Wildlife spotting 2 - tickety-boo

[Spoon of Ploff]

any of you folks know what this is?

Spotted down the marshes today... think it may be a female stonechat?

[Endicott]

I'd say yes.

I started the the thread with what I reckon is a female stonechat.

[Des Wigwam]

Could it be a winter male? I didn't think females had such a distinct white neck band. Or the dark on the cheeks/ears/lores.

[Spoon of Ploff]

This one reminds me of both an owl, and Grandpa Munster

they should rename this the badger bird.

[Dex Sawash]

any of you folks know what this is?

Spotted down the marshes today... think it may be a female stonechat?

This poster?
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=12845

(who is overdue a check in)

[Spoon of Ploff]

I'd say yes.

I started the the thread with what I reckon is a female stonechat.

surprised i missed this lovely pic. it seems (from a sample of two) that they like to sit on or near the tops of things.

[Endicott]

In the same post are pics of what I reckon to be a male, he was jumping about a lot and foraging so I was lucky to get several shots. Then I spotted this one coz it was sat at the top of the hedge warbling at me, for ages. Must have got about 15 shots all very similar before it finally dropped behind the hedge.

I think that when they are making statements about their territory they like to be visible and high up.

[bgmnts]

The 'u fukin wot mate' face and demeanour of little round fat birds will always be a source of joy to me.

I've noticed the squirrels have grown a tad bolder recently. Went past one the other day and it just sort of sat there on a few low branch a few yards away from me, it didn't leg it up the tree to enjoy its acorn feast.

[Brian Freeze]

I think I saw my first male Stonechat in the wild a couple of weeks ago, it too was sat near the top of a twiggy protrusion.

Saw some damselfly larvae in the mucky mess we call a wildlife pond yesterday so good to know its useful for something.

I saw this bird this afternoon and could only snap a terrible image.



I thought it were a pigeon but think its a mouldy Jackdaw.

[Endicott]

After seeing my first long tailed tit in November, it's been reported locally that there is a flock or flocks about. I've been hoping to see one on my feeder, and this morning I was lucky enough to be looking when they turned up mob handed. All of 5 mins they were there, and then gone. Back to being mobbed by the local sparrows and a couple of blue tits now.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

I also spotted my first long-tailed tit a few weeks ago and I've seen a squadron of them (about eight) flitting around the feeder and in the trees a few times this week.

In other news, I've just come back from walking my dog in the small nearby wooded area when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw what I thought was another dog bounding about off the lead. Turns out I've just seen my first roe deer. Absolutely delighted.

[The Bumlord]

[Spoon of Ploff]

Lovely shot. saw a group of these knocking about with a couple of blue tits this morning along the old railway line that runs through North Stafford in toward the town centre. Darting from low branch to low branch they didn't seem that fussed that there was a large human shaped lump staring at them from a few feet away. The same goes for the gold crest further along the same path.. on a branch just above eye height, less than six feet away.

And to top it off there's been a Reed Bunting in the back garden.

Just know if I take my camera out with me tomorrow these buggers will all go into hiding.. laughing their little bird laughs as they watch me go by.

[Twit 2]

Had a load of sandpipers flying in my face in Sheringham last week, scattered birds against the light. Didn't photo. Also saw a couple of seals bobbing about in the waves. Don't come out well in photos from a distance on a phone.

[Brian Freeze]

Saw a bald robin this morning on someone elses bird feeder.

It was fluffy like a fledgling in the body but its head was bald and white and wrinkly with a little tuft at the top of its beak.

No photo but it was a very unsettling thing, mainly through feeling sorry for it in this cold weather.

[Brian Freeze]

Yesterday I helped my dad put up a nesting box for a Barn Owl we've seen near his house.

He'd made the box in three sections so we could build it up the tree. Its a massive beech tree so there was room for me to stand in the boughs while he brought up the pieces and we assembled it.

Probably took three quarters of an hour to do it, laughing and joking and just generally making a normal amount of racket. Nearing the end I moved round the tree to get a better angle and the bloody owl only went and flew out of the tree from about three feet behind me and it'd been there all that time.

It had a bit of a roost in the end of where a huge branch had snapped off many years ago, it was full of pellets and downy looking flooring material  and happened to be facing the same direction we'd decided to orientate the box away from the prevailing winds.

[hermitical]

I also spotted my first long-tailed tit a few weeks ago and I've seen a squadron of them (about eight) flitting around the feeder and in the trees a few times this week.

There are some birds, such as these, that once you recognise the sound, or even just become accustomed to listening more closely, you start to see consistently. I now see Goldcrests almost every time I go for a walk, either from home or when I go for a breaktime walk at work.

I love watching a flock of Long-tailed Tits flitting from tree to tree.

[Endicott]

I think this is a meadow pipit and a couple of reed buntings, but I'm just going by the RSBP book. I've not seen these before.

[Brian Freeze]

BATBOXES?

Are there any bat experts on here or does anyone know any?

I would like to build some from some rescued pallets but have a couple of questions before I start if anyone can help?

[Brian Freeze]

And during my preshift afternoon nap today I dreamt being excited to find a small spotty green frog  that then went and hopped off and started shagging a female frog that nobody knew was there either.

And I distinctly remember thinking in the dream "ooh can't wait to tell them lot on the wildlife thread"

I need help.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Saw a tree creeper today. Never seen one before. Here's a picture of one that I never took:

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

Saw a tree creeper today. Never seen one before. Here's a picture of one that I never took:

Lovely picture.

I had the double a couple of days ago: treecreeper and nuthatch. Also a bunch of long-tailed tits - I'm back walking my childhood haunts, yet I don't remember ever seeing these 30-40 years ago (ditto goldfinches). The highlight of that walk, though, was  my first glimpse ever of one of the deer in Calverley woods. Granted, I'd have enjoyed the vision more if the poor beast hadn't been being chased by a dog at the time...

[Endicott]

Yeah I don't remember long tailed tits either, but I'm seeing them fairly frequently now.

There are tree creepers in a part of the woods I like to wander in, this is a pic I was lucky enough to take a month ago.

[ZoyzaSorris]

Great pic!

[jobotic]

Yeah, great picture.

Have only seen a treecreeper a couple of times, although when I was a kid I went on a nature residential thing and helped ring one.

Aren't they the only bird that can walk down trees as well as up?

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

Thirded - that is a great capture.

Aren't they the only bird that can walk down trees as well as up?

That's how you know it's not a nuthatch. Treecreepers go up, nuthatches go down.

[BlodwynPig]

Looking through some old photos from Canada, i saw this. Hornet nest or something more sinister?

[Dex Sawash]

Looking through some old photos from Canada, i saw this. Hornet nest or something more sinister?

Reckon that's a tree worm/caterpillar/pupae/larvae thing nest. Sorry, only know the science word description. Little wiggly things drop out of them.

[Gurke and Hare]

I've just moved to a house which has a big field behind it, and whilst it's not strictly wildlife, I don't mind seeing this dude out of my office window.



I put a bird feeder up last week, and it had its first visitor today.

[Spoon of Ploff]

That Robin looks well chuffed.