Here are a few pictures I took last year - the wildlife around here has been uncharacteristically shy this year so far!
Naturefile
- Thread starter Liam1955
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That squirrel is an out-and-out criminal, by the way - the seed and the suet block were supposed to be for the birds. He has two nutboxes of his own in the garden!
jay hay-char
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Squirrels; don't talk to me about squirrels - thieving little gits, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................
You're probably not going to like me for this but I have a supersoaker high pressure water pistol and I have a pot at them everytime they raid the bird feeders.
Nice pix, btw.
Well, at least it's not a sawn-off shotgun!Squirrels; don't talk to me about squirrels - thieving little gits, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr................
You're probably not going to like me for this but I have a supersoaker high pressure water pistol and I have a pot at them everytime they raid the bird feeders.
Nice pix, btw.
It's a slowworm. Cute little chaps, completely harmless, no scales (actually, it's classified as a legless lizard), a gorgeous bronze colour, about 10 inches long and silky-smooth. He was enjoying the warmth of my hands, as they're cold-blooded, and they often live in garden compost heaps for the heat. They eat slugs and snails, mainly.
I caused a serious industrial incident with slowworms when I was about 7 years old. I found a nest of 10 or 12 baby ones and took them to school to show my classmates, but I forgot to take them home to set free that evening. They subsequently took matters into their own hands (so to speak) and escaped from their cardboard box. The cleaners staged a walk-out that evening and refused to work for the rest of the week due to "classrooms full of snakes". Lol!
LOVE red kites! Now there's a beautiful bird which has made an amazing comeback...
We've had a few holidays in Rhayader at the head of the Elan Valley in Wales, where there's a red kite feeding centre. They're fed raw meat every day at 2pm off the back of a tractor and it's not unusual to see 200, 300, 400 or more birds at once, swooping down to get the food. Approaching feeding time you can see them gathering from miles around, hundreds of them just circling round and around above the feeding ground.
It's pretty uncommercialised, but the field has wooden hides all along one side and you'd get some fantastic shots if you paid them a visit!
Your comment about the ladybirds made me laugh, too - they're not at all familiar with the concept of "Hey!! Get a room!"
KevinPotts
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Amazing...haha....look at the size of that food parcel the squirrel has in his little miss...brilliant
The little ***** nicked it out of the block feeder - and then had the cheek to sit there and eat it right in front of me! He has no shame.....
KevinPotts
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Does anyone know anything about blackbirds?
There's a gorgeous chap who visits the fatball feeders several times each day, but I've noticed that he has a kind of "tic" whereby he gapes his beak every 30 seconds or so. I first saw him sitting on the lawn doing it and I assumed, as it was a warm day, that he was just panting a little in the sun, as they sometimes do. But I've seen him quite a few times since (he has a small but distinctive white patch on his wing), and he does it all the time, regardless of whether it's warm or not.
This is a Google file image - I've tried to catch a photo myself, but he's off like a shot with a loud alarm call every time I lift the camera, so he seems to be pretty fit in all other respects.
There seems to be a parasite called a gapeworm, which they can catch from worms, but that appears to cause them to gape permanently, unable to close their beaks at all, and that's not the case with this chap.
Any ideas?
There's a gorgeous chap who visits the fatball feeders several times each day, but I've noticed that he has a kind of "tic" whereby he gapes his beak every 30 seconds or so. I first saw him sitting on the lawn doing it and I assumed, as it was a warm day, that he was just panting a little in the sun, as they sometimes do. But I've seen him quite a few times since (he has a small but distinctive white patch on his wing), and he does it all the time, regardless of whether it's warm or not.
This is a Google file image - I've tried to catch a photo myself, but he's off like a shot with a loud alarm call every time I lift the camera, so he seems to be pretty fit in all other respects.
There seems to be a parasite called a gapeworm, which they can catch from worms, but that appears to cause them to gape permanently, unable to close their beaks at all, and that's not the case with this chap.
Any ideas?
jay hay-char
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KevinPotts
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Oh yes...I know of lots, especially the females who love to pick up my bark mulch and throw it around the garden just about every day.
Oh - THAT caused a real Laugh Out Loud response!!!!!Ahem .....
Welshman1952
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Cumberland
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Luckily there are no grey squirrels up here .......yet, only ever saw 1 red in the garden they are much more shy than their grey cousins
I saw a load of greys in a park in Lancaster last year not scared of humans they were checking out the litter bins
Lancaster is not far away from Cumbria there is a countywide SOS (save our squirrels) organisation dedicated to keep the greys out especially in the Lake District where there are plenty reds
I saw a load of greys in a park in Lancaster last year not scared of humans they were checking out the litter bins
Lancaster is not far away from Cumbria there is a countywide SOS (save our squirrels) organisation dedicated to keep the greys out especially in the Lake District where there are plenty reds
I thought that at first, too, but it seems that this may be a little more than that...
Reds are gorgeous, but I've never seen one in real life - we don't get many of them down here. I have a friend who lives in Northumberland and they have them in the garden, too. Squirrel envy...
