestion and I really hope it works out.

ETA - what either organisation might do is come and relocate the mother and cygnets if they are aware of the situation (since the cygs are a bit stuck until they can fly).

[BlodwynPig]

I've got a small pond in the garden they can use and they can sleep indoors when it gets cold ;)