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March 28, 2024, 01:51:13 PM

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Wildlife spotting

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

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Mr Eggs

Quote from: paruses on December 15, 2021, 08:38:00 AMHave you @Mr Eggs ? At various reserves I've only found them to be slightly territorial bores rather than anything else. The ones who've exhausted their capacity for spending on Leica and Swarovski and so gone into photography are worse. They get shitty when you turn up to a patch to have a look because it takes them so long to set up with their massive 8 foot lenses and tripods that take up the area of a new build that they love to blame anyone else for a bird fucking off before they've filled their 256gb card up with one shutter press.

The cammo lenses lads are baffling. A lot of them do dragonfly photography in the summer so they can fight each other on flikr for dominance.
I've had some run-ins with listers. Absolute cunt behaviour like harassing nesting Turtle Doves off nests/ scything reedbeds to see Bitterns better/ trespassing in old bastards gardens.
Mental bastards.

Mr Eggs

Quote from: purlieu on December 15, 2021, 06:21:47 PMYeah, on the whole birders tend to be a decent bunch and are usually ok to chat and help you out if necessary. There are certainly tedious snobs about, but they're very few and far between.

Gull people are scary. My dad's writing a book about birds in Leicestershire with his mate who's a gull guy. Lovely bloke, but he spends hours just watching huge flocks through his binoculars, trying to find different variants of lesser black backs and stuff. He even chooses his holiday locations based on what gulls they have there.

Quote from: Dex Sawash on December 15, 2021, 11:20:29 PMMy favorite thing about gulls was there are all sorts of different looking ones but they are all just gulls.
Now I find out that tedious bird wankers have split them up too.

Gull watchers will fuck you up. It's not just about identifying the gull, it's about ageing the cunt as well. They go nuts when a landfill site closes.

DoesNotFollow

This week we've heard birds - likely robins and/or blackbirds - singing in the middle of the night where we live. It's a fairly built up area but I can't say we've noticed it happening before.

We've travelled to my partner's parent's house for Christmas which is a little more rural (still on a street though) and last night we heard various birds singing almost throughout the night. Again not something we've noticed happening before.

Anyone know why this might be? Combination of street lights, Xmas lights and a mild winter was our thoughts.

paruses

Quote from: DoesNotFollow on December 26, 2021, 10:35:50 AMThis week we've heard birds - likely robins and/or blackbirds - singing in the middle of the night where we live. It's a fairly built up area but I can't say we've noticed it happening before.

We've travelled to my partner's parent's house for Christmas which is a little more rural (still on a street though) and last night we heard various birds singing almost throughout the night. Again not something we've noticed happening before.

Anyone know why this might be? Combination of street lights, Xmas lights and a mild winter was our thoughts.

Don't know but I have to take a poorly dog out each night usually around 3 and last couple of nights have noticed exactly the same. I live in a town but a rural one and it's not something I have noticed before.

DoesNotFollow

Quote from: paruses on December 26, 2021, 11:11:50 AMDon't know but I have to take a poorly dog out each night usually around 3 and last couple of nights have noticed exactly the same. I live in a town but a rural one and it's not something I have noticed before.

Cheers, yeah it's odd. If anyone else has any thoughts please do comment!

Dex Sawash

Just had a hummingbird at the feeder, supposed to be off to Belize by now.

ZoyzaSorris

Determined to live somewhere that has hummingbirds one day.

Dex Sawash

They refuse to let you look at them for the most part. Just get closer to a bee.

Ferris

Quote from: Dex Sawash on December 26, 2021, 08:33:58 PMJust had a hummingbird at the feeder, supposed to be off to Belize by now.

We still had them knocking about in October which definitely can't be right. Hopefully they've realized they should have fucked off south by now.

Ferris

Quote from: ZoyzaSorris on December 27, 2021, 06:03:53 PMDetermined to live somewhere that has hummingbirds one day.

You very rarely see them, they're tiny as fuck and don't come near people as a rule. I've only seen a couple in 10+ years.

Pink Gregory

Might be going to see some SEALS tomorrow.  Little baby seals.  Donna Nook near Grimsby.

Twit 2

Baby Norfolk seal yesterday:


Ferris

You could have run down, put him in a duffel bag and taken him home.

A missed opportunity.

Buelligan

#2623
Lovely stuff (hummers and sealings).  Went for a big New Year Walk on my onesome up my favourite biggie.  Nearly didn't because my village was dim at noon, full of fog, chill and woodsmoke.  But I thought, fuck it, I am adamantine, so up I went.  Saw nowt except some amazing shit.

