Peony Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 What a great idea! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 15 hours ago, Quintus said: I've just ordered a pop-up hide ... Rather hoping the hide is in addition to Father Christmas accepting your business case for a longer camera lens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 8 hours ago, JohnS said: Rather hoping the hide is in addition to Father Christmas accepting your business case for a longer camera lens. Yes, the COO approved the business case and I got myself a secondhand 200-500 and 1.4x converter. Still finding I need to get close however, hence the hide. The COO might be surprised to see the hide appear without approval , so I'm hoping it really is well camouflaged and she never notices it! Here's the new lens in action... 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 Gorgeous piccie! we put our fatballs in special containers but I like the idea of hanging them on the Christmas tree! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 It has been quite a couple of weeks for unusual bird sightings round here. A fortnight ago I was driving home and in a field beside the churchyard was a group of crows. As I slowed to give way to an oncoming car, I glanced across and noticed that one of them wasn't the usual sort at all, but was a hooded crow. They are not supposed to be in the rural home counties. Then, last Saturday I was driving past another field and spotted someone standing at the roadside with a tripod and a foot-long lens. Didn't think any more of it, as there are some keen photographers round here. About 5 hours later returning home around dusk there was a different person standing there, similarly equipped. The penny dropped and it dawned on me that they weren't photographers, but were in fact twitchers. When I got back home I looked on our county's birdwatching twitter feed and there it was... a cattle egret. The following day I decided to go and have a look for myself, and standing right in the middle of the farmer's field were three of them. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 A dull day in Cumbria but there was plenty of local activity with two crows seeing off a buzzard. I didn’t manage a photo of all three but here’s one of the crows persuading the buzzard to move. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 17, 2021 Share Posted January 17, 2021 An alternative art installation on the beach this morning. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 14 hours ago, Jan McNulty said: An alternative art installation on the beach this morning. budget cuts in the UK Space Agency? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Couple of pics from this morning - the woodpecker is doing a real number on one of our trees, with four or five branches felled so far. Spotted the Egyptian geese in a field across the road with a rain-flooded corner; yesterday there was a heron there fruitlessly looking for fish. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 On 17/01/2021 at 19:22, Jan McNulty said: An alternative art installation on the beach this morning. So it IS rocket science after all.... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 21 January and National Squirrel Appreciation Day. Apparently 74% of buried nuts are never recovered. Sorry for the squirrels but it puts my occasional missing book or paper in perspective. Red squirrel in Burtness Wood, Buttermere before lockdown. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 18 hours ago, JohnS said: 21 January and National Squirrel Appreciation Day. Apparently 74% of buried nuts are never recovered. Sorry for the squirrels but it puts my occasional missing book or paper in perspective. Red squirrel in Burtness Wood, Buttermere before lockdown. How on earth do they know about the 74% of buried nuts? Is there a "Lost Nuts" division of Defra which deploys wardens to go around digging for them? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 3 hours ago, AnneMarriott said: How on earth do they know about the 74% of buried nuts? Is there a "Lost Nuts" division of Defra which deploys wardens to go around digging for them? I THINK its through observations; the naturalists observing the squirrels note down where they stashed their nuts in the Autumn, note which ones they visited during the Winter and early Spring, and the ones they didn't. Painstaking work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 The 74% lost nuts made me wonder about other data and I see that up to 25% of buried nuts are recovered by squirrels that didn’t bury the nuts in the first place. Here’s a link although I couldn’t get to the original Richmond article. https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/why-do-squirrels-bury-nuts-and-other-mysteries I’m not sure if you can combine the two findings - if a squirrel buries 100 nuts, 26 are recovered on average but are they recovered by the owner or a different squirrel? However our squirrel may also be recovering nuts it didn’t bury. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 3 hours ago, zxDaveM said: I THINK its through observations; the naturalists observing the squirrels note down where they stashed their nuts in the Autumn, note which ones they visited during the Winter and early Spring, and the ones they didn't. Painstaking work! The mind boggles! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 2 hours ago, JohnS said: The 74% lost nuts made me wonder about other data and I see that up to 25% of buried nuts are recovered by squirrels that didn’t bury the nuts in the first place. Here’s a link although I couldn’t get to the original Richmond article. https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/why-do-squirrels-bury-nuts-and-other-mysteries I’m not sure if you can combine the two findings - if a squirrel buries 100 nuts, 26 are recovered on average but are they recovered by the owner or a different squirrel? However our squirrel may also be recovering nuts it didn’t bury. How do we know the squirrels aren't just leaving the nuts where they are as a sort of safety deposit box arrangement? Who says the nuts have to be used during the next spring? I think squirrels should protest about all this unwarranted snooping into their food storage choices. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 41 minutes ago, AnneMarriott said: How do we know the squirrels aren't just leaving the nuts where they are as a sort of safety deposit box arrangement? Who says the nuts have to be used during the next spring? I think squirrels should protest about all this unwarranted snooping into their food storage choices. the stored nuts will sprout in the spring if forgotten about - which is of course, what the trees are counting on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 5 hours ago, zxDaveM said: the stored nuts will sprout in the spring if forgotten about - which is of course, what the trees are counting on! ... and as we all know, trees are vital for the future of our planet. Perhaps the squirrels are rather more intelligent than we thought! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted January 24, 2021 Author Share Posted January 24, 2021 ...or may be the trees are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 On this afternoon’s walk I saw a buzzard swoop down to the ground and then find a convenient branch. Back home I found I’d managed to photo the buzzard plus a vole I think. Sunshine and a very gentle breeze made for a fabulous afternoon, Skiddaw and the fells looking enticing from the local quarry and one or two garden daffodils beginning to show yellow. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peony Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Where’s all the snow?! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnS Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 The earlier snows in the valleys only lasted a couple of days. There’s snow above 1,000 feet and some very good snow on the high fells. Here’s the National Park’s fell top assessor’s photo from yesterday - frozen Red Tarn below Helvellyn. To be honest there’s often more snow in Kent than the Lake District valleys. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Our trailcam came up trumps last night - the elusive woodpecker we've named Moby Pecker, caught in the act of destroying one of our trees https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR0c7rmhasSmt_fU8W2uILMvLHIRbUUEpr1JT_IACg11tLWlT3LQQhcGNi4&v=8vAzPON8Mhs&feature=youtu.be 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 sometimes, you don't have to go far from home to see nature. Sometimes you don't even need to leave the kitchen table! Just been watching a male Sparrowhawk sitting on the crown of the roof of the house opposite me. No wonder all the sparrows gone missing! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quintus Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 24 minutes ago, zxDaveM said: sometimes, you don't have to go far from home to see nature. Sometimes you don't even need to leave the kitchen table! Just been watching a male Sparrowhawk sitting on the crown of the roof of the house opposite me. No wonder all the sparrows gone missing! Funny you should say that... this morning I was looking out of the bedroom window while shaving, and this ball of fury suddenly landed in front of me. Two male sparrowhawks trying to shred each other. I thought one had snuffed it when the other 'mantled' but they then broke up and flew off 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 WOW! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Wow!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Sparrowhawks terrify me, I'll never forget the first time I saw one, I was looking through an open window and suddenly the sparrows in a nearby tree all went thin and froze then flew away, I thought a thrush had crashed into the tree until I saw this "evil eye" staring at me, couldn't believe my eyes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 My Big Garden Birdwatch this year was a sad disappointment. The garden has been full of birds all winter, including some rarely sighted ones such as a nuthatch recently, but at the weekend during my patent hour of watching, just three starlings and a woodpecker, that's all! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneMarriott Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Just now, AnneMarriott said: My Big Garden Birdwatch this year was a sad disappointment. The garden has been full of birds all winter, including some rarely sighted ones such as a nuthatch recently, but at the weekend during my patent hour of watching, just three starlings and a woodpecker, that's all! For "patent" read "patient" - couldn't edit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beryl H Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Yes, very sad this year, all 3 days of the Birdwatch had almost non-stop rain where I live so I couldn't blame the birds for not turning up, I managed to count 5 sparrows, 1 magpie and 1 woodpigeon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 A moorhen on the Leeds Liverpool canal as it runs through Rimrose Valley Country Park. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinMM Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Wow that sparrow hawk battle looked pretty dramatic Quintus. The seagulls around here can get into some pretty vicious fights in late February March when finding nest sites. If it happens in my garden I usually go rushing out shouting “Now stop that fighting you naughty boys” ( don’t know why I always assume they are boys) Not sure what the neighbour thinks as they don’t like seagulls!! But I’m quite fond of them as you can build up relationships with certain individuals they definitely recognise you from quite a way off and come flying over. They then bring their babies into the garden though they are usually pretty big by then and can fly. The crows and seagulls wind each other up a lot here. Seagulls will fly tantalisingly low over crows nests which they have no hope of raiding but the crows will soon attack them if they over step the mark so a lot of squawking goes on. The same here with the bird survey this year it just rained on both days and Saturday was really windy too. This meant hardly any smaller birds turned up except our cute little Robbie . So no tits or finches or sparrows on the feeders. Not even the dunnock or wren flirting along the ivy ...Just good old Woody wood pigeon a couple of jackdaws and magpies and a crow! They must all have been starving by Monday! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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