I wouldn't lose any sleep if I never saw a Magpie or a Grey Squirrel ever again.
Vermin, both of them!
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I wouldn't lose any sleep if I never saw a Magpie or a Grey Squirrel ever again.
Vermin, both of them!
Did you see that video on news last week of a seagull eating a whole squirrel (swallowed in one). Don’t know where it was or details but ideally the seagull choked on it afterwards.
I've just watched this on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsazShJnK-8
I'm guessing the squirrel was already dead. It looks like the footage is not from the UK.
A huge mouthful - well done to the gull.
And it managed to take off fly afterwards!
Out running this morning coming back down the road to Otley near Farnley Hall. I felt a bang to the head and my hat flew off. I thought it must have been a branch, but as I bent to pick my hat from the road I spotted a buzzard circling back and going into the wood at the side of the road. I've heard of this happening, and have been hit by Terns and Skuas, but this was a new one on me.
Also saw Lapwing, Curlew and Oystercatchers on my run.
Be careful out there!
This morning's great excitement. A kingfisher - on Clough Brook in Wildboarclough! The first time I've ever seen one round here. This is barely a river, so I'll be surprised if there's enough fish in there to keep it here.
Not sure if it was a stoat or weasel but one or the other was nearly run over on my cycle on Saturday morning.
I follow the Clywedog Osprey nest on live cam - youtube. Two chicks had successfully hatched and recently fledged. This afternoon a Goshawk attacked the nest and killed one of the chicks. I'm so sad. You can see it happen at 4.30pm if you wind the live stream back.
Nature red in tooth and claw.
Yes very sad Matt Po.
I took a friend up to see them only a week last Saturday, the afternoon of the 8th, when one of the two left the nest for the first time. There was excitement amongst the few twitchers present and one of them let me have a look through his very expensive looking tripod mounted monocular. Fantastic.
Goshawks are fantastic birds too!
We have been watching the Clywedog Osprey for 9 years. Their nest is about 8 miles from our cottage and I normally run down - there are a huge variety of routes from down the road to going by Glaslyn and more.
So much nicer than the circus at Dyfi. When home in Yorkshire I check in most days on the live camera.
I do like Goshawks and get excited when I see one, but.....
I've still never seen a goshawk. I would get excited if I did - although I suspect I'd need a few sightings to get my eye in, so I'm not sure I'd recognise one if I ever did see one.
My neighbour bred them and was an authority, eg expert witness in court cases. He sold chicks for eye watering amounts because his breeding stock were originally from the wild and caught in a German forest.Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
They are very big!
Goshawks remind me of Putin, merciless b****y killers. But very good at it.
There were a couple of blokes walking down our lane a few years ago with goshawks perched on their arms! They are indeed large birds and rather splendid. Apparently, they'd been out hunting in the local area (game-keeper and land owners' permission). I saw them a few times after that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham Breeze
One of the best places to see them if you have the chance to visit, is the bird of prey 'event' that's held regularly at Munster Castle. To be honest, I was a bit sniffy about it initially, not wanting to be part of the easily beguiled hoi-polloi :), but much against my better inclination I found myself ahhhh-ing and wow-ing with the rest of us grottles. It's an outdoor event and one where it's best to leave your toupee at home, or stuffed deep in your pocket, if you have one!
I think you mean Muncaster Castle, Mossdog.
You have reminded me of the Fell Race that finishes on a lawn of the Castle at the top of a very steep grassy bank!
I do Llani - thanks for keeping me right! Obviously the wrong Munsters :)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOajQDtzUiAQuote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
One of the other treats they have there is that in late afternoon, herons regularly come and land in the oaks trees on the slopes near one of those lawns, to be fed fish. Quite a sight to see so many together, up to a dozen of them when I last visited, trying to ungainly balance, flapping their large wings, in the branches and then sneaking along in the long grass, up that steep bank, to nab a fish or two.
I have always enjoyed the Birds of Prey displays that I have been to. Years ago my daughter and I had a session at a Birds of Prey centre near Keswick. We started off "flying" some smaller birds and ended up with a huge eagle. It is quite something when one of those lands on your arm. Amazing birds.
My Mum is 92 with quite advanced dementia, but still lives at home. She was telling me that she had a white squirrel visit her garden and I was not sure if I believed her until one of her carers took a picture of it. We were visiting her recently and saw two of them.
Not my favorite animal, but I've never seen a white one before.
