Griff9of13 Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 How have I derailed it? Someone else raised the issue of hare coursing, not me. Killing is all a major part of nature. Those birds you like are concentrating on keeping alive and reproducing; they are more than happy at the opportunity of killing insects and other birds. It's not all Squirrel Nutkins, no matter how much some people would like it to be. I think he may have been referring to this post: Anyway, it's the mating season in Lancashire. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2756471/Mother-38-attacked-nightclub-staff-stilettos-handbag-interrupted-having-sex.html HTH "it is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolford6 Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 It's a fair cop, Guv. Under Scrutiny by the Right-On Thought Police Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ullman Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 I saw one close up two weeks ago whilst cycling Were you on your touring bike? "I'm from a fishing family. Trawlermen are like pirates with biscuits." - Lucy Beaumont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry the Leit Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 Were you on your touring bike? Pathetic. The Unicorn is not a Goose, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ullman Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Thanks, I had a good read and will print off a few of those and leave in the car. I'd guess the reduction in numbers is down to habitat change. I saw one close up two weeks ago whilst cycling, one ran out of a field into the lane I was on and ran up the lane in front of me for about 40 yards until there was another gap where it went back into the field. I was doing over 20 mph, and I didn't make any ground up on it. As for lamping, I struggle to understand the motives of people who kill for fun. I see a lot of hares when I'm out cycling. They often do that running along the road thing you describe. They seem to enjoy sprinting along the tarmac. "I'm from a fishing family. Trawlermen are like pirates with biscuits." - Lucy Beaumont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Frightful Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 Were you on your touring bike? Pathetic. I thought it was exceptionally good considering whence it came. Hull FC....The Sons of God... (Well, we are about to be crucified on Good Friday) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry the Leit Posted September 19, 2014 Share Posted September 19, 2014 I thought it was exceptionally good considering whence it came. Personally I don't like the obsession that some have about me being on tour, with my band. The Unicorn is not a Goose, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeds Wire Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 Since the visit by a chiffchaff we've had a pheasant, a treecreeper, a nuthatch and, to top it all, today a ring ouzel spent about 20 minutes in our back garden picking off worms. I've never seen one before and I suppose I might never see one again. Such a shame I didn't get a photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futtocks Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 I see a lot of hares when I'm out cycling. They often do that running along the road thing you describe. They seem to enjoy sprinting along the tarmac. I have only once seen hares boxing, which is rather funny to watch! Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. Ralph Waldo Emerson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ullman Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 I have only once seen hares boxing, which is rather funny to watch! That is just brilliant. "I'm from a fishing family. Trawlermen are like pirates with biscuits." - Lucy Beaumont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longboard Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 Since the visit by a chiffchaff we've had a pheasant, a treecreeper, a nuthatch and, to top it all, today a ring ouzel spent about 20 minutes in our back garden picking off worms. I've never seen one before and I suppose I might never see one again. Such a shame I didn't get a photo. LW what is the terrain/countryside around your house like? It's unusual to get a ring ouzel in a garden, although I have heard of it happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longboard Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 I have only once seen hares boxing, which is rather funny to watch! It's a great spectacle, which a small proportion of our population have seen. You probably know this, but the boxing is the females who are not ready to mate fighting off the males who are keen to copulate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longboard Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 It's a great spectacle, which a small proportion of our population have seen. You probably know this, but the boxing is the females who are not ready to mate fighting off the males who are keen to copulate. Any parallels with a night out in Golborne are incidental. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Futtocks Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 Still classier than Jeremy Kyle... Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. Ralph Waldo Emerson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtum Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 With the end of the hunting season round here the other week, a stag has decided to come down to the outskirts of the village and bellow in a splendidly defiant manner. Scared the Bejaysus out of my puppy. As did the he hawing of a pair of beveiled donkeys in the next field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry the Leit Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 It's a great spectacle, which a small proportion of our population have seen. You probably know this, but the boxing is the females who are not ready to mate fighting off the males who are keen to copulate. The males can be a bit rapey it would seem. The Unicorn is not a Goose, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeds Wire Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 LW what is the terrain/countryside around your house like? It's unusual to get a ring ouzel in a garden, although I have heard of it happening. I'm not a twitcher but I had a feeling that this was something very unusual. I looked up the ring ouzel on t'internet and only then realised what I had witnessed. There is even a website for reporting sightings of this critically endangered highland bird, which I did. So what was he doing in north Leeds on a Sunday morning? Probably en route to Africa from Scotland and stopping off to refuel. To answer your question, If you go to google maps and look up LS17 8DZ you will see exactly where we live. We are about a third of a mile from the northern edge of Leeds, where suburbia meets farmland, Eccup reservoir and the beautiful Harewood estate (red kite country). Our garden is pretty big, with mature trees like rowan, silver birch and 100 ft beech hedge. We get a huge and diverse range of birds, but never something so unusual as this. He was an aggressive so-and-so, attacking blackbirds on the grass and darting in and out of the trees and hedges frantically. He spent quite a while right in front of my kitchen window pulling worms up, occasionally jumping up into the rowan tree for the berries. Only afterwards did I realise that I hadn't bothered to take a photo, which I am kicking myself for now. