Getting close to wildlife - literally

[adb968008]

I might be aging now, but next time i’m in a club and not feeling too old, i’ll try this line.. “you know I've got really big mandibles you know”.

 

Then wait for the wrestling with the bouncer as i’m removed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tim Hall]

Having found a singing male Firecrest in local woods in March, I was finally able to prove successful breeding last Saturday, when I found a juvenile and a female gathering food for it, whilst the male sang nearby.

They are very rare breeding birds in Glamorgan, though there are a few pairs in Wentwood, Gwent and the Forest of Dean, and they are not too rare further south, the New Forest for example. Our County Recorder is very pleased!

 

I don't get many "lifers" these days, so a trip to Ham Wall near Glastonbury recently to see and hear a very lost River Warbler was essential. Excellent views and a very distinctive song, slightly slower and lower pitched than the more familiar Grasshopper warbler.

 

 

[CameronL]

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

I might be aging now, but next time i’m in a club and not feeling too old, i’ll try this line.. “you know I've got really big mandibles you know”.

 

Then wait for the wrestling with the bouncer as i’m removed.

 

That only works if you're out on a Stag Party.

[sb67]

Does anyone know what birds these could be?

 Thought this could be a Dunnock  but I've only ever seen them scurrying around hedgerows and this was high up on a telephone wire!

 

 

 

Thought this could be a Chiff Chaff but it was an unusual place to see them. 

 

Really don't know what this could be and it's song wasn't anything I've heard before. 

 

A good mornings walk was topped by finding a Great Spotted Woodpeckers nest, with the chick making loads of noise and constantly getting fed. 

 

[Tim Hall]

1 hour ago, sb67 said:

Does anyone know what birds these could be?

 Thought this could be a Dunnock  but I've only ever seen them scurrying around hedgerows and this was high up on a telephone wire!

 

 

 

Thought this could be a Chiff Chaff but it was an unusual place to see them. 

 

Really don't know what this could be and it's song wasn't anything I've heard before. 

 

A good mornings walk was topped by finding a Great Spotted Woodpeckers nest, with the chick making loads of noise and constantly getting fed. 

 

Your singing bird is a dunnock, sounds like a squeaky supermarket trolley.

 

Yes, chiffy, probably. Could possibly be willow warbler, but as both species are very common, I don't waste time IDing every single one!

[boxbrownie]

We had a Wren this morning foraging along the veranda railings for spiders, usually it’s blue tits……they must be having a lay in today. 

[03060]

My holiday on the Isle of Wight finished on a high for me today with this Brimstone butterfly, not because I've not seen them before but because the wife saw 'a big yellow butterfly' on Monday whilst I was swimming in the Solent !

Seen at Havenstret station, it gave me the run-around for quite a while whilst I tried to creep up on it ! 

[Flying Pig]

I had a walk with a family friend near York yesterday.  Woodlarks were singing overhead almost all the time; eventually one pitched down onto the path not twenty yards ahead of us and sang from the ground.  After a while it took off like a rocket and circled higher and higher, still singing.  A tree pipit parachuted into a nearby tree, also singing.  Magical stuff.

[Flying Pig]

While I'm at it, a couple of orchids have popped up in my parents' back lawn this year, which has been left uncut recently as requested by one of the conservation groups, to feed pollinators (though unless they have taken to eating grass pollen they'll go hungry here).  Just Common Spotted I think, but I'm not an orchid expert by any means.

 

 

 

[Andy7]

Recently returned from a trip to Kenya and took these pics of a Martial Eagle that had caught a guinea fowl and was not about to move off it, this allowed us to drive very close to this stunning predator and I took the below pics.

[hmrspaul]

It is the second ever "World Albatross Day" 

The first ever World Albatross Day was 19th June 2020. It was started as a day dedicated to celebrating albatrosses – the world's most exceptional group of birds. It is also a day to raise awareness of the threats that continue to drive them towards extinction, and say thanks to those that dedicate their lives to saving them.

This year falls on the 20th anniversary of the ratification of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP). It was the first international commitment to conserve these vulnerable birds through transboundary cooperation, coordination, and mitigation of threats. Sadly, in May 2019 the ACAP declared a continuing crisis, as thousands of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters are still dying each year from fishing activities.

There is still so much work to be done, that is why the theme for World Albatross Day 2021 is “Ensuring Albatross-friendly Fisheries”,.

ACAP have selected the Tristan Albatross that lives on Gough Island in the UK Overseas Territory and the Waved Albatross from Islas Española and Isla de la Plata in Ecuador to highlight the devastation inflicted by the battle of the high seas between fishing boats and the albatross.

 

And this is a juvenile Waved Albatross chick on Espanola in the Galapagos. Humans are closely shepherded on narrow paths, but the birds are content to nest very close by. 

 

 

 

World Albatross Day 2021 | BirdLife 

[hmrspaul]

and an adult Waved Albatross with her egg

 

 

 

Paul

[sir douglas]

there are some Deer that live in this area between my town and the next, all the locals in the villages have known and seen them for over 20 years, i see them quite often on quiet mornings while i'm out with my dog and sometimes get quite close them.

