Today's Wildlife Encounter

[Splatcher]

Swallows & house martins in the valley this weekend. Mrs Splatcher saw the swallows yesterday whilst I was otherwise engaged in Calderdale. Semi-comatose on the sofa an hour ago I scanned the valley with my binoculars looking for them, & saw the martins - easier to see at a distance as they fly higher so there's sky behind them rather than trees. Then a peregrine flew into the garden, perched on the top of the willow for a couple of seconds & flew off, leaving a very worried looking woodpigeon in the willow...

[noel]

Just back from a week on the Isle of Seil, near Oban, Scotland.

Deer - probably roe
Eagles - golden (I think) and white-tailed sea
Razorbills, gannets, eiders
Porpoise (not sure what type)
Seals - common and grey
And...

Sperm whale!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22019068

Apparently it's gone back to deeper water now.

[Alf]

2 Bumbarrels in the garden today and they seemed to be interested in each other.
I first discovered the name 'bumbarrel' in a John Clare poem.


Emmonsail's Heath in Winter

I love to see the old heath's withered brake
Mingle its crimpled leaves with furze and ling,
While the old heron from the lonely lake
Starts slow and flaps its melancholy wing,
An oddling crow in idle motion swing
On the half-rotten ash-tree's topmost twig,
Beside whose trunk the gypsy makes his bed.
Up flies the bouncing woodcock from the brig
Where a black quagmire quakes beneath the tread;
The fieldfares chatter in the whistling thorn
And for the haw round fields and closen rove,
And coy bumbarrels, twenty in a drove,
Flit down the hedgerows in the frozen plain
And hang on little twigs and start again.

John Clare

[Hes]

Nice one Alf

Sand martins on the Ure today! Am jealous of everyone's swallow sightings, come on Masham swallows, hurry home.

[that_fjell_guy]

Just back from a week on the Isle of Seil, near Oban, Scotland.

Deer - probably roe
Eagles - golden (I think) and white-tailed sea
Razorbills, gannets, eiders
Porpoise (not sure what type)
Seals - common and grey
And...

Sperm whale!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22019068

Apparently it's gone back to deeper water now.

Sounds exciting week!! I love getting up north to see whats there!!

Just saw a Fox while trying to Id a bird singing in a copse!

[molehill]

Arrived back from hols in the early hours of this morning. Drew the curtains this morning and the Goshawk sitting on top of my bird feeder branch, 5m from the back door.

[Splatcher]

Arrived back from hols in the early hours of this morning. Drew the curtains this morning and the Goshawk sitting on top of my bird feeder branch, 5m from the back door.

Oh you lucky b****r! I've never even set eyes on a goshawk.

[that_fjell_guy]

I'm pretty sure I got attacked then stalked by a Goshawk coming off the Calf in the Howgills!! Very scary that was!!

[Old Whippet]

Nice one Alf

Sand martins on the Ure today! Am jealous of everyone's swallow sightings, come on Masham swallows, hurry home.

Swallows yesterday tea time - must have passed over Masham on their way here!

[GeoffB]

Male Stonechat on White Brow, above Kinder Resr. yesterday as we were heading up to marshal in the Downfall Race.