But is it an albino grey squirrel, or an albino red squirrel?Quote:
Originally Posted by MattPo
unfortunately Grey.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
So was it grey or white 😉?Quote:
Originally Posted by MattPo
Look good stuffed, excellent conversation starter over dinner. I mean stuffed in a glass case on the mantle piece, not with sage and onion on a plate. Though maybe either are acceptable.
That would upset my aged mother!Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
For people like me who aren't very observant, it is helpful to have advance warning of wildlife encounters. On the road from Santon Bridge to Eskdale Green, there was a sign, "Caution: red squirrels". A few hundred yards along the road, there was a rustling in a roadside tree, and there was the squirrel!
Felt very privileged to have a good sighting of an otter in the River Wharfe at Otley yesterday morning. There are plenty of fish in the river - regularly see them jumping. They get fat on all the high class sewerage coming down river from Ilkley.
I do love an otter. We camped by the coast on Arran a couple of weeks ago and were entertained by pair each morning and evening as the tide came in. Lovely to watch out of the campervan window whilst eating your breakfast of Stornoway black pudding. Life doesn't get much better! :)
It probably drinks in the Rose and Crown, it'll be made of stern stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by MattPo
As seen from a footpath in the Peak District this afternoon.
A nuthatch is not a particularly rare bird, but it's still a thing of beauty
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9b680155_b.jpg
And it does indeed look like it is hatching nuts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
Quite an elusive bird around these parts but the only nuthatch I have ever seen is on the feeder in our garden. Just the once and probably 4-5 years ago now but a lovely sight to behold.
Sitting in a room at the front of the house this afternoon, there was a loud thud from somewhere outside. I looked out of the window, couldn't see anything. I soon forgot about it.
Two hours later, my wife went into the lounge at the back of the house, where there are patio doors: large sheets of glass. On one was a white imprint of two rather large wings (with even some detail of feathers), either side of a denser white imprint where the bird's body must have hit the window. No sign of a dead bird outside, so it presumably survived.
Following the recent report of a white squirrel on this thread, on today's run I encountered an albino pheasant. Since it was near an area where I have previously seen a pheasant shoot in progress, I assume that the pheasant breeders have genetically engineered some birds to make them easier for the more visually challenged shooters to see.
People back in the day used to blame things like that on Chernobyl.Quote:
Originally Posted by anthonykay
In other news the flies in the lanes of lower wharfedale are reaching pestilence levels. Today they invaded 60 percent of the open orifices in my body, or 75 percent of the easily accessible ones. If you're out tomorrow, Graham, wear a mosquito net. The wasps are reaping the benefits of the late freeze too, there are little workers buzzing about all over the place.
On this evening's run, sloshing back through the wet spike grass of the upper intake, in the dying twilight, after the sun had just dipped below the Crosswaite ridge to the south, ahead of me, half-moon riding high, in the neighbouring intake, was the most magnificent white Charolais bull, on his own, staring back at me. Kind of like, in the words of Adde Cutler 'Now I sees he, And he sees I'. It was one of those double-take moments when you wonder whether the Gods have sent you an omen. Not sure about what, but perhaps as England are playing the Saffas soon, so maybe....maybe! Or perhaps, that's just pure BS :)
Not a 'wildlife encounter' of the strictly literal kind, but it made me smile at least.
Having just frittered away month on a road trip around Spain we are back home to autumn in Otley. This has allowed me take my regular morning walk around Gallows Hill Nature Reserve. During the summer I don't bother putting out bird food, but started today. The first bird to come in to the feeder was a woodpecker. Nice!
A Stoat :)
I've only seen a stout!
3 large fat geese walking in single file on the pavement in Hebden Bridge today. Further along my route 2 sheep walking on the pavement just outside Whitworth. What do you think Global Warming?
Or Ukraine, or the cost of living crisis. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Alf
Saw my local Sparrowhawk today, on my garden fence, then it flew off and covered the almost 100 metres to the stables over the back in a matter of seconds.
On the homeward leg of this afternoon's run, a pair of short-earred owls, gracefully and silently, skimming the tops of the spike grass, unperturbed by my presence, it seemed. Wonderful images, in the setting sun and with their light plumage against the muted slopes of Crosswaite Fell beyond.
I did wonder if the saturated fell helps or hinders their hunt - thinking the voles and the like probably stay closer to the surface when it's water-logged.