spuggies and jackdaws and hedgehogs and frogs

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

Breaking wildlife news from Chez WWD...!

A small newt, under cover of darkness is making its way across the concrete paving stones of our back garden patio, just outside the French windows (or whatever we should call such fenestration post-Brexit...but let's not go there!)  luckily neither I nor the dog stepped on it when I took her out in the garden for a few minutes.  

I wonder whence the newt came and to where it is going!

[ivans82]

On 01/03/2020 at 14:35, Leeds Wire said:

I just saw a goldcrest in Golden Acre Park. It was jumping around in a hedgerow and I got to within arms length of it. Unfortunately I left my phone at home or I would have provided photographic evidence.

I've never seen one before and it's really made my weekend!

Top bird , very noisy and some can get very tame , on another subject saw our first lambs this year in the fields just outside Cockermouth . And on another subject been seeing lots of Sparrowhawks over the last few months , but always the Females , where the hell are the Males ?

[Ullman]

Saw a pair of lapwings doing their impressive aerial display a couple of days ago at Wallingfen. Always a great sight.

[Ullman]

On 01/03/2020 at 14:35, Leeds Wire said:

I just saw a goldcrest in Golden Acre Park. It was jumping around in a hedgerow and I got to within arms length of it. Unfortunately I left my phone at home or I would have provided photographic evidence.

I've never seen one before and it's really made my weekend!

 Lovely little things that we occasionally get in our garden. There's a larch tree just down the street that attracts them.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Ullman

[longboard]

26 minutes ago, Ullman said:

 Lovely little things that we occasionally get in our garden. There's a larch tree just down the street that attracts them.

It's a good time of year to spot them. When the leaves are out and they are high up in the trees, it can be a challenge to spot them. Some of the males can have a reddish part of the head stripe which can mean that they can get misidentified as fire crests in spring.

[GUBRATS]

It's warming up , spotted a wasp yesterday

Time to grab some hedgehog food tomorrow 

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

There are reports today of a sand martin flying over Fishlake Meadows, the water area just north of Romsey in Hampshire.  Apparently there was also a large hatching of flies there too.  No doubt these two occurrences are not unconnected!

As Gubrats rightly said the other day, "it's warming up".

[GUBRATS]

Fairly sure the ' sonics ' are awake , food out last night , nearly half of it eaten in the usual way ( they eat very ' nicely ' , they don't make a mess ) so have to keep an eye out tonight

And as if by magic , one medium sized Sonic has just polished off most of the bowl , just topped it up for the late shift

Had another visit during the night if it was the earlier one , it's a greedy ######

Edited March 17, 2020 by GUBRATS

[ivans82]

Heard/saw my first Chiffchaff of the year yesterday , 4 days earlier than last year and 10 days earlier than the year before ,can`t deny global warming is having an effect .i

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

The seasonal hirundine (martins/swallows/swifts) influx is well under way.  As ever, sand martins are first, and now coming into the south of England in increasing numbers.

[Leeds Wire]

On 08/03/2020 at 19:14, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

There are reports today of a sand martin flying over Fishlake Meadows, the water area just north of Romsey in Hampshire.  Apparently there was also a large hatching of flies there too.  No doubt these two occurrences are not unconnected!

As Gubrats rightly said the other day, "it's warming up".

I saw pipistrelle bats in December and bumble bees in February 

Sand martins in March is mental, if true. 

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

17 minutes ago, Leeds Wire said:

I saw pipistrelle bats in December and bumble bees in February 

Sand martins in March is mental, if true. 

The sand martin reports certainly are true, LW.  Today's reports from Hampshire include about 60 over the lakes just north of Romsey and about 100 just inland from the Solent.  To be honest, I think this is about right, time-wise, for them.  Remember, they are the first of the four hirundine species to arrive in the spring. 

House martins will be next, and indeed, the first are also being reported in Hampshire, albeit in penny numbers so far.  After that, it will be swallows, and then finally swifts at about the beginning of May.

