Your day's wildlife

[geocycle]

One of those annoying fleeting glances of a hawk where you know its not the normal kestrel or sparrowhawk...but too quick to really gather anything of note.
Smallish, dove sized, Hobby or Merlin I thought, erring toeard a Merlin because of its darker appearance.

Yes I know what you mean! I always struggle with Merlin and Hobby without a good long look. I had a similar but different experience on last week’s ride. I was high in the Dales and looked down to glimpse what resembled the marsh harriers I see quite regularly In the coastal reed beds. But the habitat was wrong and it was clearly after curlew nests. Only then it twigged it was a hen harrier and a look in the book matched the mental picture that had lodged.

 

[gbb]

Yes I know what you mean! I always struggle with Merlin and Hobby without a good long look. I had a similar but different experience on last week’s ride. I was high in the Dales and looked down to glimpse what resembled the marsh harriers I see quite regularly In the coastal reed beds. But the habitat was wrong and it was clearly after curlew nests. Only then it twigged it was a hen harrier and a look in the book matched the mental picture that had lodged.

Only ever once saw a hen harrier (female I assume, brown plumage) and it was stunning.
Driving alongside the Forty Foot drain in the Fens, this thing leapt up from the reeds, literally 30ft away from me as I drove by. Speckled, brown light and dark brown plumage.
Marsh Harriers are quite common here, I tend to think of them as quite bland, gangly brown things, lovely to watch them low, quartering fields looking for prey or food. Longer thinner wings and body, quite different build to red kite or buzzard.

 

[gbb]

Lions, a bear, lynx, crocodiles etc et ...its all out there. Well...at Johnsons crocodile zoo near RAF Wyton it is....
A bit chilly out today tbf. Not a massive place by any means but the grandkids really seemed to enjoy it.

 

[biggs682]

Just spent 20 minutes watching this hog eating and drinking . It was waiting for me tonight.

 

[matticus]

Found this little guy in the middle of the towpath, Bradford-on-Avon canal. Luckily the quiet bit!

I moved him to under where his parents were making noise, but they were too high up to see He was very nearly flight-worthy, so there seems a CHANCE he will make it. Needs to either eat something in the undergrowth, or maybe dad will fly down with some scran for him. I doubt the parents can carry him back upto the nest!

 

[avecReynolds531]

A slow worm sharing the road...

 

[Rezillo]

Our garden is alive with dozens of fledglings, including blue tits, great tits, greenfinches, goldfinches and the like. Plus this one on the neighbour's roof, who might be dedicated in weeks to come to reducing their number........

I'm not sure if that is a fledged sparrowhawk or kestrel. I suspect the latter. There are several adult kestrels locally, albeit they don't usually come into our garden but hunt for rodents in the fields.

 

[dicko]

This morning at breakfast time we spotted three Goldfinches in our garden looking for bugs on one of our plants. This is the very first time we have spotted Goldfinches in seven years!

 

[Gillstay]

Our garden is alive with dozens of fledglings, including blue tits, great tits, greenfinches, goldfinches and the like. Plus this one on the neighbour's roof, who might be dedicated in weeks to come to reducing their number........

I'm not sure if that is a fledged sparrowhawk or kestrel. I suspect the latter. There are several adult kestrels locally, albeit they don't usually come into our garden but hunt for rodents in the fields.

View attachment 733780

That may be a juvenile Kestrel as the first ones here have just come out of the box and look very similar.

 

[biggs682]

Hedgehog food topped up whilst it was wondering around the garden

 

[Dave 123]

This evening I went and sat out on the Warren for half an hour or so. A couple of Fulmar, a couple of Gannets and two parties of Manx Shearwater. All too far away for pictures, even with my big lens.

But walking back to the van I did see something up close…

 

[avecReynolds531]

A recent meeting with a patient heron, unfazed by bike or human.

Through the years, the roads & space have been shared with hares, buzzards, weasels, red kites, stoats, red, roe & fallow deer, badgers, rabbits, the slow worm posted earlier, a barn owl, bats, woodpeckers, geckos, toads & frogs, and probably most memorably a griffon vulture....magical.
One of the true joys of travel on two wheels.
A great thread, thanks.

 

[craigwend]

 

[biggs682]

Hedgehog is patroling the rear garden hunting for slugs etc etc.

Always good to see them strolling around

 

[Proto]

Anyone else using the Merlin bird song identification app? Works brilliantly, highly recommended.

https://merlin.allaboutbirds.or/