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Wildlife spotting

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

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ZoyzaSorris

#480
On my own account, while I was in N Scotland a couple of weeks back we went to see the bottlenose dolphins at Chanonry Point in the Moray Firth, it's basically a thin peninsula that funnels the fish together when the tide rises so if you go there an hour or so after low tide in spring or summer you are pretty odds on to see a whole bunch of the buggers cavorting mere metres from the beach. Pretty bloody bonkers. Such good cetacean bothering has inevitably attracted the masses so it's proper heaving, gives it quite a vibe though as everyone stands there scanning the waves waiting for the first sight of an oncoming finned hump or spout. Recommend.

https://www.moraydolphins.co.uk/chanonry-point.html

Also found a few Devonian lobe-finned and armoured fish fossils on a trip to Achanarras quarry, also great. Don't know if animals that died 385 million years ago count though.

https://www.nature.scot/fossil-fish-caithness-385-million-year-old-story-achanarras-quarry

Buelligan

I'm very jealous.  Lovely dolphins and of course, I love a lovely fossil.  Got any pics (of either)?

ZoyzaSorris

No pics of the dolphins. Thought I'd leave that to the pros! Will try and get some pics together of of my massive rock-hard Coccosteus and Dipterus.

stunted

Is this a coypu then? Is it possible to tell from such a bad photo? Looks like a beaver but it didn't have that beaver tail. I don't rememebr it having orange teeth but it could have done. Don't think it was big enough to be a capybara. I think it was tame or semi-tame because it would wrestle with your hand and try to nibble your fingers like a dog would or maybe it just had rabies.




Edit: actually just having just googled "Are there coypus in the caribbean" I think it's a hutia. Enjoy the hutia.

Ferris

A family of raccoons. Never get them round my way, but visiting friends a bit further out, and their bins were going mental when we got back from the pub. After a while, a little head with furry ears popped out of the bin. Then another. Turns out there were 4 of them in there looking for food.

We had friends from the UK with us and they were delighted to see them (as were we!), so we sat on the porch, ate pizza and drank our beers in the dark for 10 minutes while watching the little fuckers going about their business.

Was really nice actually.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on September 09, 2019, 09:11:54 PM
A family of raccoons. Never get them round my way, but visiting friends a bit further out, and their bins were going mental when we got back from the pub. After a while, a little head with furry ears popped out of the bin. Then another. Turns out there were 4 of them in there looking for food.

We had friends from the UK with us and they were delighted to see them (as were we!), so we sat on the porch, ate pizza and drank our beers in the dark for 10 minutes while watching the little fuckers going about their business.

Was really nice actually.

Bastard

Ferris

Quote from: BlodwynPig on September 09, 2019, 10:13:59 PM
Bastard

I briefly thought of how much you'd have enjoyed it as they were frolicking around, if that counts for anything.

Attila

Do feral and stray cats count? I spent about an hour today at the Torre Argentina in Rome playing with the strays who live in the ruins/at the kitty sanctuary there.

gib

They're semi wild so it's half a point for each one.

Ferris

Quote from: Attila on September 09, 2019, 11:25:15 PM
Do feral and stray cats count? I spent about an hour today at the Torre Argentina in Rome playing with the strays who live in the ruins/at the kitty sanctuary there.

Every bit of this sounds amazing

Attila

Quote from: gib on September 09, 2019, 11:42:16 PM
They're semi wild so it's half a point for each one.

Cool! I'm going down to visit the Baths of Caracalla site today, and plan to walk back and pop in to see the kitties again if I've got time later on this afternoon. (The cats have free run of a sanctuary there, and there is a special room for the really fragile, old, and infirm cats where you can go in and sit and play with them (which usually means them toddling over and flumping themselves down on your lap for scritches).


Bazooka

I saw a beetle in the urinal at work, it was too far gone by the time I got to it.

Buelligan

Ringo, at his age.

On the wild cats in old places thing, la Cité de Carcarcassonne is chock-full of ancient drains and runnels through the massive stonwork.  Prime real estate for cats, I've often watched them, in their old secure kingdom going about their private business and wondered what the slender corridors and galleries, accessible only to them, are like.

hamfist

Spotted this cheeky beast on the garden fence at the weekend...


