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Cool.
Male adder near Howbarrow. Hisssss
High drama on the mean canals of Coventry this morning...
About half a mile from the city centre basin, i ran past a large swan. Coming the other way was a woman walking a huge Husky type dog. The swan obviously took exception to it, perhaps it had young close by. What i can only assume was a show of aggression, it starting hooting loudly, and ran along the water (a lot faster than i could ever go) as if it was going to take off... instead it just kept running across the water for about 100 metres, stopping just short of the husky. The husky to it's credit was having none of it, and starting barking the place down and swinging for the fences.
Even more credit must go to the woman who was walking the dog, and also had a pram, she didn't even flinch and calmly moved on when it was done.
Fantastic entertainment.
Also a female duck looking after about a dozen lovely ducklings on the side of the canal. No more than a couple of hundreds yards further i spied a large rat (which was large enough that i initially thought was a rabbit).... no doubt fancies roast duck for his sunday dinner. Hope the ducklings all survive...
What, with your sparrowhawk and today's goings on, you are turning into a twitcher Travs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Get a pair of field glasses on your Christmas list!
not seen the sparrowhawk for weeks, not even during the recent spell of lovely weather a week or so ago... (it is usually around on warm bright days).
I did spot a bird of prey which had obviously been killed by a car when i was out on country roads a few weeks ago... i couldn't identify it, don't have enough knowledge, i hope it wasn't "my" sparrowhawk...
Although the garden is quite a hive of activity.... magpies, robins, bluetits, blackbirds, sparrows and starlings, pigeons... i expect all of these are pretty common though...
Heard our first cuckoo of the year on Saturday. We were walking across Matley Moor and the cuckoo appeared to be in woodland near Rowarth. We'll miss them in Scotland this year - we normally hear one on Jura and it then seems to follow us wherever we go for the next fortnight in the West Highlands!
Don't get many Cuckoo's here in Otley, but I love to hear them. Went running to Ilkley Moor as I have heard them on the north facing slopes around White Wells, but no luck - though got a 4 hr run out of it. Heard my first Cuckoo last night, whilst on the Dyfi Osprey nest camera. Does this count?
Saw my first ever Yellow Wagtail just now whilst out walking locally. It was hopping around on the ground at the edge of a shallow pond. See greys regularly by the river, but this was much yellower. Nice
Our cuckoo arrived on 23rd April and has been driving me demented with its incessant cuckooing. I love it. I live on the bank of a sea loch in North Skye. The Arctic Terns arrived last week along with a bunch of swifts. Absolutely love this time of year. There's a seal colony 200m from us. When we moved here in 2006 there were 6 resident seals. This year I've counted 70! Not sure why they've increased so steadily. There will be more next month when they have their pups. Great fun to watch and really nosey. Was watching about 10 of them swimming down the loch leaping like dolphins.
2 buzzards. One of them usually swoops at me to scare me away, but it was a bit windy today for such dangerous manoeuvres.
Neilly have you ever seen anything large in the sea at Skye? i.e Killer Whale etc?Quote:
Originally Posted by neilly
Reason i ask is my uncle lived on Skye and worked on a fishing boat. I don't entirely know where but i'm sure he lived variously at Uig and Glenbrittle.
He absolutely swears that on one offshore fishing trip they found a Great White Shark in their nets. I can't remember any more details than that, i.e dead or alive, whether it was a confirmed identification or whether it may have been a Porbeagle or something...
Just had to google Porbeagle as I had never heard of it. Thanks Travs, every day a school day!
Hi Travs, I've seen basking shsrks in Uig a couple of times and plenty of dolphins and porpoises inPortree harbour. My kids have seen Orcas off Neist Point. Apparently there are occasional humpback whales but I've never seen them. We found a dead baby Orca a few years ago on the beach at Braes and reported it to the Scottish Marine Mammal people. Its amazing that there's so much kut there. I think there's a Gavin Maxwell book about shark hunting when he lived in the Outer Isles. Haven't read it tbough.
We were up that way a few years ago when there was a sperm whale cruising round Oban harbour. Very unusual apparently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...-west-22076178
Baby Lapwing everywhere! Well, we saw at least 4 different family groups in the fields around us at the weekend. Tiny balls of fluff with long legs!
LovelyQuote:
Originally Posted by GeoffB
Oh, sat at my desk, working from home, and I've just seen my first couple of Swifts through the window.
