Wildlife spotting

[bgmnts]

Yeah you got to really. They probably prop up the entire ecosystem in some way so have to give them a chance.

I had no idea that agar had bee healing properties so cheers I'll remember that!

[Spoon of Ploff]

just saw this

careful. that fox'll be after yer chips if you give it half a chance.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Windowsill nesting doves update: successful after all.  I have tried to keep out of their way as much as is sensibly possible.

The second egg arrived the following day



and this pair of dinosaurs arrived last weekend.



Once they've fledged and fully departed the creeper is being cut back...

don't want to alarm anyone but i've have it on good authority that Shiftwork has been looking up recipes for pigeon pie

[purlieu]

What's the consensus on moths in your bedroom? I currently have about 4 or 5 just chilling. They won't fuck anything up will they?

There are a couple of species with caterpillars that eat cotton and such, the rest are fine. Try and get them outside if you can, so they can find food and a mate and such. I hate finding creatures indoors, can't help feeling they'll just end up dying there.


Loving the collared doves, shiftwork! Such timid birds, you've been incredibly lucky. Here's hoping they make it through and fledge!

[king_tubby]

We've got carpet moths currently and the hippy safe spray doesn't seem to be killing the rug munching little bastards so I hate every moth I see, from Mothra to, er Killer Moth.

'Oooh, get the nice high wool % carpets she said, that'll be nice, she said'

[hermitical]

This family were a couple of metres from my desk, the youngsters have now fledged

[bgmnts]

There are a couple of species with caterpillars that eat cotton and such, the rest are fine. Try and get them outside if you can, so they can find food and a mate and such. I hate finding creatures indoors, can't help feeling they'll just end up dying there.

They buggered off themselves today actually. Good on them.

[Gurke and Hare]

The house martins are concentrating their feeding over the downstairs flat's garden today, it's great. Constant fly-pasts just outside my window.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Loving the collared doves, shiftwork! Such timid birds...

That's what I assumed because, you know, dove of peace and that, but we get loads in our garden and on several occasions I've seen them bossing pigeons and even magpies. Lovely looking birds but can't say I'm a fan of that screeching noise they make as they land.

[purlieu]

Timid around people, at least.
Also, I love their flight call!

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Yes, they take flight at my slightest movement when I shift position to look at them. Unlike the increasingly bold blackbird, who will let me get to within a couple of feet before he legs it.

And I like the coo-coo-coo noise of the collared doves but the harsh screech they also make is less easy to love.

[shiftwork2]

Once they've fledged and fully departed the creeper is being cut back...

Windowsill doves update #2



After 2 weeks in the nest and some impressive growth the youngsters are looking outwards with lively interest.  Should be fledged by Wednesday.

Parental visits are now pretty rare but they're close by.  Any nearby bird larger than a dove that comes close gets sent packing toot sweet, but smaller birds don't appear to bother them.

[ZoyzaSorris]

We've got carpet moths currently and the hippy safe spray doesn't seem to be killing the rug munching little bastards so I hate every moth I see, from Mothra to, er Killer Moth.

'Oooh, get the nice high wool % carpets she said, that'll be nice, she said'

Clothes moths rank amongst the very few of nature's creatures I find it hard to have a soft spot for but moths with such pestilential behaviours make up but one or two of the UKs approx 2.5 thousand species of moth. So but harsh to tar the rest of the good lads in that basis.

[shiftwork2]

Windowsill doves #3

Lots of parading up and down the windowsill (knocking my camera over, cheers) and wing fluttering.



It's day 15 and fledging seems to be imminent.  Come on dove dudes.

_{I also want my window back}

[Spoon of Ploff]

met a fox this morning. it appears to have let itself go

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

I've heard them in the trees but this is the first time I've seen one of the resident jackdaws visit the feeder. Also, I'm not much of a birdwatcher but I'm pretty sure I saw a wagtail (pied?) in my garden yesterday (it kept wagging its tail). I'm sure they're probably pretty common but it's the first time I've knowingly seen one in our garden.

[Brian Freeze]

If it was black and white with plenty of tail bobbing (and you are 100% sure it wasnt a magpie) - you can be pretty confident its a pied wagtail.

Here's the photo of the four frogs in the pond.



Its a terrible photo but someone might want to waste five minutes looking for them?

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

I've checked online and I'm as sure as I can be that it was a pied wagtail.

I've found all four frogs. Do I win a prize?

[Spoon of Ploff]

Need to find my specs i can only see three

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Oops! In my eagerness to show how eagle-eyed I am I misidentified a twig as a frog.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

[Brian Freeze]

Very good Mr Voltan, help yourself to a biscuit from the jar and you may have the morning off to do some colouring.

[Des Wigwam]

I had no idea that agar had bee healing properties so cheers I'll remember that!

Sorry @bgmnts I meant agave - just in case you have been out healing bees but with little success.

[Fishfinger]

Love the foxy, jackdaw and frogs.

[Fishfinger]

Garden still dominated by starlings, with other recurrent players being a massive crow, couple of magpies, diminishing numbers of goldfinches, small numbers of blue tits, wood pigeons, sparrows and robins. Stopped putting standard seed out maybe a year ago due to rats, but the sparrows in particular seem to have adapted to eating the shit out of everything else anyway: mostly peanuts and nyger seed (the waste from which falls onto a bird table underneath and gets eaten up).

Miss the hedgehogs who abruptly showed up last August, were around for a couple of weeks and vanished when next door did some landscaping.

[dissolute ocelot]

Rare for such a shy bird, I saw 5 wrens all near each other, must have been just kicked out of the nest. Most in woodland but one had ventured onto a nearby field. Each one scarpered before I could photograph it.

Also seen incredibly loud and obnoxious jackdaws and oystercatchers, so I suspect it's annoying teenage bird season. Even the cygnets have turned into fearless bastards trying to get food off anyone approaching.

[Ferris]

Saw a fucking huge bee in the garden yesterday evening, size of the thing; christ!

...After a minute of my eyes adjusting, I realized it was an actual hummingbird. Watched it whizz about for 10 minutes or so, entirely unbothered by me.

Tried to get a photo which was a colossal failure, but managed to get a look at it with the binoculars I keep by the door for such an occasion - it was a juvenile ruby throated hummingbird if I'm any judge (I'm not). Zoom right in there and you can see its beak (facing left) as it goes to town on the wildflowers.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Little Owl update. Still see two or three of them when I'm out walking. They must be sick of the sight of me by now.

[bgmnts]

How come all you folk get to see cool shit and all I get are crows and pigeons with the occasional cat?

[king_tubby]

My son and I went on an organised bat walk at the local park last night. It was ace! We got given bad detectors and detected bats! Mostly pipistrelles, I believe.