Your day's wildlife

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Female Blackcap this morning, eating sunflower hearts in my garden.
Poor quality pic through a dirty window - I'll try to get a better photo if she becomes confident enough to visit frequently.
View attachment 671590

Yesterday it's masculine mate was in our garden. Not seen one for a while but I haven't been paying too much attention.

Also a Goldcrest - again I haven't seen one for a while. I used to hear them but my ears are too old for those frequencies now it seems

 

[Poacher]

@Poacher Interesting to see a Blackcap in winter. But I found this which suggests they might be using us as an overwinter ground https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/blackcap/migration/

Looking back through this thread, I've reported Blackcaps in Dec 2015(m), Feb 2016(f), Dec 2018(m&f), Jan 2021(m), Dec 2021(2m&f).
In other threads, Jan 2013(f) and Mar 2013(f)
We never see them in Spring/Summer, but notice them in roughly half of winters, for the past 20 years or so. Surprisingly (to me anyway) about as many females as males. I'm sure that having flowering Mahonia in the garden is a reason for them to visit us, as the flowers seem to attract some of what few insects are active.
Photos here and here, both males.

 

[Gillstay]

@Poacher Interesting to see a Blackcap in winter. But I found this which suggests they might be using us as an overwinter ground https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/blackcap/migration/

They are also now permanent resident now just migrants.

 

[Dirk]

First Primroses spotted on my stroll down to the village this morning.

 

[Gillstay]

Saw a fabulous male Goshawk on the hedge as I drove to work. No chance of a photo though. Sigh.

 

[biggs682]

We had a hog walking around the patio on Monday night.
I forgot to upload the pictures before deleting them.

 

[Broughtonblue]

Can anyone identify this beauty? Quality is not brilliant as a long way away

Neighbour thinks it might be a peregrine falcon from nearby Cromer but I think it possibly looks bigger

 

[Gillstay]

Can anyone identify this beauty? Quality is not brilliant as a long way away

Neighbour thinks it might be a peregrine falcon from nearby Cromer but I think it possibly looks bigger

I think its highly unlikely to be the Peregrine as it not barred enough on the front plus the stance looks wrong. Some buzzards are very pale on the front and the necklace doesn't show up much esp if the sun is just right on them. Which your photo looks to be.

 

[gbb]

Not mine but our 16 year old grandaughter, game for anything has taken up fishing with a couple of girl friends, preferring lure fishing, she's caught small pike sander and a fair sized perch.
Shes been today down the Nene / Ferry Meadows area and video'd an otter merrily swimming past. You can here her and her friends making noises trying to attract it like it was a cat

 

[gbb]

Can anyone identify this beauty? Quality is not brilliant as a long way away

Neighbour thinks it might be a peregrine falcon from nearby Cromer but I think it possibly looks bigger

Its probably a buzzard, they like to perch on posts or in trees. As mentioned above, the crescent on the chest isn't always there (or visible at least) but it does look a typical buzzard stance.

Harriers and Kite, if they're not in flight, they'll more often be seen on the ground.

Even then, occasionally you see some behaviour that surprises you. I once watched a large bird stoop at great speed and from quite a height...straight down to a distant tree. Too far away to be specific, it looked like typical peregrine behaviour, but apparently, buzzard do that too, I'd just never seen it.

 

[biggs682]

Most of this morning we have had a pr of blue tits bouncing around the feeders and bushes at the bottom of the garden , we don't normally see blue tits on a daily basis but we always every so often we get a pr that spend the majority of the day in the garden feeding .

Would love to know where they go the majority of the time

 

[geocycle]

Lots of birds today, great, blue and coal tits all morning, robins, blackbirds and dunnock cleaning up. Then a dozen or so long tailed tits pin cushioned themselves to the fat block. Activity ended abruptly when the male sparrowhawk arrived for lunch!

 

[Asa Post]

Bloody vandal in my garden again!

 

[Bollo]

We were out on a family walk in the New Forest today and luckily I took my decent camera and a reasonably zoomy lens on the off-chance anything showed its face. Usually this would be the kiss-of-death for anything interesting, but I managed to catch this deer. They’re not an unusual sight in the NF and a little less skittish than our local deer, but still pleased with how this came out.

 

[biggs682]

Bloody vandal in my garden again!

Who would have thought of a badger being in a tree