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Wildlife spotting

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

Previous topic - Next topic

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Egrets - I've seen a few
But, then again, too few to mention

Attila

Two hedgehogs have taken up residence in the back garden right by the back door to the house. They came originally at the beginning of the heatwave, as I put our snacks and a waterbowl for the cats, and they were desperate for food and water.

Now both are fat wobbles, have their own dedicated dish, and show up just about 9pm each night to chuff, squeak, and grunt their way around the flowerpots, play in their water bowls, and throw chicken-flavoured kitten kibble all over the stones. They must also be eating the slugs -- we had loads originally because they'd come and eat the cat-snacks. If you go out quietly onto the step, the hedgehogs'll tolerate you sat there. Mostly they just go back to eating and grunting, but sometimes they chase each other around like a pair of cats having a mad half hour.

My cat doesn't give a fuck about them, but the neighbour's cat comes over like clockwork every night to watch them.

In the mornings I've got to hose down where they've shat all over the place and sweep up the morning-after carnage of the hedgehog party palace we built for them (to keep the rain off their food bowl.)

I call one Small Robert and the other one Friend of Small Robert.


Used to have loads of animals up at the food station my mother and I maintained -- a feral cat and her kittens (who moved into one of the outbuildings), possums, all sorts of birds; there was a fox set in the field behind the house, so they'd come up for kibble, too.

I swear I'm the only one on my train commute who likes to look out of the window -- at dawn and dusk, the fields are full of deer, and along the tracks are loads of bunny dens.



manticore

Quote from: Attila on August 08, 2018, 01:23:00 PM
Two hedgehogs have taken up residence in the back garden right by the back door to the house. They came originally at the beginning of the heatwave, as I put our snacks and a waterbowl for the cats, and they were desperate for food and water.

Now both are fat wobbles, have their own dedicated dish, and show up just about 9pm each night to chuff, squeak, and grunt their way around the flowerpots, play in their water bowls, and throw chicken-flavoured kitten kibble all over the stones. They must also be eating the slugs -- we had loads originally because they'd come and eat the cat-snacks. If you go out quietly onto the step, the hedgehogs'll tolerate you sat there. Mostly they just go back to eating and grunting, but sometimes they chase each other around like a pair of cats having a mad half hour.

My cat doesn't give a fuck about them, but the neighbour's cat comes over like clockwork every night to watch them.

So glad to hear about this. I've only seen one hedgehog briefly in the last ten years or so. Dogs can be completely freaked out by them, my family dog circled one in our garden barking and whining and not knowing what the hell to do, it was very funny.

Living in a small Spanish island, there's hardly any variety of fauna. We don't even get squirrels! Just the occasional wild rabbit. Oh, and this thing which looks like some hellish cross between a cat and a lemur:


Common Genet

I saw one cross the path in front of me one time when walking in the woods, but I think they're nocturnal so rarely seen by anyone. I'd never even heard of this animal before I lived here.

Twit 2

I think they were introduced from Africa. They're a viverrid, as are civets, binturongs, kinkajous etc.

BlodwynPig


New Jack

Saw a woodpecker today, not even a euphemism

ZoyzaSorris

Quote from: Twit 2 on August 08, 2018, 02:58:53 PM
I think they were introduced from Africa. They're a viverrid, as are civets, binturongs, kinkajous etc.

desolation - googling common genet autofilled to common genetic disorders. Not what I was after - Ive got most of them.

pedant alert - Kinkajous are procyonids, viverrids are only found in the Old World.

derek stitt

#38
From my vantage point i sat and watched a band of rain move from the Black Mountains across to the Malvern hills today. By the side of my car an aged Labrador spent some considerable time noisily licking the cheese from its cock.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: derek stitt on August 08, 2018, 08:58:30 PM
From my vantage point i sat and watched a band of rain move from the Black Mountains across to the Malvern hills today. By the side of my car an aged Labrador spent an age noisily licking the cheese from its cock.

That labrador is probably generally almost always experiencing happiness I can only dream of.

Brian Freeze

We passed through Golspie just recently and having read about it in this thread I dreamt about it this afternoon. It must have been a good bit of writing to do that.

BlodwynPig



Here's Bilbo asking for/demanding my nuts

Attila

Quote from: manticore on August 08, 2018, 01:41:06 PM
So glad to hear about this. I've only seen one hedgehog briefly in the last ten years or so. Dogs can be completely freaked out by them, my family dog circled one in our garden barking and whining and not knowing what the hell to do, it was very funny.

I've just been sat out in the dark in the garden, whilst Small Robert chows down on his insect-flavoured suet and cat biscuits mix. They seem to sleep/nest in my neighbour's garden during the day, but I may get a little bunker for them to hibernate in during the winter, just in case.

When I had my own house, I lived in the woods with a small cleared area where I kept sheep; every once in a while a possum would show up, and the dogs would freak out thinking it was some strange new-type of cat.

phes

I wouldn't claim to be a twitcher, but I do pay attention to the birds that are around me and during the last year I've got pretty good at identifying yer basic models. So I can recognise by sight and sound the 15-20 most common urban and garden birds. It's quite a fun little pastime and recognising them by song is a nice little middle-aged party trick that seems to go down well. Sadly it's been silent out the back of my house since early June. Do we have a widespread second breeding season or is that just a few species? Anyway, I hope I don't have to wait until Feb/March as I miss the little fellas waking me up at 5am (huge windows, no double glazing). My favourite bird is the Wren on account of its movement, being so quick and jittery that it appears like a flick book animation, and having a resonant cavity in its syrinx that allows it's to belt out a disproportionately loud song.