Up, out of the blind mist, surfacing in a lake of chilled milk.  Above, deep blue warm, pacific.  Light, thick, rich as honey.  Standing on the windless top, above that silent sea, staring miles and miles across and over solid cloud to deeper blue islands in the next range.  It was incredible.  But the best was to come.

I began my descent - another route - my back to the long lines of sun, level with them, it seemed.  Ahead the wall of white waiting - and there it was in front of me, the iridescent rainbow circle of the sun - a doorway of reflecting droplets, directly ahead of me with my own black silhouette, perfect, my shadow self waiting inside for me.  Fucking transcendental. 

Just thought I'd add this, an explanation of what I saw, apparently called a Glory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(optical_phenomenon) Mine was much clearer and more recognisably human than the picture below but it gives a good idea of the experience.


The giant figure itself is usually called a Brocken Spectre (after the name of a mountain in the Harz mountains in Germany), with the glory being the halo around the head. Probably the very mild air in Western Europe at the moment is creating the ideal conditions for this phenomenon in certain places, with layers of warm air and sunlight above cooler air with banks of mist/cloud.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocken_spectre

Saw my own Brocken Spectre a few years back  - it is quite something. A fictional encounter with a Spectre on Arthur's Seat features to an eerie effect in Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner, too.


Buelligan

Heheh.  It's a strangely uplifting and wondrous thing, to realise that you're standing, right there, in the perfect and quite rare, moment.  I didn't know about the phenomenon but when I saw it, it was so clear - the rainbow tunnel with a dark person inside - I knew I was entirely alone - so understood what must be happening.  It gave me joy!

Going back later on today in the hope of finding the door of perception again.

the Fallen

Woodpigeons fucking love my garden. I am King of Seed I throw loads out morningly and they sit there fat and chewing and spooked so easily.

A blackbird also patrols the territory. He chases off tits and once a robin. It's his patch. I imagine him to think in terms of gangsta patois and here he is in his hood thinking of what it's like to be black

There was a hedgehog last year

Brian Freeze

Still got tadpoles mooching about in various states of growth. They don't seem to be in a rush to grow up.

We found loads of mermaids purses yesterday and when trying to identify which fish they came from we found that a lot of what we used to call dogfish are now called catsharks. So that was edumacational for us.

bgmnts

Gamekeepers allowed to shoot wild birds now the government says.

Why are people just obsessed with killing shit that is in no way a threat to them?

Buelligan

Because it makes them feel able to release some of the darkness inside them and get a pat on the head from their fellow addicts.

shoulders

I saw one of them glory/haze spectres a week or so ago. Very cool.

Spoon of Ploff

Short filum of the robin I've been feeding during m'morning walk. You can tell it was a cold morning because it's puffed up like a tennis ball and keeps standing on one leg.




Also. sorry about the sniffing noises... but as I said it was a cold morning.

Lovely clip. Surprised to discover that robins make sniffing noises in cold weather though.

Fishfinger

Love robins. I was really happy to see, suddenly, two together this afternoon, after what seemed like several weeks of no sighting. I'd like to believe one of them is the fledge I saw being fed mealworm in the garden by its dad (?) last year, but who knows. Anyway, it's nice. Good luck you funny red blobs.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: bgmnts on January 05, 2022, 01:38:35 AMGamekeepers allowed to shoot wild birds now the government says.

Why are people just obsessed with killing shit that is in no way a threat to them?

Toffs, innit.  Always fucking toffs and their lackeys. 

Never went to see seals, but I did see a Curlew on the beach that wandered down from the estuary.  Little curly beaky guy, I loved him.

Gurke and Hare

I've still not seen any redwings this winter.

Spoon of Ploff

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on January 09, 2022, 07:15:34 PMI've still not seen any redwings this winter.

There's a few round these parts (Hertsmere). Saw one this morning sitting in the grass and taking in some rays. Hopped into a tree and then took flight when it saw me.

Gurke and Hare

The garden birds have sprung into life over the last couple of days after a quiet spell. Seen goldfinches, long-tailed tits, a green woodpecker, a great-spotted woodpecker, a jay and a blackcap as well as the everyday stuff in bigger numbers.

purlieu

Quote from: Gurke and Hare on January 09, 2022, 07:15:34 PMI've still not seen any redwings this winter.
Unusual, and possibly worrying. A walk through nearby farmland last week threw up around 300 of them for me, plus similar numbers of fieldfare. 100+ chaffinches, about 300 linnets, 50+ yellowhammers, 50+ skylarks, a flock of grey partridges, and several hares (including, sadly, a dead one, although amazing to see up close). Possibly the best area for farmland birds in our part of the county.
Of course, it's going to be a railfreight depot in a few years time.

Seen yesterday - could be another bird ID fail coming up but I think it's a sparrow hawk (?)



Also spotted a brown hare: