Pictures thread- nature, pets, scenery etc

[alec]

shevii - talking of blackbirds, I had a close shave this morning, as I went to collect the long canes for the bean patch.On top of a role of chicken wire behind the stack of canes was a female blackbird sitting on eggs.

Looks like I'll need to leave the canes until she has fledged. Have tried to attach a couple of photos - not sure if that has worked.

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[Deleted]

Delightful afternoon at Shapwick Heath today. Got the jackpot in terms of wildlife - hairy dragonflies, blue damselflies, red deer, cormorant, Great egret and otter. Managed to get a few pics but they're just too big to load on here. 

Stop press: Thanks to Mark's invaluable help, picture of Great egret now uploaded!

[shevii]

Jun 2, 2022 23:31:52 GMT @isa said:

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Delightful afternoon at Shapwick Heath today. Got the jackpot in terms of wildlife - hairy dragonflies, blue damselflies, red deer, cormorant, Great egret and otter. Managed to get a few pics but they're just too big to load on here. 

Stop press: Thanks to Mark's invaluable help, picture of Great egret now uploaded!

Still waiting to see my first river/lake otter in the wild.  We've even stayed a couple of times at a place called Tranquil Otter (near Carlisle) which is based around a lake and not seen any despite trying very hard.  Had to make do with the resident swans who tap on your window when they want to be fed.

[Deleted]

Jun 4, 2022 10:29:07 GMT shevii said:

Jun 2, 2022 23:31:52 GMT @isa said:

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Delightful afternoon at Shapwick Heath today. Got the jackpot in terms of wildlife - hairy dragonflies, blue damselflies, red deer, cormorant, Great egret and otter. Managed to get a few pics but they're just too big to load on here. 

Stop press: Thanks to Mark's invaluable help, picture of Great egret now uploaded!

Still waiting to see my first river/lake otter in the wild.  We've even stayed a couple of times at a place called Tranquil Otter (near Carlisle) which is based around a lake and not seen any despite trying very hard.  Had to make do with the resident swans who tap on your window when they want to be fed.

Sorry to hear your otter-spotting efforts have not yet been rewarded shevii . Sometimes these things happen when you least expect it. I was driving on a quiet road through the peat moors on the Somerset Levels (not in Isa, I hasten to add!) a few year ago when an otter suddenly appeared and sauntered across the road about 30 yards ahead of me before disappearing into a ditch.

On Thursday at Shapwick Heath, I was walking along the riverside path, which is actually the trackbed of the former Somerset and Dorset Railway branch from Glastonbury to Burnham on Sea, when I heard something behind me. I turned around to see an otter smoothly crossing the path and slip into the river about 20 yards from me.

Otters have apparently made quite a comeback on the Levels in recent years, so you might consider Somerset for future otter-spotting expeditions. You could then also pop up to Wells to see the swans pulling the rope to ring the bell for food on the moat at the Bishop's Palace at Wells Cathedral.

[shevii]

May 29, 2022 12:00:12 GMT alec said:

shevii - talking of blackbirds, I had a close shave this morning, as I went to collect the long canes for the bean patch.On top of a role of chicken wire behind the stack of canes was a female blackbird sitting on eggs.

Looks like I'll need to leave the canes until she has fledged. Have tried to attach a couple of photos - not sure if that has worked.

Have we got the pitter patter of little feet yet (you can always lie if a magpie got them!)?  We've had a fledgling blackbird on our bird table being fed by mummy- seemed a bit lazy as she seemed to simply be picking the seed off the table and putting it straight into the baby's mouth without any processing but maybe she was doing some quick crunching down.  It's been an amazing year for us as very rarely do we see fledglings being fed but, even if just the common birds, this year we've seen sparrows, robins, blackbirds doing it.

[alec]

shevii - was going to post an update today, as it happens. Shortly after my original post I got the chance to peer into the nest while she was away and saw a full clutch of 5 eggs, and earlier last week we saw the first chick appear. They now all seem to have successfully hatched and are growing rapidly, with eyes opened yesterday. Both M and F are busy feeding, and the first wispy feathers are now being joined by some stubby wing feathers. Even though I am aware that chicks don't spend too long on the nest, I am finding the speed of development remarkable.

In terms of why you might be having a good year for fledglings this year, I think it has been a kind spring. Apart from being generally quite warm, while it was dry, it wasn't drought, so there has been plenty of food around throughout, with now real periods of cold wet weather which can kill chicks. At least, that's our experience up here.

[alec]

shevii - managed to grab a couple of snaps:

[shevii]

Jun 11, 2022 11:37:41 GMT alec said:

shevii - managed to grab a couple of snaps:

Amazing!

