Wildlife spotting

[Spoon of Ploff]

fuck's that?

Muntjac I reckon.

[Twit 2]

Had some fantastic Buzzarding lately. Two next to the motorway and one of them on the tops. All soaring just there like that for a really good close up viewing.

Saw one yesterday:

[Pdine]

Muntjac I reckon.

Yup. The place is crawling with them.

[purlieu]

They make the most bizarre sound. First time I heard one I wondered if someone had a dinosaur chained up in their land.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Robin final update. The family unit broke up this week. As soon as the divorce papers were signed Singer cleared out. The quiet one still visits the feeding post, but only picks at the meal worms now. Perhaps it's the bitterness and regret.. Perhaps its the fact there's plenty of food about. As for the youngsters, they're off to fending for themselves now. One of them hopped on branch within arms reach, and let me take this shot.

[Endicott]

That's crackerjack, Ploff.

[Pdine]

That's a fantastic picture!

[Spoon of Ploff]

thanks.. i took about 50 shots and this was about the only one that was mostly in focus.

[Twit 2]

Was having a smoke in the garden when I spotted a hedgehog:

[Brian Freeze]

We got to see a pair of young bluetits being taught about the wonder of sunflower hearts this afternoon.

They were new to it but one was sat on the hook of the feeder and a parent was grabbing bits and passing them over while the other was nearby in the honeysuckle getting the same treatment.

What was interesting was the young ones looked a fair bit bigger than the parents but we put that down to them being more fluffed up for the wet weather than their mum and dad.

Also possible body mass loss of the parents while raising their young?

[Endicott]

Love stuff Brian. Last week I took another couple of bee pics

[Endicott]

Today I took a walk into the woods. Really low light but two firsts for me, some treecreepers and then a stunning female blackcap with a fat caterpilla. And a robin.

[ZoyzaSorris]

Just been up Norfolk for a few days myself and its bloody lovely for the old wildlife isnt it? Was staying somewhere with a great nature trail on site, including this amazing water meadow, and I my major insomnia at the moment that wakes me up at 430 every morning turned out to be a good thing if you have acres of grounds to walk around. Seeing a barn owl do the rounds like clockwork, bumping into chinese water deer (weird tusky fuckers those, and also make weird barking noises!) and muntjac ambling about, nice close up views of hares, and a coffee in a bird hide overlooking a lake with hordes of edible frogs and whinnying grebes adding to the soundscape. It's been real good.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Today I took a walk into the woods. Really low light but two firsts for me, some treecreepers and then a stunning female blackcap with a fat caterpilla. And a robin.

lovely set of images. i've heard blackcaps this year but failed to spot any

[Twit 2]

Just been up Norfolk for a few days myself and its bloody lovely for the old wildlife isnt it? Was staying somewhere with a great nature trail on site, including this amazing water meadow, and I my major insomnia at the moment that wakes me up at 430 every morning turned out to be a good thing if you have acres of grounds to walk around. Seeing a barn owl do the rounds like clockwork, bumping into chinese water deer (weird tusky fuckers those, and also make weird barking noises!) and muntjac ambling about, nice close up views of hares, and a coffee in a bird hide overlooking a lake with hordes of edible frogs and whinnying grebes adding to the soundscape. It's been real good.

Yep it's great. All the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and RSPB centres are good, but anywhere on the broads or coast is gonna work.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Spotted this youngster almost blending into the background on a farm track the other day – think its a juvenile (pied) wagtail?

[Endicott]

i've heard blackcaps this year but failed to spot any

This one found me while I was walking down a path, and was decent enough to get into some actual light. I reckon I was near a nest and being told to move on, so I didn't hang around too long.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

We got to see a pair of young bluetits being taught about the wonder of sunflower hearts this afternoon.

Oh, birds like them too do they? From my experience since buying them for the first time recently, I assumed they were exclusively for the feckin' squirrels.

[Des Wigwam]

On Saturday I found a bee (not a massive one) on a window frame so opened the window to let it out. It hadn't moved about 15 mins later so I flicked it onto a plate to put outside but it looked like it was on its last legs. Fed it some very expensive Agave stuff (organic) for about 5 mins and it came back to life. I was hoping it would imprint on me like a jackdaw or crow and I would get a book out of it that's mentioned in The Guardian but it was really quite aggressive and unpleasant fellow in the end.