[Pen-Y-Bont Crusader]

A Black Fox ran across the road in front of my house today. Reported it to www.blackfoxes.co.uk.

 

 

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

I have just taken our dog for a walk along one of the country lanes out of our village.  I had the pleasure of the added company of a peacock butterfly for about a hundred yards, as it kept flitting along in short bursts beside us.  This is the first of that species I have seen on the wing this year, though brimstones are getting more common day by day.

In the garden, the bullfinches were very vociferous yesterday; we had at least three calling simultaneously.  For such a boldly and brightly coloured bird, their call - though distinctive and hence easily recognisable when you have taught yourself it - is really very thin and insipid.

[Padge]

Saw my first butterfly of spring yesterday, a Red Admiral was flitting about the garden.

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, Padge said:

Saw my first butterfly of spring yesterday, a Red Admiral was flitting about the garden.

Me too , lots of wasps,bees and ladybirds as well 

When my dad dropped off the dog , he had a wonder around the garden , he spotted a wood pigeons discarded egg under the large cherry tree in my garden , they are apparently always the first to lay every year 

Edited March 26, 2020 by GUBRATS

[longboard]

4 hours ago, Padge said:

Saw my first butterfly of spring yesterday, a Red Admiral was flitting about the garden.

Always good to see them. 

I saw a peacock, a comma and a small tortoiseshell here in the Calder Valley yesterday.

[longboard]

On 22/03/2020 at 20:15, Pen-Y-Bont Crusader said:

A Black Fox ran across the road in front of my house today. Reported it to www.blackfoxes.co.uk.

 

 

I had two foxes playing/displaying on the road outside my house at 2.30 am on Monday. The blighters woke me up.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

On 26/03/2020 at 12:12, longboard said:

Always good to see them. 

I saw a peacock, a comma and a small tortoiseshell here in the Calder Valley yesterday.

Brimstones seem to be the first ones around here (ie South Wiltshire)  yesterday, I too saw a peacock.

I see reports today of the first swallows in Hampshire - a couple of solitary birds.

[longboard]

1 minute ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Brimstones seem to be the first ones around here (ie South Wiltshire)  yesterday, I too saw a peacock.

I see reports today of the first swallows in Hampshire - a couple of solitary birds.

Without wanting to appear as a bit of an obsessive, I saw there was one reported a wee bit north of here yesterday, perhaps above the better part of Keighley, and it was heading further north.

[longboard]

8 minutes ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

Brimstones seem to be the first ones around here (ie South Wiltshire)  yesterday, I too saw a peacock.

I see reports today of the first swallows in Hampshire - a couple of solitary birds.

Brimstones don't seem to be as common in these parts so far. 

The coming days' winds and temperatures don't augur well for butterflies and other insects that have been on the wing in the last week.

[Wiltshire Warrior Dragon]

7 minutes ago, longboard said:

Without wanting to appear as a bit of an obsessive, I saw there was one reported a wee bit north of here yesterday, perhaps above the better part of Keighley, and it was heading further north.

You mean Keighley has a better part?

Only kidding; I like the place.  My wife is less enthusiastic, but then she is from Skipton....

I am reminded of that spoof, Art Deco railway poster, with the caption "Keighley.  That scary place on the way to the Dales"!

[longboard]

1 hour ago, Wiltshire Warrior Dragon said:

You mean Keighley has a better part?

Only kidding; I like the place.  My wife is less enthusiastic, but then she is from Skipton....

I am reminded of that spoof, Art Deco railway poster, with the caption "Keighley.  That scary place on the way to the Dales"!

Keighley has some cracking Edwardian & Victorian architecture, but lacks the economic engines to drive legitimate prosperity forward currently.

I have spent time there regularly in recent years.

[wilsontown]

Out on the bike today during my "lunch break" (this working from home could be worse). Chiff-chaffs are definitely about and skylarks making themselves known too. No sign of any hirundines around here so far. Got a really good view of a kestrel that was hovering over the road verge as I passed underneath.

[ivans82]

Starlings have started gathering nesting material in West Cumbria and like other posters Brimstones are about .