Wildlife

[DF]

Hungry little wrens in my window box
I had to put some fir branches around it as i kept scaring the mother with my ugly mug


And i have been putting some Niger seed in an old feeder and these turned up

[trackerjack]

I wondered why our security lights were on tonight so I looked out only to spot a hedgehog scurrying across the garden . whilst its not as cold as "up north" down here in the "soft south" its not exactly warm either, why are these little varmints not hibernating.
Maybe he wants some turkey too!

[Phil_G]

I wondered why our security lights were on tonight so I looked out only to spot a hedgehog scurrying across the garden . whilst its not as cold as "up north" down here in the "soft south" its not exactly warm either, why are these little varmints not hibernating.
Maybe he wants some turkey too!

I remember in the snow a year or so back spotting something bobbling down the street. As it got closer to my house, i realised it was a hedgehog leaving it's own little footprints in the otherwise unbroken snow.. that was a pretty cool experience

We also frequently have deer on the roads nearby and remember seeing a stag caught in a fence once. When it was released, the power and grace of the animal was unreal. It took off across the field, and jumped hte fence without even breaking stride. Most impressive

[trackerjack]

Ah we love where you live Phil.
We have driven and stayed in the black mountains and on up into Betsy Coed, where we like staying the best.
Yes deer are very common here too.
Couple of years ago we saw a frog hopping across the road on a wet night in early January.
Clearly this is all about global warming.

[sprint95m]

why are these little varmints not hibernating.

He has woken up too early.
It is common for the various mammals that hibernate to awaken in mid winter and go foraging for food. They are prone to hardship through frost and finding a lack of food (since they will have wasted valuable energy reserves), though.
A sudden rise in temperature (a quick thaw of snow for instance) can fool them into think spring has arrived.

Similarly I have seen frogspawn during February in mountainside pools. There is almost no chance of the tadpoles surviving (if they hatch) the frosts still to come, but tadpoles born early have a longer time to build up their reserves for their first hibernation, so it is quite a balancing act!


The cold weather is continuing with us, rain last night onto very hard frost, black ice everywhere.
Various wintering birds here, lapwing, golden plover, redwing, fieldfare, robin, whooper swan, various geese, widgeon, teal, goldeneye having a struggle with the ice today.
The lapwings, plovers and curlews will try the foreshore if the ground becomes very frozen. Their huge flocks are an impressive sight.

[trackerjack]

Frogs have a type of antifreeze blood and it is normal for them to spawn in late February.

[Phil_G]

Ah we love where you live Phil.
We have driven and stayed in the black mountains and on up into Betsy Coed, where we like staying the best.
Yes deer are very common here too.
Couple of years ago we saw a frog hopping across the road on a wet night in early January.
Clearly this is all about global warming.

Try the Park Hill hotel then and tell them that Phil the pool man sent you if you go up again.

[Oli_88]

We have a pair of Buzzards nesting near us and either a Kite or a Kestrel (mother couldn't decide which it was).
Trying to get a picture, but sods law has prevailed so far.

[sprint95m]

Kestrels being widespread through Britain are more common than red kites. The kites are closer to buzzards in size.
Kestrels are much smaller with long pointed wings and long tail feathers. They hover when hunting and hold their tail in a pronounced fan shape. Eagles and buzzards can use thermal updrafts to maintain their position but kestrels are the only British bird of prey that hovers.

[trackerjack]

Ah we love where you live Phil.
We have driven and stayed in the black mountains and on up into Betsy Coed, where we like staying the best.
Yes deer are very common here too.
Couple of years ago we saw a frog hopping across the road on a wet night in early January.
Clearly this is all about global warming.

Try the Park Hill hotel then and tell them that Phil the pool man sent you if you go up again.

[sprint95m]

Continuing cold weather has had a marked affect on the numbers of over wintering birds here.
The lapwings are very thin on the ground now. I regularly saw of a flock of many hundreds right through from October 'til early December near Loch Hempriggs, along with hundreds of golden plovers and some redshank but none were visible there on Saturday.
Further north at Keiss Links there are a handful of lapwings and fieldfares chipping away at the frozen ground. Snipe are on the roadside verges trying to find food.
There are still loads of greylag geese at nearly Loch Wester (which is frozen) but no whooper swans now. Various ducks, goldeneye, mallard, widgeon and so on are still around.

In an effort to save the birds from further hardship, a ban on shooting is being introduced by the cottish Government.
From this list, I was surprised to learn that people actually shoot golden plover and snipe. Shooting ducks or geese for food I can understand, but surely shooting such small birds as plovers or snipe isn't going to give a lot of feeding..... ?
Also I cannot see that shooting plovers can be much of a challenge given that they form tightly into large flocks, surely an easy target.


On a more positive note, I saw a large flock of birds flying just outside Wick this morning which I think were bramblings. Alas they settled on the ground too far away for me to be certain.
On the mountainsides during the summer breeding season, the call of golden plovers is an unforgettable joy .

[trackerjack]

Kestrels being widespread through Britain are more common than red kites. The kites are closer to buzzards in size.
Kestrels are much smaller with long pointed wings and long tail feathers. They hover when hunting and hold their tail in a pronounced fan shape. Eagles and buzzards can use thermal updrafts to maintain their position but kestrels are the only British bird of prey that hovers.

I am fairly certain that I have seen barn owls hover, or perhaps they are just flying very slowly.

[JPB]

....I am fairly certain that I have seen barn owls hover, or perhaps they are just flying very slowly.

Are those the ones with the very wide face? I think I may have seen them doing that too, but know less about ornithology than Cyril Smith knew about 100 metre running so possibly I have that wrong.

I must ask though, since there seem to be a lot of twitchers here; could there be any swallows or related, fork-tailed birds around in Winter, in the UK?
The stars are more my watching subject of choice, especially that really twinkly one over to the right, but when I was out in the back garden earlier and there was still a bit of light, I'm sure I saw something swallow-shaped.

[sprint95m]

You are lucky to see barn owls. I have only twice seen a barn owl as Caithness is too far north for them. The first occasion there was one perched on a roof peak at Reiss and the other was one lying dead on the road near Thrumster (hit by car?), it could have been the same one I saw each time .


The swallow type birds John, that is swallows, swifts and martins, are all feeders of flying insects so are only here for the summer. However swallows do very occasionally turn up at other times in southern England during mild weather, but these birds are almost certainly doomed to starve unless they quickly head south.
Swallows and swifts spend the winter in southern Africa (I am not sure how far martins go).

[merlind100]

There was a barn owl using the hanger we were in at Lee on Solent as a convenient place to eat. Lots of owl pellets scattered about and on one occasion I was lucky enough to catch him in there as i opened up. He flew a few circuits of the hanger then out of the door as soon as i got it open. Always a joy to see such beatiful creatures