Late this morning I had a knock on the door to find two pensioners of the town asking if I could come and look at their bird box. They have a camera in it and one of the blue tits had got its foot stuck (for about 3 days). It was still being fed by the parent and had 2 other pulli with it on the verge of fledging. I went over and bagged them up (not the pensioners) and got the stuck one free - I think it's toe had grown under the wool that the nest was lined with but then as it started to move it had twisted it round and round so it had no chance of getting free. Posted them (the birds) back through their nest box hole and disposed of the corpse of a less successful member of the brood. But all in all a satisfying morning.

Not sure if those Pride of Britain awards are still running but I'll probably get something.

[Twit 2]

What did you do with the pensioners' bodies?

[Brian Freeze]

Oh, birds like them too do they? From my experience since buying them for the first time recently, I assumed they were exclusively for the feckin' squirrels.

Chilli powder is your friend if you want to keep the squirrels off your nuts. We had a knobhead one that would hoover up the food on offer and then start destroying the feeders either in rage or to get at the scraps. Until we got the red dust on the job.

It doesn't bother the birds and after a couple of years we havent seen the squirrel since.

Apparently it was part of the evolution of the chilli plant that it doesnt affect birds to help with seed dispersion. I think mammals must ruin the seeds with  their digestion.

If our squirrel wasnt such a destructive bell end we wouldnt have bothered.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Chilli powder is your friend if you want to keep the squirrels off your nuts. We had a knobhead one that would hoover up the food on offer and then start destroying the feeders either in rage or to get at the scraps. Until we got the red dust on the job.

Thanks for the tip Brian - I'm going to give that a try.

The squirrels in our garden are absolute wankers and have completely destroyed one feeder, cracked another and are doing their best to trash the new, sturdier job I got specifically to store sunflower hearts. They're getting a bit cocky too and when I run at them to chase them off they nonchalantly move out of reach at the last second and return almost as soon as my back's turned.

This morning I resorted to hanging the feeder from the washing line, which I raised with a line prop to make it as hard as possible for Tufty to get at. He somehow found out very quickly that running along the line caused it to wobble, dislodging the feeder so it falls to the ground.

As I said, bunch of wankers.

[Brian Freeze]

As revenge our squirrel dup up and ate a big batch of tulip bulbs Mrs F had been given, so be prepared for surprise attacks.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

Right. First thing tomorrow I'm going to dig up all our plants. Might even chop the trees down. That'll show 'em.

[Des Wigwam]

What did you do with the pensioners' bodies?

We didn't burn them!

[AzureSky]

Yep it's great. All the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and RSPB centres are good, but anywhere on the broads or coast is gonna work.

It's amazing. Had a brilliant 4 days there last week. Visited RSPB Snettisham & Titchwell Marsh and saw Marsh Harriers for the first time! Loads at Titchwell, couldn't believe it. Saw Oystercatchers on their nests, a Little Plover, Avocets and their young, Sand Martins nesting near West Runton Beach. Peregrine nesting on Cromer church, Bullfinches, Greenfinches and a Jay at Sculthorpe. I saw 8 Hares in a single field early one morning. I could go on.

[shoulders]

It's amazing. Had a brilliant 4 days there last week. Visited RSPB Snettisham & Titchwell Marsh and saw Marsh Harriers for the first time! Loads at Titchwell, couldn't believe it. Saw Oystercatchers on their nests, a Little Plover, Avocets and their young, Sand Martins nesting near West Runton Beach. Peregrine nesting on Cromer church, Bullfinches, Greenfinches and a Jay at Sculthorpe. I saw 8 Hares in a single field early one morning. I could go on.

BEAT THAT

[Gurke and Hare]

I'll try. I went to Cornwall last week,which is also a great place and among other stuff I saw



Sedge warbler!



Stonechat!



Ducklings!



Rabbit!



Heron!



Egret!



Guillemots!



Seal!



Another seal!

[Spoon of Ploff]

same fledgling robin (i think).. but in moving pictures!

other videos in the series include

-robin eats meal worm
-robin does a poo
-robin perched on fence post dozing

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

I've just seen a completely white, sparrow-sized bird on the fence. I mean snowy white, not just a bit pale. It was really quite startling to see. I'm assuming it was some albino version of a more common species but I don't really know my arse from my elbow when it comes to birds. Any of you more clued-up types got any ideas?