Your day's wildlife

[Proto]

Out on a walk the other day and saw 3 buzzards in the distance over the fields. Got out phone to log the sighting (yes, I keep lists!), and as I and the birds got closer I suddenly twigged my main reason for thinking "buzzards" was big BoP and we have a fair number of buzzards around so big assumption and ... realised they are not buzzards but red kites. Swooping around over a recently mown field of hay, cut grass/hay still drying on field, virtually over my head.

Only other red kit seen anywhere near the location was a year ago 10 miles away so three and close was brilliant.

Then wondering why they moved there. It's open arable countryside but National Grid built a pop-up supply depot on a bit of farm and no planning permission, but 24/7 generators, flood lighting through all hours of darkness had quickly driven all wildlife away (including several buzzards, rabbits, etc.) and that somewhat devastating impact lasted for 12+ months. complaints to planners and after a bit the depot went so I wondered if the "gap" in the food chain left by the buzzards being driven away has been filled by the Red Kites before buzzards as the ecology tries to re-instate itself.

Ian

I live in a wooded valley halfway between Axminster and Lyme Regis, wildlife aplenty. Constant stream of buzzards, just look up and you'll always see at least one, maybe two or even three floating about with their shill cry.
I've never seen a red kite here but I've seen them three or four miles away at Marshwood and a similar distance the other side of Axminster. I've seen them near Crewkerne and Honiton, too. So maybe the abundance of buzzards here in the valley is keeping the kites away, which is a shame, fabulous things. Saw hundreds of them of them when I lived in east Oxfordshire at the bottom of the Chilterns, we even had them in the garden on occasion.

Late Saturday afternoon drove past Bridport to Litton Cheney in the Bride Valley for a friend's birthday party. Small country lane. Not far from our destination and had to hit the brakes hard to avoid a snake wriggling across the road. Pretty sure it was a grass snake but by the time I jumped out of the car it was gone, they disappear amazingly quickly. Chatting to a Forestry England ranger at Trinity Hill Nature Reserve, Axminster a couple of weeks back and he told me there are plenty of adders about, you just need to know where to look!

 

[Proto]

Asked a family friend to help me identify this butterfly which was very attracted to the side of the oil delivery tanker we had here yesterday. Round and round it flew, and surprisingly speedy, but always came back to the orange paintwork.

He tells me it’s “a Silver Wash Fritillary , one of our larger British species. Good to see, these are bucking the trend of declining numbers and are doing well across the country.”

 

[Animo]

Followed a stoat down the road for 50 metres or so on this morning's ride.

 

[potsy]

 

[Psamathe]

Got up to go to loo middle of night and bat flying around bathroom. Big one, wingspan noticablyt bigger than (soprano) pipistrelles. S/he flew off upstairs and seemed happy enough so opened bathroom window and left it alone. Next day had a look around house to see if still in residence and couldn't find him/her so either used bathroom window or found a good hiding place.
...
Keep meaning to go out at dusk and check what types of bats flying around. In the past only has soprano and normal pipistrelles. Used to have more eg noctules but neighbour decided to illuminate ther back garden overnight and that quickly drove them away.

Ian

Found it (outside) at last. At least probably. It was a noctule (thought too big and slow for a pipistrel).

Interesting and distinctive qcf call but also a fn-qcf (less distinctive but still the correct frequency range. And close (loud) enough to overload the microphone!.

Other calls are "tidier" qcf calls but also distinctive eg

That said I'm always open to being I'm told I'm wrong on ID'ing stuff and love to learn so if I've messed-up ID please please do correct me.

Ian

 

[Poacher]

Had to keep an eye on the lawn when I just cut it as there were quite a few of these about .

Pretty sure @Poacher told me once before they were not native species

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Eh? Wossat? Not me, mate, that was a totally different species, the Box-tree moth. This one's native and benign.
I'm fairly sure it's a Blood-vein

 

[Poacher]

Anyone got any suggestions and or recommendations for a new trail camera as we are trouble with our Apeman hx55 one , we don't want wifi equipped thank you

A lot will depend on budget.

I like my Browning Recon Force Edge but it's no longer made and their new models have a wider field of view. I don't like "wider field of view" as I use mine for close small creatures (within 1m of the camera) and the wider is really targeted at the hunting community who are just interested in detecting where targets might be roaming. I've adjusted (non-destructively) the focus range on mine and normally have it set to 40-90cm in focus.

A lot of the claimed higher quality ones don't actually have sensory that match the saved image/video resolution but for marketing the upscale the sensor resolution to get to HD or even 4k. My view on this: it's marketing and if you want to upscale you'll probably find better algorithms on your laptop with plenty of processor.

I use mine mainly for video and it frustrates me that the max clip record length when it switches to illuminating is 20 secs (no real limit when there is plenty of light and LEDs are not on.

Also think about whether you want "no-glow" LEDs. I initially (many years ago) got a "no glow" Bushnell high end one and whilst camera was fine I wasn't impressed with the LEDs so send it back and got the Browning one which does glow but that doesn't seem to upset the wildlife I use it for (birds, rodents, reptiles, etc.)

Ian

Have a look at NatureSpy's Ursus, well designed, properly weatherproof, unlike some Brownings (which in my experience are subject to internal condensation and fail when just out of warranty!), and great value at £99.99. Ten Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries for £14.99 are also a bargain, but leaves you with four spare, as the Ursus runs on just six! I've now recorded over 900 videos with mine, and they're good quality. Just two downsides for me, the videos are recorded in Avi mode, which takes a LOT of storage compared with Mp4, and the sound level is disappointing - doesn't record badger grunts audibly! Both problems can be solved by converting with HandBrake free software, applying a personalised profile with e.g. 20% gain on audio. Typically a night time, i.e. monochrome video can be reduced from ~125Mb to ~12Mb. Otherwise my poor laptop would be out of storage after the first 200 or so videos!

 

[biggs682]

Thanks @Poacher

Lots of wildlife on this morning's ride, started off with a roe dear meandering along the verve till it spotted me then legged it.
Next up was a red kite taking off with what I reckon was a dead pigeon in it's Talon's about 20 foot in front of me.
Then as I walked around the outside of Achurch st John the Baptist church I was talking to local dog walker who warned me about the bee's that had been swarming around the church in the last couple of days you can just see them on the outside of the tower to the right of the window slats

 

[Willd]

Actually saw a Skylark today sat on a post by the road singing, must have been too windy even for him

 

[biggs682]

Whilst out on our lunchtime stroll we stopped to talk to one of our neighbours and asked if he was still getting hedgehogs in his garden and he said that if he is lucky he sees one every couple of weeks instead of seeing 3 or 4 per night which is exactly what we are experiencing.

 

[Mrs M]

We still have one hedgehog living under the summer house.
Was out and about last night, ate most of the food and drank all the water we left out.
Will leave extra water tonight.

 

[biggs682]

A juvenile seagull with an adult

 

[matticus]

A juvenile seagull with an adult

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"At least his mother loves him" !

 

[the_mikey]

Unsure about this one, one is obviously a Wood Pigeon, the other perhaps it's a Leucistic Wood Pigeon, a Juvenile or a Hybrid?

 

[laurentian]

Unsure about this one, one is obviously a Wood Pigeon, the other perhaps it's a Leucistic Wood Pigeon, a Juvenile or a Hybrid?

I think its a juvenile collared dove