As hesitant as i was to put "cock pheasant" into google... yes i think it probably wasQuote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
Printable View
As hesitant as i was to put "cock pheasant" into google... yes i think it probably wasQuote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
First wasp (jasper) of 2021! YAAAY! Summer's a comin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d5ZOgWZAmQ
Sunshine has brought out dozens of skylarks on the hill, lovely to see and here. Hundreds and hundreds of frogs in all the peat bogs - getting jiggy!
First genuinely interesting thing "captured" on my wildlife camera. A badger in some local woods. I have mixed feelings:
It's really nice to see a badger, but there are lots of gamekeepers round here, and I don't want it to be killed
But...
I don't want it eating my chickens.
Thankfully there are so many pheasants about as a distraction at the moment. We'll just have to remember to shut the coop up every night.
Saw a Little Owl today whilst out running. Only the second one I've ever seen.
Nice spot.
Up until 2/3 years ago, every year around this time, I would regularly see one atop one of the telegraph poles that line one of the lanes out of the village.
They are a lovely sight but unfortunately one that is getting rare.
Hare running across a field; but it was being quite sensible, because it is not March yet.
Newts appearing in the local pond. They are small and I assume smooth. Need to be careful as last year the local Kingfisher was gobbling them down. No Frogspawn yet.
Dead badger, staring at me as I ran past on the short stretch of road between the exit from the Outwoods and the entrance to Beacon Hill Country Park. No doubt Llani Boy will be pleased to know that there is one less specimen of this vermin stalking the fields and woods of Leicestershire.
I also saw a dead badger in North Warwickshire on my last cycle ride. I assume it had been hit by a car in the night at a decent speed, as it was a good 10 yards from the roadside.
Pairs of ravens doing that courtship display thing where they fly high then swoop down together, alternating flying upside down.
Much like that scene in Top Gun in fact.
White stoat (ermine) with a little black tip on it's tail - along the Pennine Way between Low and High Force. Cute.
Two pairs of Mandarin Ducks on the Wharfe in Otley this morning. Always have to make a joke about Duck a La Orange when I see them!
Also a Goldcrest feeding on a coconut full of fat. Lovely little birds.
Today's wildlife camera trap encounter. A fox - walking past the entrance to the badger set.
A veritable feast of wildlife on my cross-country run in the area between Coventry and Birmngham.
Spotted a Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, also what i later identified as a Yellowhammer. And a couple of cows & calfs whilst negotiating a farmyard.
More signs of spring with woodpeckers hammering away in Great Farley wood on this morning's run.
I startled half a dozen curlew on todays run in the marshy fields near Reaps Moor this morning and they made a right racket which was music to my ears. On slightly higher ground below Merryton Low I disturbed a Mountain Hare which still had some of its white winter coat but was mainly brown.
Wonderful.
Cormorant! Spotted where the Harwood Beck joins the Tees in upper Teesdale. At a distance I thought it must be a heron, but its jet black colour was distinctive and as I drew level with it on the other side of the Tees, it's frantic short, flappy wings and other features also ruled the heron out. I've seen many on the coast but never so far inland. Its tall profile stood out markedly from the flocks of geese, lapwings, mallards and oyster-catchers around it.
Just checked online and it seems cormorants are increasingly being found inland https://www.bto.org/understanding-bi...ocus/cormorant and even nesting in trees.
See my post #4122 on this thread. I'm further inland than you are!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mossdog
Yeah but, Nanpantan reservoir - 97.8 m altitude. Harwwod/Tees confluence- 355 meters. Mine's higher than yours :DQuote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
My home working desk now overlooks the bird feeders. Which means I get to see the (largely inept) sparrow hawk trying to take the tits near the feeder. I also saw what I think might be a a meadow pipit. This falls into the category of small brown bird, but my book tells me all the other likely candidates (various warblers) haven't arrived yet.
Meadow Pipits = Mars Bars of the bird word (and Cuckoos love them too!).Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
We were woken up this morning by a scratching padding sound in the room at about 5am. A bit of tentative investigation revealed it to be a small bat. After trying to nudge it with a sock toward the open door, it took flight and did about 50 laps of the room before either finding its way out or finding somewhere to hide. Nice to see but a bit worrying for the bat and we're both a bit tired now.
I remember this post from almost a month ago and thinking you were a bit ahead of us. We're at about 250 metres in the Peak District.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
Well I'm pleased to say our new pond (last years lock-down project) has its first batch of frogspawn in. We're so proud!
Congratulations, that will be a lot of mouths to feed!
First Lapwings of the year seen on this mornings run near Magpie Mine. Walking down Lathkill Dale this afternoon spotted a Dippers nest, the are early nesters. Also a pair of Mandarins.
A slight concern is the number of male Mallards with out a female. I have noticed over the last few weeks that there are about 4 males to every female.
Is this the same in your neck of the woods?
first flattened toad this yea,r on the road, and a large Bee
Mallard ducks could actually be nesting and starting to sit now, might account for their absence?Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
I did think that Moley but its been a 4-1 ratio since January. Hopefully you're right and well have a bumper crop of ducklings to go AAAAAwwwww at!Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
No wild animals to write home about on today's run... but a couple of fields full of Rams with their Lambs.
Which did startle me a bit, as those fields were empty a couple of weeks back... and having been ran out of town by a field full of sheep in St John's In The Vale many years back, i was watching my back.
They were more likely to have been Ewe's Travs!Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
They had horns, which I thought meant they were male... But my animal knowledge is somewhat limited.
Me too. On this morning's run near Lamaload Reservoir - about 3 or 4 of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
No worries Travs. Once you've moved up to Cumbria you'll be tutored in how to identify and distinguish between gimmers, mules, shearlings and hogs, etc. to help you through the end of first year continued residency test :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Travs
And then when you travel to Wales they all have different names and same again if you go to southern England.
A sheep is not just a 🐏🐑!
And the different words they use to count them 'yan, tan, tethera, mether, pip, etc'!
One-erum, Two-erum, Cockerum, Shu-erum, Shitherum,
Shatherum, Wine-berry, Wagtail, Tarrydiddle, Den.
Is the one from the Romney marsh area that my wife knows, learnt as a kid from her dad who was a shepard there.
Random black squirrel on our pati, just outside my living room while I was working on my laptop
Is that a different one to the usual suspects you've videoed? Have they got names yet?Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
My wildlife camera is currently pointing at the pond to see if we can spot frogs.
First Chiffchaff of the year this morning. Heard and saw it.