...then later in the day, noticed this bat chilling out in some rafters (sorry poor quality image - I digital-zoomed in rather than reach up - didn't want to disturb it) :

Norton Canes

Jumped over a fence last week and almost stood on a hedgehog (no photos available)

Ferris

Quote from: Buelligan on September 10, 2019, 10:50:50 AM
Ringo, at his age.

On the wild cats in old places thing, la Cité de Carcarcassonne is chock-full of ancient drains and runnels through the massive stonwork.  Prime real estate for cats, I've often watched them, in their old secure kingdom going about their private business and wondered what the slender corridors and galleries, accessible only to them, are like.

Mrs Ferris was followed about by 2 or 3 for an entire day in Carcassonne and not a single one was interested in me at all.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on September 10, 2019, 12:26:00 PM
Mrs Ferris was followed about by 2 or 3 for an entire day in Carcassonne and not a single one was interested in me at all.

Was this when she was pregnant. I've heard that certain animals will become protective of pregnant humans.

Ferris

Quote from: BlodwynPig on September 10, 2019, 12:40:11 PM
Was this when she was pregnant. I've heard that certain animals will become protective of pregnant humans.

About a year prior. And she is quite allergic to cats, but I love them (and any small fluffy animal). Alas that they do not love me.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on September 10, 2019, 04:27:39 PM
About a year prior. And she is quite allergic to cats, but I love them (and any small fluffy animal). Alas that they do not love me.

If little Ferris starts to mewl, I'd get a DNA test done on the sly.

Attila

Quote from: Buelligan on September 10, 2019, 10:50:50 AM
Ringo, at his age.

On the wild cats in old places thing, la Cité de Carcarcassonne is chock-full of ancient drains and runnels through the massive stonwork.  Prime real estate for cats, I've often watched them, in their old secure kingdom going about their private business and wondered what the slender corridors and galleries, accessible only to them, are like.

la Cité de Carcarcassonne is now on my travel-plans list.

I spent a long day at Ostia Antica yesterday, and in addition to more cats lounging about the ruins (including one that met me in the carpark and helpfully showed me the ticket office in exchange for skritches), the place is crawling with brilliantly coloured, tiny lizards (and snakes -- appropriately a long, green snake startled me in one of the Mithridaic temples), and a fat bumbling hedgehog. I was surprised to see Mr Hog, but he was happily perched on a staircase to nowhere, chowing down on kibble in a silver bowl left for the cats.

Some really beautiful cats out there, as well -- curled up on the remains of one pediment was a very soft, long haired black cat shot through all over with russett highlights. It didn't uncurl from its very comfy bagel position except to expose its tummy for rubs and to purr like a mad bastard. It was no fool, sunning itself next to one of the only working drinking fountains in the estate.

Another super fat black & white boy was flopped on a very expensive, marble-topped table in the giftshop (one of these occassion-type table things, only with a mosaic top meant to look like a chessboard. The guy in the shop was cross that I was trying to get a good photo of the cat, because he didn't want people to photograph the merchandise.)

Black and russett moggie



Tiny lion in the middle of a temple



Fat boy on a faux draughts board



Antica Hedge pig



This is the fellow who greeted me at the gate


Bonus cat (Anka) from the Sanctuary at the Torre Argentina; I spent an hour or so playing with her and her pals in the nursery at the sanctuary



Frangolina, the cat at the British School at Rome where I'm currently in residence -- no one knows how old she is, but someone showed me a kitten photo of her...taken sometime in either 1998 or 1999.



Ancient Giotto, from my playdate at the sanctuary


Some of the other sanctuary cats






Cats on the walls at Torre Argentina (this is right above the entrance to the sanctuary)

Twit 2


BlodwynPig

The cats... the cats on the walls!!!

Attila

Quote from: Twit 2 on September 12, 2019, 06:52:30 AM
Cats ain't wildlife.

Feral cats is 1/2 wildlife, it says so above.

Buelligan

Ahhh fantastic pictures, thanks Attila.  The gate welcomer looks very like my lovely old Fats and Giotto is my Eddie (both gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds now).  I currently feed a ton (about 15) feral cats, I love them so dearly, I wish I had a camera so's you could see their beauty, but they are so beautiful.

