Woodpecker in the trees behind the house this morning.
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Woodpecker in the trees behind the house this morning.
Golden plover heard on the Bronte moors today. Loads of mipit and skylark too
Doing the Kong Mini MM yesterday from Glenridding, there were literally zillions of Skylarks all around and a few Wheatear as well. I've not seen Wheatear in the Peak yet, but that's probably because I've been in the Lakes. Oh yes, and a pair of Goosander on Lanty's Tarn.
Plenty of Curlew out and about, around the lower slopes of Kinder recently though.
Glenridding is (on my past experience) the place I’d go if I wanted to see a red squirrel in Lakeland
The only place I've ever seen a red squirrel in the Lakes (or anywhere else for that matter), is rather surprisingly, in the middle of the A591 as you drop down past Windermere town towards the lake shore.
Definitely. Stayed in a holiday cottage between Glenridding and Patterdale (Grassthwaite Howe) many years ago and Red Squirrels regularly came into the garden to feast from the peanut feeders.Quote:
Originally Posted by Derby Tup
Pleasant walk in the sunshine on Monday from Gordale to the Tarn,first wheatear and swallow plus a bonus green woodpecker yaffelling at the Cove
Coincidentally, I walked from Arncliffe to Malham Cove, on to climb Gordale Scar and back. Beautiful day with the first sunburn of the year. Saw Wheatear,skylarks a plenty,Kestrel and a peregrine. In a field by the river there were Lapwings, oystercatchers and curlew. Yet to see a swallow, but my wife has.
Single swallow over Penistone Hill
Brimstone butterfly fluttering around my garden.
Saturday morning anticlockwise circuit of Barden moor as part of my Spine Flare training. The moorland birds were all present, with Golden Plover, Greylag geese, and loads of curlew. Even a Buzzard up on the moor. Ran past the remains of a duck, plucked and eaten. Looked like a peregrine victim - feathers and down everywhere. Even better very few people and some sun. So glad I can run the moors to experience all this. Interesting chat with the local mole catcher who said they only breed once a year and now is the time. Loads of Chiffchaff in the local nature reserve this morning and a pair of Mandarin on the Wharfe.
Swallowed my first fly of 2018 whilst out on my bike yesterday evening!
None yet for me, but still optimistic. Spend a lot of time near Llani, at Llan near Llanbrynmair. Really enjoying watching the Clywedog Osprey.Quote:
Originally Posted by Llani Boy
Saw a swallow at Buttermere yesterday (and a Red Squirrel).
Some highlights from a recent trip to Sierra Nevada in Spain: blue rock thrush, woodchat shrike (a pair of them together) and a very speedy black snake I almost trod on while running. Had I been wearing a HR monitor, I would have definitely seen a spike on my trace. :eek:
Several singing pied flycatcher yesterday evening in the Strid Woods. Also saw / heard green woodpecker, mandarin, nuthatch, dipper, grey wagtail, blackcap, goosander and at least three common sandpiper
Pair of Redstart just outside Loweswater village yesterday, towards the end of the Buttermere race route.
Last weeks sighting included Gannets, Razorbills, Fulmars and one hare on a cliff top walk to St. Bees lighthouse from Whitehaven. In a local woods I saw a pair of jays seeing off a crow and a a red squirrel, quite pleased to see the latter as they all vanished in 2016 assumed dead from Squirrel pox.
I believe we have a nest of something small and fast in a crack in the wall next to our front gate. I'll have to get a closer look but I can hear chirruping and think I can see the beaks of some fresh chicks.
First Adder of the season spotted on Scout Scar today
Whilst walking to the Anni Waltz the other day, we some what I presume to be sand martins. Looked like house martins - but changed my opinion when i saw them disappear, and consequently reappear, from holes in the river bank.
Saw and heard a drumming snipe yesterday evening
And fab views of a hunting barn owl Wednesday night by the Ashby Canal. I was watching it for maybe 15 minutes
If someone knows C. African (Bateke Palteaux in Gabon) birds, please can you identify these sitting on my electricity cable the other day. There were four in all and I don't think I've seen them before in myAttachment 8720 many years here.
No, but they're nice looking things. We don't get many round here either. ;)
I'm in Winchcombe in the Cotswolds looking after my Mum and out walking yesterday heard my first Cuckoo and saw a raven. My wife is at home in Otley and also heard a cuckoo on the way up Simon's Seat. She also saw the TDY, which I sadly missed, but you do have to protect your inheritance!
I'm certainly no expert, but they look a bit like bee-eaters to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Latege
Swift over our house in the Worth Valley this morning. I’m delighted because I hadn’t been here in ‘swift season’
A pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers at the bird table. Wonderful plumage - black, white and red undertails. Looked so sharply coloured, as if someone had just taken the wrappers off them.
Thanks, perhaps the swallow-tailed bee-eater. If they are still around when I get home I'll try to get a good look at the tails.Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffB
Slow worm on a sun-warmed grassy footpath leading out of Martingale towards Gowk Hill, this afternoon. Just before I entered Martingale's blue-bell heaven. It's decades since I last had the pleasure of spotting one.
To a Slow-worm (Anguis Fragilis) by AC Clarke
You were doing your best to be twig
bent at each end when I saw you.
Something hard to define -
the faint sheen of your skin, your smooth
outline, your air of being damaged somehow,
confirmed the link between us.
I thought you dead until you slowly raised
your glove-puppet head, just a slit of mouth to mark it,
eyelids still shut
as if you couldn't quite believe your luck
in coming out of whatever it was alive.
You did seem fragile then,
half-formed. It hurt to look at you, as it does
to look at an embryo doubling weak fists
in a belljar, birthcord trailing -
misplaced concern: you could live years
seeking little beyond the next meal
the next patch of sun
not moved to inhabit any skin
but the one you're at home in, not struggling
to word yourself into shape.
A flipping hornet the size of a fighter plane checking out the roof space of my shed, whilst I'm sat in it!
Missus not too keen on them as they get in her moth trap overnight and kill the moths.
A pair of herons flying together over the meadows by the river Soar. I think I have only ever seen single herons in the past.
Disturbed another heron later while walking along the canal. He flew across to the other side to continue his fishing.
I was walkig through a woods on Walney island when i saw four orangy-red shapes in a field that the path led to. It was a fox and cubs, fleeting glimpse as they ran through a hole in a fence and into a wood.
Squirrel on the summit of West Nab again! Mountain Hare, Sky Lark, Curlew and Meadow Pippet.
Heron catching a fish while standing on the towpath of the Bridgewater canal in Manchester, as I ran towards it. It then got ready to fly away but didn't need to and let me run right past it.
3 otters playing in a loch 60 m from where I was drinking beer
I saw a weasel/stoat about a mile short of Rosthwaite in the Borrowdale valley this afternoon. This may well be an everyday occurrence for most people, I have a terrible knowledge of wildlife, but for someone from the concrete jungle, it was a first.
Interestingly saw two very low flying planes above Thirlmere, no more than I'd say 100-150ft up. Not the really fast typhoon jets, but more slow moving, like bombers (they must still have been doing 100-150mph though, so not too slow!
I saw one of them humming-bird moths on Thursday near Sandwith, Whitehaven. My third sighting of one of these in 53 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
I've had quite a few sightings of weasel/stoat in Borrowdale over the years. I once watched a family of weasel playing on a path one evening.