nature notes II

[Enki]

How about a dancing gull, to lighten/lower the tone of some of the other threads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-6l-905zD0

Looks promising.   I just might get my dog to recite the 7X table. There's hope yet.

[ekim]

Amazing.  We'll have to call that gull Susan (the tap dancer).

[Rhiannon]

Just got back from a week in Norfolk. Not a wildlife trip especially, but then in Norfolk it doesn't need to be as it will pop up regardless. On the bit of seaside we hung out on we saw grey seals, terns and a common lizard - the first lizard I've seen in the wild in the UK.

[floo]

When we lived in Cambridgeshire in the 80s we discovered a dead coypu in our garden in St Neots. Unfortunately it appeared that one of our dogs or cats had done for it.  As all coypus in East Anglia had apparently been exterminated, we reckon it must have the last one left!

Also whilst we lived in Cambridgeshire we saw a wallaby standing on a grass verge yards from our house. That was really weird as there was no zoo in the vicinity from which it could have escaped. I don't remember how it came to be there, or what happened to it.

[Nearly Sane]

Wallaby in Cambridgeshire

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-19965072

[floo]

NS I see that sighting was in 2012, mine was in the mid 80s.

[Enki]

Floo,

Small groups of wallabies have lived in the wild in various parts of the UK since at least the 1940s. Its quite possible that you saw one of these 'wild' wallabies.

[Rhiannon]

Coypu always remind me of the Barbara Vine novel A Fatal Inversion. That was set in Suffolk.

[Rhiannon]

Isle of Man wallabies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-29222704

[wigginhall]

The famous 'June gap' with butterflies has come to an end, I think.  Anyway, this week on the allotment, I saw a lot more, including meadow brown, one of the skippers, ringlet, red admiral, comma, and large white.  It should get better as well, into August, and there are predictions of a painted lady influx. 

[floo]

A few minutes ago two pigeons were sitting on our garden fence snogging with their beaks, which is fairly common. Suddenly one mounted the other, it was over in a few seconds. Now that is something I haven't witnessed before in birds, although common in dogs, I must have led a sheltered life.

[Enki]

Many people know about the success of the ospreys in Scotland, but it is not often broadcast that there is now a viable population of ospreys in the centre of England after a reintroduction programme from 1996 to 2001, centred around Rutland Water. Indeed, this year has seen the fledging of the 100th chick as a result of this. Two ospreys have also now managed to breed successfully in Wales, hopefully helping to re-establish ospreys in Wales for the first time in 400 years.

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5135

[Enki]

Good news for birders and birdwatchers,  2 pairs of bee eaters have bred in Cumbria. As the eggs have now hatched the location is no longer being kept secret.

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5149

[floo]

That is good news. I didn't even know we had Ospreys in my area, until I caught a news item on the nest the city built just at the bottom of my hill several years ago.

Now I was just reading on the cbc that Brits are alarmed at the increase in seagull attacks on people along your coasts. Any truth to that? Somebody reported that it was like that great movie, The Birds.

There has been quite a number of reports of seagull attacks just lately. An elderly woman was left with a nasty cut on her head after one such attack. I wonder what has made the seagulls so vicious all of a sudden?

[wigginhall]

Good news for birders and birdwatchers,  2 pairs of bee eaters have bred in Cumbria. As the eggs have now hatched the location is no longer being kept secret.

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5149

Great news.  I kept seeing reports of flocks of them in different places, so I thought they might breed.

Joking at my local patch (London), that the autumn return migration is now on, but it's true.   All the usual suspects, green sandpipers, common sandpipers, snipe coming back, dunlin.  In fact, some of them start returning in June (from Iceland?). 

Off to Titchwell soon, oh goody gum-drops.  Expect a ton of ruff, spotted redshanks, little gull, and probably a big snorter or two. 

Seeing comma butterflies everywhere now, gorgeous orange colour.

[wigginhall]

Life on the farm - I am used to farmers in the fens growing daffodils - sometimes in spring you go round a corner, and there's a huge yellow field, which hits you in the eye.   But I was surprised recently to see that the farm next door is growing Michaelmas Daisies, which are of many different colours.   They are being harvested right now, so you see lorries full of them bouncing along the farm tracks.   A few fall off, so we stick them in a vase. 

Growing flowers seems common at the moment, probably more money in it than the previously dominant sugar-beet. 

They use hand pickers sometimes, wow, that looks back-breaking work.

There are also some small growers, who use a big back garden to grow them, so if you are looking for a business opportunity, go for it!

[Rhiannon]

We get fields around here growing borage, both for its oil and as a salad flower.

Once when out and about exploring I came close to the headquarters of a well-known supplier of garden seeds. All around were fields of sweet peas. I on,y saw it once but I've never forgotten it.

There's a fashion now for unkempt, natural-style flower arrangements. Traditional flowers of any kind should sell well. Gerberas and leather leaf have had their day.

[SweetPea]

Nothing prettier than a plot of wild flowers. In the late spring my hillside is a real sight of native prairie flowers. Had a terrible time trying to rid myself of a wasp nest close to my backdoor. It was in the ground under a bush. This morning I see that a critter visited overnight and took care of the problem I'm thinking a skunk.

Johnny, I love wild flowers. I walk through fields sometimes were the farmer has left strips at the edges to accommodate them. Don't know how it is for you in Alberta, but here we are not supposed to pick them, which makes sense really..... but I do sneak one or two occasionally.

[Rhiannon]

Nothing prettier than a plot of wild flowers. In the late spring my hillside is a real sight of native prairie flowers. Had a terrible time trying to rid myself of a wasp nest close to my backdoor. It was in the ground under a bush. This morning I see that a critter visited overnight and took care of the problem I'm thinking a skunk.

Agree, I try to welcome wild flowers to my garden. In the spring part of my lawn is full of cowslips. We even still have a handful of poppy fields round about.

This is the first year for ages that we haven't had wasps in the attic, although a few weeks ago I got up at five to find a couple of dozen of them in the house - no idea why. They are at that stupid stage now and we often get driven indoors by them. Under our wood store we have a nest of the cutest bumblebees, black with orange bottoms.

[wigginhall]

Interesting about farming borage.   The other one I just remembered are gladioli, which have been farmed here for yonks.  Again, quite a sight to see lorries bouncing along with a load full of them in the back.   One nice thing here is that daffodils have invaded many ditches and field boundaries, from being grown as a crop, so every spring, there are daffs everywhere along the verges.   

[Enki]

I often look at the Birdguides' photos of the week. I find them visually stunning. The progress of digital photography in the last two decades has been fantastic. It is now possible to take photographs of wildlife of extremely good quality within a reasonable budget, although the equipment for these particular photos probably cost a great deal more.

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5181

[floo]

No sunshine again today. The city is a blanket of smoke due to forest fires in Washington state and British Columbia. Health warnings out and we have been told to keep our windows shut.

How awful!

[floo]

The other day there was a warning that someone had killed a poisonous false widow spider in our part of Wales. When I was outside checking on the washing about 30 minutes ago, I spied on the patio a spider with the white markings on its back, which I had seen in the picture of this particular spider. I killed it immediately, better safe than sorry, although normally spiders don't bother me, as I like them. I have warned the neighbours to be wary.

[Rhiannon]

They aren't massively dangerous, Floo, although they can give a painful bite.

[ekim]

I keep picking up deer ticks.  I swear they have learnt to pole vault.