CycleChat Springwatch!

[Tight Git]

The reason we don't see magpies around here is the gamekeepers exterminate them.

 

[vernon]

The reason we don't see magpies around here is the gamekeepers exterminate them.

It depends where 'here' is.

 

[Tight Git]

Here is just on the edge of the North Yorks moors national park near Thirsk and there are a lot of shoots locally. The corvids (magpies especially) are trapped/shot etc as they are considered vermin.

 

[gbb]

Here is just on the edge of the North Yorks moors national park near Thirsk and there are a lot of shoots locally. The corvids (magpies especially) are trapped/shot etc as they are considered vermin.

I used to take my son to Rutland Water years ago, brilliant place for waterfowl, plus it is surrounded by farmland so there's a good wide range of birds to see there. They trap corvids there. I found a crow in a trap, assumed it was a trap for something else....so let the crow go.

Oh....

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Ooh! A Bank Holiday family gathering

 

[Crackle]

My Starling seems to have abandoned. He had been taking flowers to prettify his nest and then singing to attract a mate and lo and behold, he did. They both were busy building but today, no sign. We wait..

 

[vernon]

My Starling seems to have abandoned. He had been taking flowers to prettify his nest and then singing to attract a mate and lo and behold, he did. They both were busy building but today, no sign. We wait..

They've taken advantage of the weather and gone to the seaside for the day.

 

[Archie_tect]

Not heard a cuckoo for years.

 

[laurence]

first damselfly of the year yesterday... seen later, caught in a spider's web. oh the shame!

hoverflys out and about.
reed and sedge warblers in full song.
swifts back
grass snake swimming on saturday

it's safe to go outside!

 

[Poacher]

And today's mystery photo is....

... the nest of a pair of Long-tailed Tits about 6 metres from our bedroom window. Sorry there's no photo of the birds themselves - they're in and out a bit too quick for me. They had a bit of a redesign after this pic, and moved the entrance to the other side. Could well be renamed bent-tailed tit as a result of curling it into the nest for incubation.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

And today's mystery photo is....
View attachment 22965

... the nest of a pair of Long-tailed Tits about 6 metres from our bedroom window. Sorry there's no photo of the birds themselves - they're in and out a bit too quick for me. They had a bit of a redesign after this pic, and moved the entrance to the other side. Could well be renamed bent-tailed tit as a result of curling it into the nest for incubation.

I was down in Eynesford last year and a family of tits had moved into a wall-mounted ashtray outside the café. I spent ages trying to catch one going in and out but they're too quick for me too.

Meanwhile, things are getting pretty crowded in there. They've almost lost their Denis Healey eyebrows!

 

[rich p]

I saw a few brimstones and peacock butterflies on Monday.

 

[rich p]

I had two of these bee-flies in the kitchen - dead

 

[theclaud]

I had two of these bee-flies in the kitchen - dead

Been swotting up on the class Insecta since the bush cricket wuss fiasco, I see!

 

[rich p]

I didn't want to show my ignorance again. Once was enough to shatter my wafer-thin self-esteem
These little buggers look scarily lethal though. I think I was lucky they died of the stench in the kitchen