[alec]

shevii and @isa - latest from the maternity ward: yesterday we still had five healthy looking chicks, growing rapidly, and I managed to get a snap of them with their gapes open. This morning, the largest chick left the nest quite early, followed by another, with the remaining three leaving around lunchtime. They are now all around the garden, making quite a lot of noise. They can fly, poorly, but within the next 24 - 36 hours they will become stronger.

Pictures below.

[shevii]

Jun 16, 2022 15:53:01 GMT alec said:

shevii and @isa - latest from the maternity ward: yesterday we still had five healthy looking chicks, growing rapidly, and I managed to get a snap of them with their gapes open. This morning, the largest chick left the nest quite early, followed by another, with the remaining three leaving around lunchtime. They are now all around the garden, making quite a lot of noise. They can fly, poorly, but within the next 24 - 36 hours they will become stronger.

Pictures below.

I literally let out a gasp at the second picture!  Brilliant!  Looks like they want you to feed them as well as mummy doing it (although I think daddy does it as well with blackbirds?).  Saw a baby magpie out on our walk today on the track ahead of us- wasn't in a rush to fly off and looking a bit dosy.  Swallows are also back at the Wigan training ground as well and sitting on top of the netting- I'm not sure that swallows have the same prestige as the swifts everyone has been mentioning- probably not.

[Deleted]

Jun 16, 2022 15:53:01 GMT alec said:

shevii and @isa - latest from the maternity ward: yesterday we still had five healthy looking chicks, growing rapidly, and I managed to get a snap of them with their gapes open. This morning, the largest chick left the nest quite early, followed by another, with the remaining three leaving around lunchtime. They are now all around the garden, making quite a lot of noise. They can fly, poorly, but within the next 24 - 36 hours they will become stronger.

Pictures below.

Thanks for sharing, alec. Excellent pics. Life-affirming!

[shevii]

Baby wren on it's first flight to our windowsill- was really struggling and flapping around and I was worried it was going to end up in our house as one of the windows was open.  Didn't see it fly off but must have done below windowsill level.

[alec]

shevii - are you sure that's a wren? It looks a little too big to me, although I could be wrong. More like a robin?

[shevii]

Aug 5, 2022 8:31:31 GMT alec said:

shevii - are you sure that's a wren? It looks a little too big to me, although I could be wrong. More like a robin?

I'm not great on IDs but definitely not a robin as mummy was around encouraging it to fly to her and she was very small and plainish so basically worked down from not being a sparrow and what's smaller than a sparrow was my thinking.

[alec]

shevii - wrens are very small, adult would have had an erect tail. Possibly a dunnock?

[shevii]

I'll bear Dunnock in mind whenever I see a tiny Sparrow like bird. Can't recall what the mummy looked like but the erect tail does ring a bell and looking at google images the picture does fit a baby wren as far as I can tell but I'm no expert. There's not a lot of perspective in the picture other than the window frame so maybe the baby just looks bigger than it actually was?

While I'm here a very angry looking baby blue tit and less angry baby coal tit.  Stayed at a place called Tranquil Otter which is near Carlisle.  Not cheap but you get your own lodge on the shore of a large lake, own rowing boat, virtually your own swan too and assorted birds and wildlife .  Also meant to be otters but we've never seen them on 3 visits.


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Always on the lookout for tips for nature holidays in the North or Scotland if anyone has any.

[davwel]

I am glad to see Shevii`s idea has taken off. My problem about contributing is that the pics we take are far too big in pixels, so have to be worked on. And I doubt many of you will want to see stalked glands on prickly stems.

Some good records have been posted, notably Alec`s migratory dotterel - up the valley NW from you, and places like High Cup Plain, Murton Fell, Cronkley Fell?

For Shevii, try Oystercatchers, Skelbo; hopefully before a US tycoon`s golf course ruins the SSSI.

[mandolinist]

shevii Have you been to Skye? I have friends who live on Skye, last time we visited them we saw, otters, hedgehogs, cuckoo, puffin, gannet, golden eagles, razorbills, and killer whales. We didn't go out of our way to see wildlife, my partner is a climber and that was the main purpose of the trip. Too late for cuckoos now but most of that list should be fairly straightforward to find.

[davwel]

Shevii

Skye has become overcrowded, so not knowing that you and partner are into hill climbing, I suggest some other places.

Handa, an island near Scourie, will yield all the seabird species you would wish to see. And the short ferry crossing is an added bonus.

Lochinver has attractive and exciting scenery, besides good birdlife along the coast and in the hills, plus you could visit Inchnadamph with its special flora on the limestone.