If you do venture to La Cité, consider going out of season.  Like Rome, it can get appallingly busy but it's tiny (comparatively) so has less ability to soak up the crowds.  It's lovely there when it's snowing, really lovely (but I wouldn't recommend that for a first trip probably), May is wonderful in the Languedoc generally.

Oh, and in other news, worked out what that mystery creature I saw in the fig tree probably was - a Stone or Beech Marten, of course.  I saw a dead one beside the road near there a few years ago, so I know they're in the area.  Nice.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Buelligan on September 12, 2019, 09:46:20 AM
Ahhh fantastic pictures, thanks Attila.  The gate welcomer looks very like my lovely old Fats and Giotto is my Eddie (both gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds now).  I currently feed a ton (about 15) feral cats, I love them so dearly, I wish I had a camera so's you could see their beauty, but they are so beautiful.

If you do venture to La Cité, consider going out of season.  Like Rome, it can get appallingly busy but it's tiny (comparatively) so has less ability to soak up the crowds.  It's lovely there when it's snowing, really lovely (but I wouldn't recommend that for a first trip probably), May is wonderful in the Languedoc generally.

Oh, and in other news, worked out what that mystery creature I saw in the fig tree probably was - a Stone or Beech Marten, of course.  I saw a dead one beside the road near there a few years ago, so I know they're in the area.  Nice.

Probably a good a place as any to mention that Pancreas reckons you are infected with toxoplasmosis.

Attila

Quote from: BlodwynPig on September 12, 2019, 10:03:33 AM
Probably a good a place as any to mention that Pancreas reckons you are infected with toxoplasmosis.

That's probably a given, having lived with cats since before I was born -- added bonus on the disease front is that one of the lil fuckers out at Ostia scratched the hell out of me. Either I'm going to lose my left arm to septicaemia, or i'm going to develop some sort of super power.

Quote from: Buelligan on September 12, 2019, 09:46:20 AM
Ahhh fantastic pictures, thanks Attila.  The gate welcomer looks very like my lovely old Fats and Giotto is my Eddie (both gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds now).  I currently feed a ton (about 15) feral cats, I love them so dearly, I wish I had a camera so's you could see their beauty, but they are so beautiful.

If you do venture to La Cité, consider going out of season.  Like Rome, it can get appallingly busy but it's tiny (comparatively) so has less ability to soak up the crowds.  It's lovely there when it's snowing, really lovely (but I wouldn't recommend that for a first trip probably), May is wonderful in the Languedoc generally.

Oh, and in other news, worked out what that mystery creature I saw in the fig tree probably was - a Stone or Beech Marten, of course.  I saw a dead one beside the road near there a few years ago, so I know they're in the area.  Nice.

Cheers for this, B, and I'm glad you like the photos! I've got lots more, but probably better to post them in the cats thread once I'm back home.

Buelligan


Attila

Quote from: Buelligan on September 12, 2019, 10:15:00 PM
I'll look forward to it!

:D will do -- I've got more wild/feral/shelter kitty pictures from Rome as well as paintings someone did to decorate the Torre Argentina shelter. You can look at the cats that are up for long-distance adoption here

http://www.romancats.com/torreargentina/en/distantadoption.php

(PS -- will look into the Roman shoe thing; I know about the more recent practice of hiding shoes, but off the top of my own head I don't know too much about its connections with Roman burials. There is a funerary inscription in the Capitoline museum with footprints engraved in it but I'd need to go back to sift through my photos to see what the accompanying text says.

Not in Rome anymore -- headed to Paris now for my birthday weekend. Dunno if I'll see any live cats, but I always keep a lookout for M Chat graffiti.)


Buelligan

Thanks about the shoes, I don't know if they are connected, I just think they might be and thought you might know something about it.  I won't look at the adoption pics, I do not dare, I have friends in Rome and know I can get there quite quickly but also know I have enough (never enough) needy felines in my life.  Heheh.

Attila

Oh! It's long-distance adoption -- no worries there :) It's like sponsoring a cat rather than going and picking one out (something I can't do, either -- every time we've gone to merge with a new kitty friend, I've had to ask someone else to do the selecting. Otherwise I'm in floods over all of the ones I have to leave behind, with both cats and dogs).

Sadly, no, off top of my head I don't have any intel on Roman-shoe-grave connections, apologies.