Nature Notes

[Y Fan Wen]

I thought maybe we could have a recurring thread where we post any interesting bits of info on nature we notice during our every day work.

To start; I have been depressed by the fact that last year I didn't hear a single woodpecker drumming or yaffling in our wood despite having all 3 normally resident.
Yesterday morning I heard a spotted drumming twice. Yipee!

 

[colhonk]

I didn't hear a single woodpecker drumming

Because they are all at the OH`s peanuts and fat balls hanging in our garden tree

 

[capfits]

25+ Red kites slowly spiralling skywards off a ploughed field an hour before sunset.
Different from gulls chasing the plough...

 

[Doing it for the kids]

25+ Red kites slowly spiralling skywards off a ploughed field an hour before sunset.
Different from gulls chasing the plough...

thats not interesting in these parts, considered a quiet day if only 25!

 

[Bald Rick]

Have circa 8,000 starlings crapping on my cows and eating their food daily

 

[Hesstondriver]

I thought maybe we could have a recurring thread where we post any interesting bits of info on nature we notice during our every day work.

To start; I have been depressed by the fact that last year I didn't hear a single woodpecker drumming or yaffling in our wood despite having all 3 normally resident.
Yesterday morning I heard a spotted drumming twice. Yipee!

Good idea, there is a conservation thread somewhere highlighting all the good stuff that we take for granted on a day to day basis

 

[DKnD]

...the 3 hinds, the fox and the neighbours bloody stray sheep.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Not strictly on topic , but do spiders hibernate ? I ask because up to about a month or 6 weeks back I was always seeing spiders , some quite big ones . There was a big black one that seemed to always seemed to land up in the bath , and be unable to get out without help . He (?) regarded me with a somewhat aggressive stare , as though it was my doing , so I started to leave a towel draped down into the bath so he could climb out . I haven't seen him for a month or more . likewise a few much smaller bodied ones with dis-proprtionally long legs , and other in-between sized ones . I just wondered , that's all . Does a couple of slugs and a frog in the mousetrap , that's permanently set in the "mud-room " count ?

 

[puppet]

I thought maybe we could have a recurring thread where we post any interesting bits of info on nature we notice during our every day work.

To start; I have been depressed by the fact that last year I didn't hear a single woodpecker drumming or yaffling in our wood despite having all 3 normally resident.
Yesterday morning I heard a spotted drumming twice. Yipee!

Just had our transformer pole replaced due to woodpecker damage.
Today, chaffinches, tree sparrows and robins at the feeder-one comes in the house for a bit extra. Deer, kite, buzzard, mallard duck and a stray cat.

 

[Dry Rot]

I put some nest boxes upa couple of years ago because a pair or two of sparrows would move in, but soon after move out again, presumably because of a suitable housing, now rectified. I've now for a small resident flock which occasionally attracts the fleeting visit of s sparrowhawk, which `i happen to welcome. They do steal hen and dog food, but I can bear that. There seem to be a lot more small birds about, possibly using the nest boxes in the wood, though I suspect this hard weather will thin them out. Fox tracks down the field in the snow this morning, but nothing else of note.

 

[Ramrod]

25+ Red kites slowly spiralling skywards off a ploughed field an hour before sunset.
Different from gulls chasing the plough...

How many did you get??

 

[Y Fan Wen]

25+ Red kites slowly spiralling skywards off a ploughed field an hour before sunset.
Different from gulls chasing the plough...

I saw my first red kite on the farm in March 2006. I was going round the lambing flock and I stood looking at it slowly quartering the ground. I felt very sad 'cos Dad had passed the previous July, he had been a birdwatcher all his life and he would never know that one had finally visited his beloved farm.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Entire gang of goldfinches are frequenting our garden, they seem to like eating the seeds of our bed of frost damaged lavender?

 

[Bill dog]

Have circa 8,000 starlings crapping on my cows and eating their food daily

Have you ever tried Birdguard to scare the buggers away? A load speaker really with a pre set microchip of birds of prey calls that deters them. It worked for us anyway.

 

[Kidds]

Foxes calling all night every night for a fortnight now. Unusual given the proximity of several big shoots.

 

[Pigken]

Foxes calling all night every night for a fortnight now. Unusual given the proximity of several big shoots.

Was led to believe recently that fox will travel up to 40 miles in a night for food source. We had a small shoot next door have their pheasant pen savaged by foxes last year. They snared, shot and whatever else 26 foxes in few month. Never saw fox for 3 or 4 month but now seeing them again. Think they bark on night to establish others territory etc.
Stood with 8 year old and watched a buzzard soaring and circling above us yesterday, till crow came and chased em off. Always wondered why crows win that one.
New years day had pleasure of blue flash by river and King Fisher eventually spotted sitting on branch. First time seen in few years.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I'm my back garden

 

[Minesapint]

200 Linnets and 40 Chaffinch in the AB9 mix, being hunted by a Merlin which is quite a rare visitor I am told.

 

[Kidds]

Was led to believe recently that fox will travel up to 40 miles in a night for food source. We had a small shoot next door have their pheasant pen savaged by foxes last year. They snared, shot and whatever else 26 foxes in few month. Never saw fox for 3 or 4 month but now seeing them again. Think they bark on night to establish others territory etc.
Stood with 8 year old and watched a buzzard soaring and circling above us yesterday, till crow came and chased em off. Always wondered why crows win that one.
New years day had pleasure of blue flash by river and King Fisher eventually spotted sitting on branch. First time seen in few years.

I have always been very tolerant of foxes but they have been in my geese 3 times this year. Killed 15 geese one night.
I don't feel so lenient these days but don't want to kill the dominant local fox if he knows not to go in the geese pen.

 

[Dry Rot]

Was led to believe recently that fox will travel up to 40 miles in a night for food source.

It's certainly a long way. I got a lot of similar anecdotes from a tod hunter (professional fox hunter) who told me he had found piglets amongst the kills at a West Coast den and no one kept pigs within many miles. Can't remember what but it was a long way. Wish I had kept notes now. His team of lurchers and terriers was the most efficient fox killers I have ever seen in action and I've seen a few.