Shropshire Hills... saw a peacock, which i assume isn't native to the area. Heard a cuckoo but couldn't see it.
I was also informed by someone on the top that a large number of Red Kites were in view just below us... unfortunately i'd just ran most of the climb so couldn't actually see them through the sweat in my eyes.
Kingfisher, Pied wagtail, Dipper, Swallows and Swifts
Watched a lamb being born on cliffs outside Portree and saw s White Tailed Sea Eagle.
Three dippers together this morning. I'm guessing one was a baby, as the other two were feeding it, and seemed to be showing it how to look for food in shallow water. Also a hare just disappearing under the gate before I could get my camera out.
Got a baby blackbird in the back garden, obviously the nest must be in one of the hedges i think.
Constantly squawking to be fed. Keeps wandering around the lawn on its own. At lunchtime it was right in the far corner of the lawn... right where the cats come through the hedge or climb the fence, and right below where the sparrowhawk likes to survey the garden.
Can't see it lasting long unfortunately...
Finaly heard a cuckoo. Out with my son running the Round Hill Fell Race route. Then baby grouse on the path.
I've got a starling nesting inside my garage roof. Babies squawking all the time too. The mum keeps dive bombing me when I go in and out. My cat is just biding her time I think till they emerge.Quote:
Originally Posted by Travs
Saw a blue tit disappear into a very narrow slot at the top of a hollow metal gatepost. A few minutes later it emerged and flew off. Inventive place for a nest I thought.
A frog sitting next to our new "lock-down" pond. We were very excited and felt like new parents!
Not a pleasant one but on tonight’s dog walk with Mrs DTR, a lovely blackbird was hit by a car right beside us, it ended up on the road in obvious pain only to be immediately picked up by a seagull, the seagull lands in the field beside us whereupon it’s set upon by a crow who shoos it off, not to eat the blackbird as we thought but to call in its mates who swoop around it keeping a crowd of seagulls off, weird, when we walked back later the poor old blackbird was still lying in the field, so come on all you birders on here what were they up to???
How interesting.
I've seen corvids drive off predators before as a group. Perhaps the blackbird was corvid-like enough to arouse feelings of (maternal) protection in the crows.
Out walking on Round Hill (north of Ilkley) again early this morning and heard 3 seperate cuckoo's calling. Also lots of Greylag and a few Canada Geese, Golden Plover, Buzzards, Red Kites, Wheatears and a snipe rodding. All in all a very fine walk.
That was our feeling, like they felt it was a small crow, amazing to see but sad at the same time :(Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
Saw a Sea Eagle get mobbed by a bunch of hooded crows above my garden. Given the size of the eagle they were very brave.
Buzzard circling overhead as I sit in the garden.
A pair of Oystercatchers at the edge of the 9th green. I had to Google to see what they were.
Hedgehog
Grey squirrels
Red kite
And some local pond life.
Hedgehog and red kite. We don't get many red kites round our way.
I've been hunting a grasshopper round the back garden for about a week and a half... This afternoon realised its actually the high-frequency cat deterrer gizmo, which my ears can somehow still pick up.
There is a breeding program at Harewood House,only about 5 or 6 mile from the course.Quote:
Originally Posted by noel
They are good for golfers because they stop the crowd pecking the greens for worms.
Great to see soreing the skies.
I had words with a female hornet that was buzzing about the shed and thinking of setting up home there, she can find somewhere else.
There is a glimmer of hope this year that the decline in hedgehog numbers will be slowed down thanks to the Covid - 19 lockdown which brought about a decline in vehicles on the road and therefore more Hedgehogs made it across the the road and now there is hopes that it will be a record year for HogletsQuote:
Originally Posted by noel
Something else to thank an unkown virus for :cool:
Large fox running across the main road between Loughborough and Quorn, seen on my bike ride this morning.
[Q. Why did the fox cross the road?
A. To catch the chicken that had crossed the road before it.]
Kayaked out to a seal colony nearby to escape the awful midges last night. 50 orcso seals bobbing around me close enough to touch. Loads of Oystercatchers and Arctic terns mobbing me as they nest on the island. Went for a swim in the loch afterwards and freaked out when something touched my leg. Thought it was a seal coming to drag me into its watery lair, turned out to be seaweed. Anyway. I shat myself and got out post haste.