Birding / nature / photography ~ Older Asexuals for light walking and hiking nature adventures ~

[Tyke]

The blue heron is spectacular. I'm not so keen on Canada Geese, though. Messy, bossy things that they are

[Muledeer]

Wow, great photos, @Tja!  that bleu heron really is blue!  I like geese, too, but I do agree with @Midland Tyke they are messy, and noisy, too.  I've never really had an encounter with one trying to show their dominance, though.

[Tunhope]

Each year , here (UK), there is a Garden Birdwatch where people look at their their gardens for an hour, bird spotting,  then submit the results. They're pooled nationally and used to e.g. see changes in species numbers. I looked out my kitchen window at the weekend and I only saw one blackbird and two woodpigeons and I thought that was so useless, I didn't send it in. So , this morning, I look out and there are half a dozen blackbirds,several tits and  sparrows, pigeons (of course ) and (drum roll!) two male black caps. The black caps were flitting between a hedge and my cotoneaster. They were lovely. I do get them occasionally, but (I checked this out after they flew off) the winter ones are probably black caps that spend summer in central Europe. It seems that  the black caps that spend summer in north west Europe fly further south in winter. Apparently, these central European ones are managing to return to central Europe for  summer  more often than they used to, and this is attributed to northern European winters being milder than before. So more of the central European birds that migrate here survive. 

[Spotastic]

@Tja That heron looks like it's walking on water. I'm assuming the water level is very shallow there, though. Nice pictures.

[Sleepy Otter]

On 1/28/2019 at 6:55 PM, Midland Tyke said:

The blue heron is spectacular. I'm not so keen on Canada Geese, though. Messy, bossy things that they are

I agree.  Blue heron pic is awesome, and they are cool birds.  A lot of our corn gets "fertilized" by the geese stopping on their migration routes.  Messy is definitely apt.  I haven't had a run in with one, but I know people who have.  Apparently ducks can also be fairly aggressive if one feeds them...

[Myssterry]

Saw my first redwing of the winter.  Such a pretty thrush, and I usually see them when the weather is hard.  We had a little snow today and it was very cold.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Walking back up the path to the marina today, I saw an owl and also a Himalayan parakeet flying across the country park. First Parakeet I've seen outside London.

[LVG]

Sounds like someone's pet got loose.

[Skycaptain]

@LVG, strange as this may seem, parakeets are a major problem in southern England. There are colonies of 1000+ birds and they do a lot of damage. Whilst they were escaped pets originally they find our climate and lack of predators amenable. 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

And they seem to have moved 50 miles north now. Perhaps it's a matter of time before they're watching up helly aa...after all, bits of Himalayan India can be roasting...or freezing.

[Tunhope]

@Mz Terry ditto the redwings. I saw one a couple of weeks ago but then nothing until yesterday and, like you, a slight snowfall and two of them. They were turning over the fallen leaves. My favourite winter birds - in the garden anyway. I like pintails on the river.

There are parakeets  in one of the stretches of old woodland near me in Kent @chandrakirti and @Skycaptain . Your hear them before you see them. Not thousands though. Not even hundreds but, yes, they are very successful and, if they multiply the way that collared doves have (unknown in the UK until the fifties, I'm told, and now they're everywhere) ... 

I keep reading about how cold it is in the USA and how hot it's been in Australia. Poor wildlife.

[LVG]

I saw a black squirrel today. They're really just gray squirrels with a genetic mutation that turns their fur darker than usual, but they're still pretty cool to see. 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Very nice to see variants on the grey. About time they started mutating! 

[Myssterry]

I saw a beautiful albino squirrel near here a  few years ago.

 

I had a lovely walk in the nature reserve today - the snowdrops were out and the heron was by the lake.

 

 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Lovely photos @Mz Terry. Here, walking back from the cinema I saw over 50 crows together. I managed to count 50 begore giving up.

Never seen that many before.

[daveb]

12 minutes ago, chandrakirti said:

Lovely photos @Mz Terry. Here, walking back from the cinema I saw over 50 crows together. I managed to count 50 begore giving up.

Never seen that many before.

That's what I call a massacre of crows.  

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Lovely photos @Mz Terry. Here, walking back from the cinema I saw over 50 crows together. I managed to count 50 begore giving up.

Never seen that many before.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

That was aven just re posting my last post with no clicks..

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

PS it certainly was a massacre!

[Muledeer]

Just read this article about a trail runner who defended himself from a Mountain Lion attack - and killed the lion with his bare hands!

https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiELegVUAqtTWZ2hKvHev4mX0qFggEKg4IACoGCAow9vBNMK3UCDCvpUk?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

[daveb]

Yikes! 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Brave guy! Amazing what can be done with adrenaline.

I think runners and walkers in those areas should be obliged to carry starter pistols...one blank shot would probably have sent the mountain lion running away with it's life intact and the walker safe.

[batsy8]

I do go hiking and take pix of the animals I do see here in SoCal. There are a lot of golden eagles and Hawks, rock wrens, crows, etc. I do also see a lot of snakes, lizards, skunks, raccoons, and tarantulas. The last I saw before it got cold was a southern Pacific rattlesnake, right on the trail. I must've walked right by it earlier. Stayed far away!

 

Also in socal there's a lot of wild parrots. Apparently some got out a long time ago and just kept making more. But that's in the Los Angeles area. 

 

So far no mountain lions or bears, but I have seen coyotes.

[Skycaptain]

Snape salt flats north of Ipswich, several birds, including egrets, kestrel, various geese, ducks, swans, avocets and gulls, amongst others. 

 

Saw some otter poop, but no otters 

[daveb]

1 hour ago, Skycaptain said:

Snape salt flats north of Ipswich, several birds, including egrets, kestrel, various geese, ducks, swans, avocets and gulls, amongst others. 

Cool. Sounds like some good bird-watching.

 

I've been to Ipswich, mainly because I wanted to visit Sutton Hoo.

 

(at the time I am writing this your post count is a palindromic 56565)  

[LVG]

So, I heard the blue jays making all sorts of commotion earlier today. Curious, I looked out the window and saw the reason.

 

 

A prowling cooper's hawk.

[Myssterry]

Two Egyptian geese in the park yesterday, a flock of redwings today.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

My daily bike rides are taking me 10 miles away, through the country park, which is almost deserted during work hours, so I can see loads going on in the woods...

it seems that the birds have started nesting already. Lots of little rabbits around and the occasional wood mouse.

Been waiting alongside the river watching the voles swimming around but I only got a quick glimpse of the other yesterday.

Wonder what today will bring?😊

[Tunhope]

Don't know what today brought @chandrakirti and everyone else, but it bought me two brimstone butterflies, and several primroses in my garden have come out. I've had the back door open all afternoon - it's lovely outside.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Yes @Tunhope, what a lovely day! 

21c at my back door 3pm! 

I'm afraid I used the sun to get a pile of washing dried and set about my spring cleaning because I reckoned that sun would bring out a veritable crowd on the path and I didn't fancy dodging them all.

Did seeoafs of crows gather again..second massacre (sic) of the month! (With thanks to @daveb for that ideation.