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longboard Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 I'm not a twitcher but I had a feeling that this was something very unusual. I looked up the ring ouzel on t'internet and only then realised what I had witnessed. There is even a website for reporting sightings of this critically endangered highland bird, which I did. So what was he doing in north Leeds on a Sunday morning? Probably en route to Africa from Scotland and stopping off to refuel. To answer your question, If you go to google maps and look up LS17 8DZ you will see exactly where we live. We are about a third of a mile from the northern edge of Leeds, where suburbia meets farmland, Eccup reservoir and the beautiful Harewood estate (red kite country). Our garden is pretty big, with mature trees like rowan, silver birch and 100 ft beech hedge. We get a huge and diverse range of birds, but never something so unusual as this. He was an aggressive so-and-so, attacking blackbirds on the grass and darting in and out of the trees and hedges frantically. He spent quite a while right in front of my kitchen window pulling worms up, occasionally jumping up into the rowan tree for the berries. Only afterwards did I realise that I hadn't bothered to take a photo, which I am kicking myself for now. Mark Living where you do, you are not far from areas where ring ouzels breed etc. They are a member of the thrush family and they are usually a bit smaller than blackbirds There are still numerous sightings of them in the uplands of the north of England, even though their numbers have declined significantly. They are shy birds usually and can be very difficult to spot when in their breeding areas. They tend to head towards the coast before their autumn migration south. Another possibility, given your observations of the aggressive behaviour, is that you have seen a bird with leucisism in your garden, that is one that shows some white features where there would more normally be black/brown colouration. At this time of year birds from N Europe/Scandinavia migrate to this country to spend the autumn and winter here and they fly into the territories of established birds, with predictable conflict ensuing; this will include a number of birds with markings which are not conventional. I hope the above is not too boring. Anyway, let us know if said bird is around in the next few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leeds Wire Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 Anyway, let us know if said bird is around in the next few days. He's back this morning, darting in and out of the rowan tree to munch on the berries. I got a really good view through my binoculars and he's definitely not leucistic, it's a textbook ring ouzel. If only he'd stand still for a photo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolford6 Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 Not a single berry on my rowan bush this year. I'm chopping my apple bushes down to the stumps ... over the last few years, they've got decimated by a progressive knobbly mange. Under Scrutiny by the Right-On Thought Police Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearman Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 Living where you do, you are not far from areas where ring ouzels breed etc. They are a member of the thrush family and they are usually a bit smaller than blackbirds There are still numerous sightings of them in the uplands of the north of England, even though their numbers have declined significantly. They are shy birds usually and can be very difficult to spot when in their breeding areas. They tend to head towards the coast before their autumn migration south. Another possibility, given your observations of the aggressive behaviour, is that you have seen a bird with leucisism in your garden, that is one that shows some white features where there would more normally be black/brown colouration. At this time of year birds from N Europe/Scandinavia migrate to this country to spend the autumn and winter here and they fly into the territories of established birds, with predictable conflict ensuing; this will include a number of birds with markings which are not conventional. I hope the above is not too boring. Anyway, let us know if said bird is around in the next few days. I had a "blackbird" with a big white patch on its head in my garden last year. Does that mean it was a Ring Ouzel? Ron Banks Midlands Hurricanes and Barrow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ullman Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 I had a "blackbird" with a big white patch on its head in my garden last year. Does that mean it was a Ring Ouzel? Nah, you often see blackbirds with white patches. It's known as leucism (as longboard refers to above). "I'm from a fishing family. Trawlermen are like pirates with biscuits." - Lucy Beaumont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Willow Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 The squirrels in my garden are making some noise. I thought it was a Maggie, was shocked to see it was the squirrel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longboard Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 He's back this morning, darting in and out of the rowan tree to munch on the berries. I got a really good view through my binoculars and he's definitely not leucistic, it's a textbook ring ouzel. If only he'd stand still for a photo! Interesting. Good luck with the photography. http://www.ringouzel.info/news_howtoidentify.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry the Leit Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Saw a massive stag on the road between Banbury and Warwick about 20:00 this evening. Had to slam the brakes on to avoid killing it, and probably us; he was massive. The Unicorn is not a Goose, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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