Your day's wildlife

[rockyroller]

On the terrace step two nights ago, amongst the gravel. a very bright green light, like a LED, so bright. Glow-worm!!

And last night, in the grass/ferns in front of the house, two more. Thrilled by this. Very rare spot for me.

No photos, bit pointless. Total blackout with a green dot, or with flash, a picture of some grass.

so that's different than a fire-fly, eh?

 

[KnittyNorah]

UK Glow-worms (Woodland trust info)

 

[Glow worm]

Paging @Glow worm for photographic advice!

Good question! I have hundreds of very clear photos of blades of grass with a bright green blur of a glow worm behind. My rubbish photo below from last summer a case in point. On gravel should be easier, but focussing on the glow worm at night is always tricky. If you can use a dim torch sometimes that helps a little but only for a few seconds as it could disorientate them. You’ll lose some of the glow but at least see the glowing female in at least some detail. And of course the most important thing is not to touch the glow worm.

If you spot a glow worm, please report sightings here: https://www.glowworms.org.uk/

 

[Glow worm]

so that's different than a fire-fly, eh?

Yes different species. We do have fireflies in Europe, the closest colonies to the UK I believe are in Belgium, but no fireflies here in the UK. Our glow worms are beetles and the glowing females are flightless, but the (non-glowing) males fly about until, not to put too finer point on it, they spot a female‘s glowing rear end and basically go for it!

 

[rockyroller]

Yes different species. We do have fireflies in Europe, the closest colonies to the UK I believe are in Belgium, but no fireflies here in the UK. Our glow worms are beetles and the glowing females are flightless, but the (non-glowing) males fly about until, not to put too finer point on it, they spot a female‘s glowing rear end and basically go for it!

lol, I can relate. nice avatar!!!!

 

[Dave 123]

Another privet hawk moth

 

[Ripple]

Stag beetle. Found in Canterbury.

 

[rualexander]

Curlew

 

[rockyroller]

Another privet hawk moth

View attachment 694307

wow gorgeous

 

[rockyroller]

Curlew

View attachment 694343

wow, great photo! girlfriend & I had a cat that once pounced on a carved curlew in a friend's home while they were away & broke the beak. we had to find a professional hand carver to repair it before they got back. 40+ years ago their profile impregnated in my brain. so exciting to see this photo of a live one, out in nature

 

[rockyroller]

Stag beetle. Found in Canterbury.

View attachment 694334

wow nice sharp photo! terrifying

 

[rockyroller]

last night Wifey & I were woken by the sounds of what we think were a cpl of barred owls mating. these are the species whose call sounds like "who cooks for you". well when they are mating (I think) their sounds are much louder, overlap each others &

I can't even begin to write what it sounded like. the event lasted a solid minute? maybe, because they woke us up & we heard it again! then some silence & then about a minute later heard them calling

out "who cooks for you".

well they were cookin' alright! disappointed it didn't trigger our security camera which is supposed to turn of for loud sounds. I should check the settings

found a cpl videos with weirder than normal barred owls, not quite the same, not as loud & not as long a duration, as what woke us but might give us an idea

at about the :19 mark

View: https://youtu.be/0WiBGxJ-ylk


at about the :30 mark

View: https://youtu.be/ErBK4KEMiko

 

[Proto]

New one on me last night, 11.00, in bed lights out, when dog downstairs starts growling and barking. Not long afterwards, in the darkness, I can hear the flapping of wings, switch bedside light on to see a bat whizzing about the bedroom. Wife dives under the duvet, uttering some rude words, and I get up thinking what to do. It flies into the adjacent bathroom, so I shut the door and open the windows. After a few laps of me and the room it's away into the night. I was desperate for it to settle somewhere is I could get a photo for identification but sadly it was gone. Wing span about 200mm (guess), short body, so no idea what species, sadly.

 

[13 rider]

New one on me last night, 11.00, in bed lights out, when dog downstairs starts growling and barking. Not long afterwards, in the darkness, I can hear the flapping of wings, switch bedside light on to see a bat whizzing about the bedroom. Wife dives under the duvet, uttering some rude words, and I get up thinking what to do. It flies into the adjacent bathroom, so I shut the door and open the windows. After a few laps of me and the room it's away into the night. I was desperate for it to settle somewhere is I could get a photo for identification but sadly it was gone. Wing span about 200mm (guess), short body, so no idea what species, sadly.

Your wife was definitely correct hiding under the duvet , description definitely sounds like a vampire bat 😂

 

[Profpointy]

In the garden yesterday

initially thought the bumble bee had somehow got itself caught in the flower itself and only later saw a spider had nabbed it