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Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Tue Sep 22, 20 5:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Had a bit of wildlife around us yesterday, two unidentified and one known. The known was a buzzard, somewhere above the trees. Son was sure it was taunting him as he couldn't get a picture. A second was a very raucous call from some bird, perhaps a magpie, but very loud. The third was what we thought originally may have been a honey bee, but moved around too much to see properly but seemed to have rather a fat abdomen, so may have been some other bee.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 20 11:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

news from bird town

the most local sparrow colony has 20 to 25 members at the mo

they and the bracks get on fine

dik has been told to play nicely



youngi sammison is back, no new family as of now, i suspect mikki died protecting her children from the ogres

i promised him vengeance when i stroked his tail

OP use for a fly in the kitchen requires more subtle means, i am a bit short of rare insects since that regime moved in. no blame they do not know yet
education in a gentle way seems productive in many circumstances.

lowri



Joined: 18 Oct 2006
Posts: 1322
Location: ceredigion
PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 20 11:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I was out canoeing with a friend off the west Wales coast and we came across a grey seal snoozing with his head out of the water, and his eyes firmly shut. We got within about 4 feet of him, enough to hear him snoring. Then he opened his eyes, and the genuine look of horror on his face before he dived was hilarious!

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 20 12:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

wildlife does that to me sometimes

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Tue Sep 29, 20 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

As seals also seem to enjoy people watching but probably on their own terms, so you getting that close was a bit much I suspect.

sgt.colon



Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.
PostPosted: Tue Sep 29, 20 12:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

dpack wrote:
wildlife does that to me sometimes

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 20 12:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

tis quite wet and chilly but there are still a few rowdy pensioner wasps

a fun bird town moment, i had mentioned there was no need to cease dining just cos the waiter was heading for the kitchen, they considered that then one panicked

they all joined in, rather randomly in all the wrong directions including me who did a "hall of the little feathery men"* as they flew at my face

a few minor swerves and nowt worse than a puff of wing breath, they got that so wrong unless they decided on a forlorn hope charge and most would escape


* ref hall of the wooden men from gladiator schools and the shaolin monastery etc

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 20 6:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

They may not see you as a threat as you are the person who provides food and doesn't seem to bother them. They do fly a bit randomly sometimes. We had one fly into the window the other day. Not sure how it managed to do so as there is creeper half over it and it flew through a very small hole in the creeper. It sat and recovered its composure for a while. Think it may have been a young starling.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 20 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

bird town is less chilled with me than it was awhile ago

imho to be close needs constant

they are not shy and i can observe , but a gap has been noticed

this is a feed tube crew rather than pure obs

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Oct 11, 20 11:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

birdtown, the burbs

about 70m away on the other side of the main road is a strip of grass with bigish trees, tis quite birdy

there was a jackdaw with a pair of one very white and one very black wing feathers on the right wing

having noticed a few with random albinistic feathers and started to take notice it seems far more common than i would have expected

the white and black dividing the more usual shades of grey was proper dazzle pattern, i had to do a double take to get the bird shape, on short grass 5 m away

perhaps it is urban evolution, a few white streaks or patches works quite well in urban compared to unbroken shadow fades or bush patterns

having failed to grab the camera, turn it on and get outside in time i can only report that a young grin was getting mobbed in the air by 4 jackdaws
as they had all gone in less than half a minute it probably swapped altitude for speed and left them behind*

there was a kite pottering about on Saturday

* other grin news i was quite surprised that a pigeon can do those moves and make them work tactically, proper combat flying while unarmed
it got away having been ambushed at a few hundred feet up in open air and evaded beautifully until it lost grin between houses

air brakes, controlled stalls, good vectors and use of ht/speed
pigeons are equipped to avoid their primary predator

awesome to watch

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 20 6:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We find when the peregrine is about, the pigeons fly low. That way they can drop into cover quickly or avoid the falcon as it won't go for them near the ground in case it can't level out in time.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 20 12:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

fat ankles the woodie has learnt to stand in a plant pot to reach the feeder

it took a while and now he has issues with a short take off fully laden

at the mo i have 3 of them, the other two are trying to work it out but are still gleaning spilled bits

this might seem a bit odd but observing intelligence based behaviour among the residents of bird town woodies seem a bit slow to work something out that is useful to them compared to sparrows, the bracks or even dik(who has decided to be nice and share rather than claim and get his arse kicked by the sparrow pack)

of the ones i know here the jackdaws are the smartest, then sparrows after that the bracks who have ace "social skills", the woodies might as well be chewing crayons in comparison.

odd thing it is not brain size or diet but niche that seems to select for clever among avians

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 20 6:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We found that that the robins either copied each other or one taught the others. They decided the peanut feeder was a good source of food, but don't naturally cling to things like tits do, but one learnt and then another. Also noticed that the green finches seemed to see off the assorted tits, who came back afterwards.

Son got some pretty good pictures of a red kite last week, soaring against a blue sky. Also some rather nice mushroom pictures. Latest offering is a magpie inkcap. We have a number coming up round the edge of the sawdust pile at the moment, and no doubt will have them in the debris under the log stand at some point.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45377
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sat Oct 17, 20 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

magpie inkcaps are rather pretty.
some folk can eat them, some get very poorly and without trying there is no way to know which you are, dont try is my advice

nice to know that kites have expanded south, are they fed by anyone or are they doing ok with what they find of the naturally fallen?

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Oct 18, 20 7:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

As far as I know they are not fed; I haven't heard of any feeding programmes anyway. We have plenty of buzzards and in many ways the kite has a similar, although I believe slightly more active, lifestyle. We have seen a great increase in buzzards since we have had the woods, and although the kites tend to prefer the more open country of the downs, the two mix to some extent.

We get some quite interesting fungi in the woods. Magpie inkcap is, as you say, pretty, and we have had a few quite unusual ones as well as the common.

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