Less far to go, and from my memory of your interest in wildcats, there`s the Huntly area as a base to get into the Clashindarroch glens. Moray is also worth considering unless you might need hospital treatment - trips into the Firth to watch big marine mammals besides the seabirds.

[shevii]

Aug 7, 2022 21:33:45 GMT davwel said:

Shevii

Skye has become overcrowded, so not knowing that you and partner are into hill climbing, I suggest some other places.

Handa, an island near Scourie, will yield all the seabird species you would wish to see. And the short ferry crossing is an added bonus.

Lochinver has attractive and exciting scenery, besides good birdlife along the coast and in the hills, plus you could visit Inchnadamph with its special flora on the limestone.

Less far to go, and from my memory of your interest in wildcats, there`s the Huntly area as a base to get into the Clashindarroch glens. Moray is also worth considering unless you might need hospital treatment - trips into the Firth to watch big marine mammals besides the seabirds.

Thanks to both of you.  I passed on the suggestions to my wife who tends to research better than I do.  I think Skye may eventually be on our list but she said exactly the same as you that it was crowded.  We're doing most of NC500 next year and she said we go quite close to that place you mentioned.

[mandolinist]

I live on the edge of a large estate on the edge of Bristol, the big house is now a museum and the grounds and gardens are being managed by the City Council much more sustainably than in the past. Today the newly re-established hay meadows were mown and the bales mostly moved off site. The newly short and very yellow meadows had buzzards hunting on the ground for injured and dead creatures, I saw one with a large slow worm. The green woodpeckers were about again, having been absent from the area whilst the grass was long, and there were lots of hawker dragonflies catching the early evening midges.

Earlier in the year there were a lot of orchids, knapweeds, yellow rattle, and about twenty species of grass. There have been at least two generations of meadow brown and spotted wood butterflies. It is maturing very quickly into a rich and interesting ecosystem. I don't say it often enough, but well done Bristol City Council Parks department. Hope they keep it up.

[davwel]

High in a tall granny pine, a squirrel feeds between two horizontal branches.  This in the fine natural pinewoods in the Balmoral policies.


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[mandolinist]

The drought has finally broken here on the northern edge of Bristol. No thunder and lightning yet, but the rain had me hunting for blueprints for an ark, and a bucket for the leak in my kitchen roof...
In wildlife news, the male bullfinch has put in a couple of appearances on the garden feeders and currently there are a million (ish) snails, storming across the previously bone dry grass towards my sorry tomato plants.

[Deleted]

Ditto a bit further south, mandolinist. I went for a walk just before dusk and the country cousins of your urban snails were also out in force.

[leftieliberal]

Can anyone identify my moth? I found it on my net curtains this morning when I drew the curtains back. I was planning to leave it until dusk, then catch it and release it outside.


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[shevii]

Aug 27, 2022 14:36:11 GMT leftieliberal said:

Can anyone identify my moth? I found it on my net curtains this morning when I drew the curtains back. I was planning to leave it until dusk, then catch it and release it outside.


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I think colin might be your man.

The best moth that ever came into our house was this one which I think is a Brimstone moth:


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[shevii]

And from our recent holiday in Carrick (Dumfries and Galloway)- a Magpie moth popped in the cottage.  Now you've got me worried I should have waited until it was dark to put it out?

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[shevii]

Aug 15, 2022 9:31:59 GMT davwel said:

High in a tall granny pine, a squirrel feeds between two horizontal branches.  This in the fine natural pinewoods in the Balmoral policies.


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Lovely Pic davwel  I'm sure you keep an eye out on the situation with the Red Squirrels in Formby (beach).  Without doubt one of the best things to see in the North West and guaranteed to see lots when I first moved up but lucky to see one now.  I think they had something of a recovery after the squirrel pox outbreak but seems like it returned just when things were looking up.  Yet to see one in Scotland despite lots of expectations.

[Deleted]

Aug 27, 2022 14:36:11 GMT leftieliberal said:

Can anyone identify my moth? I found it on my net curtains this morning when I drew the curtains back. I was planning to leave it until dusk, then catch it and release it outside.


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Not my area of expertise moths. But from Collins Complete British Insects suggest you have a look at Purple Clay .
?

[leftieliberal]

Aug 28, 2022 10:11:18 GMT colin said:

Aug 27, 2022 14:36:11 GMT leftieliberal said:

Can anyone identify my moth? I found it on my net curtains this morning when I drew the curtains back. I was planning to leave it until dusk, then catch it and release it outside.


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Not my area of expertise moths. But from Collins Complete British Insects suggest you have a look at Purple Clay .
?

Not a Purple Clay, missing the dark wing patches that are obvious on the pictures of this moth. Thanks for trying. I've been through the entire Butterfly Conservation web site moth pictures with no success.