Here's the racket I get out the back of my flat Feb/March - June/July

https://youtu.be/Hx2c3ouDIn4

Do enjoy the old birds of prey too and always see buzzards and occasionally kestrels by the motorway. Saw a buzzard gliding just 10 meters up in between some low-rise flats in Leeds the other day. Terrifying!

Spoon of Ploff

Sometimes get Red Kites in the lower fields where I do walking. Here's one trying to decide if I'm quite dead enough to eat:


phes

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on August 06, 2018, 01:15:29 PM
Buzzards (or some other bird of prey) seem to be all over the place these days. They're quite mesmerising, circling around the sky with their distinctive T-shaped silhouette.

They seem way more common than kestrels thesedays. I'd estimate I see 20:1 when out driving. Sounds like a combination of gamekeeper culling, loss of prey (myxomatosis) and pesticides messing up reproduction was keeping numbers down

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/magazine-35916515

Buelligan

Heaps of the old buzzards here too but we also have the odd golden eagle up on the mountain - I am not even joking.  Fabulous things until they open their mouths and then they let the side down a bit.

Lovely to hear of your hedgehogs Attila, I have a terrible weakness for them but they're rare as all hell here.  Photos please!

manticore

This is true, some photos would be nice. I wish to virtue signal by saying I once rescued a hedgehog that had fallen into one of those pipes that are stuck in the ground. I rang the RSPCA and asked them what do do and they said it would be fine to handle it, so I reached down and pulled it back up and let it go further down the garden. Their spikes are not spiky, they feel quite pleasant to the touch.

The decline in hedgehogs is quite a worry, and people need to be putting little holes in their garden fences for a start.

https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/made-hole-fence-hedgehogs-yet/

paruses

Quote from: manticore on August 09, 2018, 03:24:34 PM
I once rescued a hedgehog that had fallen into one of those pipes that are stuck in the ground.

Well done, you.

What pipes?

BlodwynPig

Hedgehog pic from this morning


manticore

Quote from: paruses on August 09, 2018, 03:26:20 PM
Well done, you.

What pipes?

Yes, what are they? Pipes stuck vertically into the ground, going down two or three feet. A drainage thing?

Someone will know.

New Jack

Quote from: BlodwynPig on August 09, 2018, 03:29:22 PM
Hedgehog pic from this morning



Aww! Chipmunk though innit?

Aaaaalllviiiin!

gilbertharding

The other day I went to have a ponder by the side of the River Great Ouse, in Huntingdon. There were quite a lot of mallards on the water, but I was amazed to see a grass snake swimming quite purposefully among them, holding its head clear of the water. The ducks were keeping a very close eye on it, but didn't seem scared at all. I've only seen a swimming grass snake once before, also on the Ouse.

The snake disappeared into the long grass and reeds by the bank virtually under my feet.

paruses

Quote from: manticore on August 09, 2018, 03:30:13 PM
Yes, what are they? Pipes stuck vertically into the ground, going down two or three feet. A drainage thing?

Someone will know.

Hopefully Buzby will be along soon to clear the matter up.

Who is it has the avatar of a hedgehog? Ironically not Hedgehog90. (Note - I can't see avatars at work so I am not just being very lazy by not looking anywhere else on the screen)

BlodwynPig

Quote from: New Jack on August 09, 2018, 03:34:22 PM
Aww! Chipmunk though innit?

Aaaaalllviiiin!

me and Alvin the Hedgehog


manticore

There are no wild hedgehogs in BlodwynPig's adopted land of Canada, my Canadian girlfriend told me that, and she was very disappointed not to see one when she came over here to live.

New Jack

Alvin is cute!

I think Simon pops into my garden. I've seen him burrow under the fence.
.... But he went next door, who have four cats (four cats, Jeremy? That's insane!)

I keep my eyes peeled for the little fella.


Buelligan

Quote from: manticore on August 09, 2018, 03:30:13 PM
Yes, what are they? Pipes stuck vertically into the ground, going down two or three feet. A drainage thing?

Someone will know.

Mortar launchers?

Nice marmot there Blods.

Attila

Morning after in the hedghog party palace (that round dish under the metal shelter thing starts out brimming with food every night)



post-hog carnage



Small Robert on the doorstep (before the party palace was built)



Small Robert on the doorstep



And Small Robert again with a slug



Small Robert playing behind the flowerpots



Mr Gus does pre-hedgehog rave checks



Morning after: that one guest who just will not leave



Bonus Vince: Cat head - big.




I swear I had photos of Small Robert and his friend when they were chasing each other around the bins, but I cannot for the life of me find them now. I do'nt have that many photos as I like to sit out there with them (that step and the party palace are about 2 feet apart, so if I'm quiet on the step, they will run around below me grunting and squeaking in between chowing down). I'd have to use a flash on my camera -- I've had the opportunity for some good shots, but I don't want to annoy them.

They stand in their water dish, so we have perfect little hedgehog prints in the dust at the bottom of their dish, magnified by the water (dust and dirt is inescapable here at the moment due to endless construction on the happy-clappy church that's about 50 meters from our front garden, but that's another story).

ETA -- Found it!

Small Robert and pal


Buelligan

Phoarrh.  Loads of virtual karma to you Attila, my cup runneth over.