Nature Notes

[Barmitzvah Boy]

Has it been reported to the local nick for the attention of the wildlife officer pal? There’s a lot of covert recording and monitoring equipment available now.

Yes, the local gamekeeper has had the Police Wildlife Officer down. I have also met the PC and my personal opinion is that he is very responsive and proactive as well as doing a difficult job in challenging circumstances. Credit where it is due.

 

[Drog]

You need to go at out night with that over and under BB.
Our neighbouring farmer back then 50 years ago when he suffered sheep worrying, shot the dog and contacted it's owner and when they came in the midst of much weeping and wailing demanded they pay for the dead and dying sheep etc (it was they who brought in the Police). PC told them 'the farmer was perfectly within his rights and they must foot the bill'. Once they'd departed he told the farmer that the best cure for any stray dog on his land was ' a good gun and a sharp spade' and not to bother the police or the owners if no damage had been done.

 

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

Light snow on the surrounding hills give a slate grey backdrop to a biting wind this morning. Amazing that we were sitting drinking Duvel and munching snacks in a nearby meadow surrounded by wood sorrell and sourgrass Saturday afternoon. We collected wild garlic on the way home. After many spectacular springs spent by the Mediterranean, the slow evolution of a North European springtime never ceases to delight:

 

[Drog]

I could do with it speeding up slks! Took the dog out for a pee last night at about 12.30 and the rain was slanting in 45 degrees from direct North. When I say rain it felt like it was flecked with ice. This morning not a cloud in the sky but the North wind is still howling in.

 

[Alan]

We had snow in Bash.

 

[Barmitzvah Boy]

Forget-me-nots and Bluebells are starting to flower.

 

[Drog]

Not quite the right time yet but when was the last time anyone heard a cuckoo? From being almost an annual occurrence I haven't heard one for many years now. Have the bloody French eaten them all?

 

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

Heard my first cuckoo of 2021 yesterday morning - 23 April. Later than last year, but I had no doubt they'd be arriving. There'll be plenty more. Amazingly there were oyster catchers a week earlier where we heard the cuckoo. I suspect that as the cuckoo was passing the Iberian Peninsula, on Wednesday, the oyster catchers were half way to Iceland.

 

[Wilpshire Blue]

Bastards

Vandals who damaged osprey platform had 'strong motive' to rid lake of the rare birds

The vandals arrived on a boat and used a chainsaw to ruin the platform, which was being used by a breeding pair of birds.

news.sky.com

 

[Drog]

I would have thought that nest etc would have been on camera.

 

[Old Darwen Blue]

It is it says so in the article.

 

[Drog]

ooops .... I hadn't read that far.

 

[Wilpshire Blue]

Bastards V2

Swan found with sock on head in 'mindless prank'

Police believe the item was placed on the bird's head deliberately and could have proved fatal.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Drog]

Whoever did that should be starved for a week.

 

[Wilpshire Blue]

Some cracking photographs of nature in these awards

Optical illusion of orangutan wins award

A photo of an orangutan reflected in water has won the Nature TTL Photographer of the Year competition.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Drog]

Ghostly caterpillar webs cover Bedford trees - BBC News

I recall a phenomenon like that happening over a wide area of Alum Scar woods way back in the 80's. There were millions upon millions of Umber moth larvae... these little critters.

eating their way through wolfing down leaves before spinning a silk thread and descending to consume the next leaf down. Hundreds of trees (especially silver birch) were stripped bare of their foliage and covered in 'webs'. It was like a Hammer House of Horror film set. I reported it to the Min of Ag, Fisheries and Food and the next thing the Manchester Guardian was on the blower to me before running a story under the corny heading of "Where it's forever umber" .
Anyway my fears of the trees being mortally wounded were unfounded as within a few days the entire wood along with every rooftop, telephone wire etc in the area was swarming with thousands of Starlings busily feasting on the caterpillars and chrysalids. Took em most of the following week or so but when they were finished there wasn't a caterpillar in sight. We've always had a few starlings resident about the place but how the rest found out remains a complete mystery to me. Suffice to say the starlings disappeared as fast as they came. 30 odd years ago all that happened and I've never seen anything like that ever happen again.

 

[Smells Like Kean Spirit]

Drove under a kestrel last week. It was hovering at around 30 metres focusing on dinner in the ditch at the side of the road. The sparrowhawk regularly terrifies the small birds at the back of my parents' house. A red fox startled horses in a paddock when I was having a dawn walk with the dog. Top of my list for the summer so far isn't fauna, but flora. Came across the stunning bee orchid a couple of weeks ago. The bee orchid is designed to resemble a visiting bumblebee, which attracts similar insects, and encourages other pollinators to visit.

 

[davebirch]

SLKS, just showed that to the Mrs (she's a lancastrian btw) very impressed.
She's the gardener here, I'm the labourer

 

[davebirch]

Here's one we've got in our garden:

 

[Drog]

Saw two magpies killing this fully fledged blackbird taking it's first tentative flying instructions from it's mother on the golf course last week. The hen Blackbird was frantic but powerless just as the Magpies were terrified of the Carrion Crow that came to claim their kill. Nature can be a bastard at times but so high is this years population of Carrion crows and Magpies that the effect on small song birds must be devastating.




I'm planning a few dawn raids to redress the balance.