 

Kestrals are a common sight here, in the last few years ive watched them using lamp posts to sit on instead of hovering while hunting. the Spread of the Kites from re introduction in the Midlands has made it this far north now

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, Flying Pig said:

While I'm at it, a couple of orchids have popped up in my parents' back lawn this year, which has been left uncut recently as requested by one of the conservation groups, to feed pollinators (though unless they have taken to eating grass pollen they'll go hungry here).  Just Common Spotted I think, but I'm not an orchid expert by any means.

 

 

 

Oddly we have decided this year to only mow the lawn about every three weeks or so, it is amazing just how many flowers pop up in just a day or after the cut, then a week later the lawn is a carpet of flowers and full of bees doing the rounds………we don’t really need a putting green carpet of green felt TBH.

[hmrspaul]

1 hour ago, sir douglas said:

there are some Deer that live in this area between my town and the next, all the locals in the villages have known and seen them for over 20 years, i see them quite often on quiet mornings while i'm out with my dog and sometimes get quite close them.

 

Kestrals are a common sight here, in the last few years ive watched them using lamp posts to sit on instead of hovering while hunting. the Spread of the Kites from re introduction in the Midlands has made it this far north now

If you are in Wakefield then they are probably Yorkshire kites. There was a release site at Harewood House and they are moving out from there - not so successfully it must be admitted as the huge increase in population in the South Midlands. 

 

Paul

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, Flying Pig said:

While I'm at it, a couple of orchids have popped up in my parents' back lawn this year, which has been left uncut recently as requested by one of the conservation groups, to feed pollinators (though unless they have taken to eating grass pollen they'll go hungry here).  Just Common Spotted I think, but I'm not an orchid expert by any means.

 

 

 

A pyramidical orchid, they prefer chalky soils. They come in several colours from white to pink, red a purple as in your picture.

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

Oddly we have decided this year to only mow the lawn about every three weeks or so, it is amazing just how many flowers pop up in just a day or after the cut, then a week later the lawn is a carpet of flowers and full of bees doing the rounds………we don’t really need a putting green carpet of green felt TBH.

I left a large area of my back yard un-mowed due to the daises and yellow whats-its growing there. Now that they have dead-headed and gone to seed, I will mow next week after the remnants of a tropical depression dry up.

 

 

There are two small groups of these that show up every spring, I mow around them, too:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by J. S. Bach
To correct a spelling error.

[J. S. Bach]

A close-up of the yellow whats-its:

[PhilJ W]

The yellow one looks like common ragwort but that is a Eurasian plant so its probably not even related.

[Phil Bullock]

3 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I left a large area of my back yard un-mowed due to the daises and yellow whats-its growing there. Now that they have dead-headed and gone to seed, I will mow next week after the remnants of a tropical depression dry up.

 

 

There are two small groups of these that show up every spring, I mow around them, too:

 

 

 

 

 

Your two small groups are Oxalis ... same family as Wood sorrel . Always been a favourite! 

[boxbrownie]

16 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

A close-up of the yellow whats-its:

Your horticultural expertise is just like mine………brown side down 

[tigerburnie]

Been to the local sea birds cliffs today, lots of sights, sounds and smells(phew)............

 

[IWCR]

On 15/06/2021 at 05:35, 03060 said:

Also, whilst on the reptile theme ...several seen in Ventnor Botanic Gardens and these I like !

Wall Lizard,  very common in Ventnor, for a long time it was not certain they were introduced as they have been known here for well over a 120 years.  Now DNA tested and they  match lizards from the Naples area hence proved as a Victorian introduction.

 

Pete

[Nick Holliday]

On 19/06/2021 at 18:48, PhilJ W said:

The yellow one looks like common ragwort but that is a Eurasian plant so its probably not even related.

As Wikipedia notes: Ragwort is native to the Eurasian continent. In Europe it is widely spread, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. In Britain and Ireland it is listed as a weed. In the United States it has been introduced, and is present mainly in the northwest and northeast: California, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

However, the plant in question does look more like the native Small's Ragwort, found in: AL, DC, DE, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MD, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, WV. Same family origins, although the North American species are called Packera whilst the European types are known as Jacobaea vulgaris, but they were all once called Senecio 

The Eurasian species is poisonous to many animals and is considered noxious, and in certain countries, notably Australia and New Zealand, land owners have an obligation to remove it or face penalties.

[Tim Hall]

On 19/06/2021 at 13:05, Flying Pig said:

I had a walk with a family friend near York yesterday.  Woodlarks were singing overhead almost all the time; eventually one pitched down onto the path not twenty yards ahead of us and sang from the ground.  After a while it took off like a rocket and circled higher and higher, still singing.  A tree pipit parachuted into a nearby tree, also singing.  Magical stuff.

Fairly sure it'll be skylark that far north. Woodlark are birds of lowland heath such as the New Forest and some areas of Norfolk/ Suffolk, no known sites for them anywhere near there.