nature notes

[Marigold]

Anyone been to see these?

Oh no, I suppose not. I keep forgetting how the world has changed.
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-farming/roaming-sea-eagles-now-thought-have-settled-permanently-north-york-moors-2876149

 

[bigyetiman]

We haven't, but some friends who live and farm on the moors have seen them regularly, and a bird watching friend who's parents live that way have seen them also, much to his annoyance as he can't get back home yet.

 

[Marigold]

A little rain overnight, and this morning these two snails were in a passionate embrace of connubial bliss on the lawn. All is explained in this link, if you’re not up on the mating habits of snails. https://www.snail-world.com/how-do-snails-reproduce/

The bit in the link about love darts is so romantic - Cupid’s Arrow for snails? Or a bit of S&M, who knows? What a pity they’re not active on Valentines Day.
Sadly, they ended up double helpings for a visiting thrush. Ouch. Lovely way to go, though.

 

[Tweetypie]

Thought you all might like to see my video of bambi. There were 2 fawns playing near a tree. The doe's were at least 300 metres away with the herd. I called out and was gobsmacked it came running right up to me, poked its' nose through the fence. After a few moments or so, it then got on the ground and laid down next to the fence. I was so honoured to experience this.

Warning!! You seriously have to excuse my stupid voice, which I promise I reserve only for calling animals YOUTUBE LINK:

https://youtu.be/RVgEFujMs8E

Edit: Just adding pics, too.

 

[Margaid]

Oh that's fantastic Tweetpie, what a gorgeous surprise when it came running over to you.

 

[bigyetiman]

How lovely, people who think a walk in the country is a waste of time and a total bore just don't know what they are missing.
Slugs and snails have the most amazing mating ritual, or revolting depending on your point of view.
OH was doing a survey the other day and came across several dead moles, then today we came across three more whilst on a nature reserve in East Sussex, apparently it is because the ground is so hard they are coming up to hunt on the surface for food. They have also been seen swimming as well to try to get food. I didn't know they could swim, but I guess as rodents can, no reason why they can't they have the front paws for a fabulous breast stroke.
Just so sad to see them dead, lovely things.

 

[Marigold]

Yes, our local FB wildlife group has been reporting sightings of dead moles.

 

[Hen-Gen]

Yeh moles are great and do very little harm. I miss seeing mole hills. And no droughts here.
Even more though I miss voles. Orkney has them and so sustains a healthy population of Short Eared Owls and Hen Harriers. These birds are not found here because there’s nothing for them to eat. An accident of nature and a few miles of sea! I keep hoping someone will import a lorry load of Orkney hay with a few voles on board. I did import a ewe from there but unfortunately no voles hitched a ride in its fleece.
But I know introductions are frowned upon because they often have unintended consequences. Cane toads to Australia, mink to Scottish islands and hippos to Colombia spring to mind. But I could live with herds of migrating wildebeests on Fetlar ?. Bizarrely
we did once have an escaped wild boar and I remember when I lived in the Peak District a colony of Bennett’s Wallabies on the Staffordshire Roaches and, allegedly, for some years a yak.

 

[MrsBiscuit]

That fawn is incredible, I am amazed, I would have thought it would be too scared to approach. What a priceless memory for you, and thanks for sharing it with us.

Bizarrely I have found half a dozen things which look like molehills here. There were 2 or 3 a couple of months ago, and recently another 6 or so in another place. I didn't think Portugal had moles (must check it out), but there is too much earth for anything else I can think of, and its not antheap spoil.

I found a large toad in the garden the other day. We have had a toad for years, not sure if its the same one, but it is very big. I was removing spent vegetation, and the very wet spring we have had will have provided excellent cover and conditions for it. We have shrews, mice and voles here. At our last house in UK we had a lot of long tailed voles, so I have a soft spot for them.

 

[bigyetiman]

Yeh moles are great and do very little harm. I miss seeing mole hills. And no droughts here.
Even more though I miss voles. Orkney has them and so sustains a healthy population of Short Eared Owls and Hen Harriers. These birds are not found here because there’s nothing for them to eat. An accident of nature and a few miles of sea! I keep hoping someone will import a lorry load of Orkney hay with a few voles on board. I did import a ewe from there but unfortunately no voles hitched a ride in its fleece.
But I know introductions are frowned upon because they often have unintended consequences. Cane toads to Australia, mink to Scottish islands and hippos to Colombia spring to mind. But I could live with herds of migrating wildebeests on Fetlar ?. Bizarrely
we did once have an escaped wild boar and I remember when I lived in the Peak District a colony of Bennett’s Wallabies on the Staffordshire Roaches and, allegedly, for some years a yak.

That's a sight I would pay to see wildebeest on Fetlar, their annual migration would be up and down the island a few times.
I love learning something new, I never knew hippos had been imported to Colombia. Camels are a problem in Oz I believe as they drink too much water.
We have some escaped boar around here and they sometimes trot along the lane. They escaped from a nearby slaughter house many moons ago, and breed in a local woodland

 

[rick]

A couple of things have been buzzing around in my mind lately - corvids and hedgehogs...
Around us there are lots of brick walls. There is a hedgehog that routinely comes down the pavement at night as the only way of connecting the route from several doors on the opposite side of the road to the east to a couple of doors to the west. There are a few wooden fences that could do with a hedgehog hole and would be easy but it wouldn't be connected without holes in double brick walls. A diamond core drill is the obvious answer but what diameter would a round hole need to be for a hedgehog? It would need to be no bigger than necessary as the bigger the diameter the harder it would be to drill. would a 110mm hole be big enough?
I really love corvids and remember coming across this story of crows collecting litter in France for treats a while back but just came across it again (Puy du Fou park.) So I was thinking you could set that up anywhere - like on the roof of the house as a trip from our local park to the roof would be a cinch for a crow. But it may be too successful! What if you found some wallets and rings in the trash can?! The perfect crime! That really wasn't my motivation in thinking about it - becoming Fagin for a gang of feathered Artful Dodgers! - there is loads of litter around here (mostly from bin bags ransacked by foxes) that needs picking up and a workforce of crows would be excellent!

 

[bigyetiman]

Very weirdly OH looked this up yesterday for someone down the road, and according to British hedgehogs society and various other organisations it needs to be 13x13cm (5x5ins) which is ideal for them but excludes domestic pets from getting into your garden.
You can even buy bespoke plates to go around them which states they are a hedgehog highway, please do not cover. The info came from www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk. Ours was wandering around last night with youngsters following on which was nice.
I remember reading a similar article where corvids had been trained to pick up cigarette ends in the Netherlands, could do with training a few around here to pick up litter from cars.
Plus they would work all daylight hours every day, no union, no lunchbreak as it would be on the job refreshments, and no overtime pay, plus come spring they would provide their own replacements
It would be the perfect crime if they brought home valuables, they would never squeal or caw on you to the police.

 

[Marigold]

See British Hedgehog Preservation Society - BHPS- https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/
and click on the link to Hedgehog Street on the Home page. Also see (and sign) the petition for hedgehog highways
https://www.change.org/p/help-save-britain-s-hedgehogs-with-hedgehog-highways - seeking a law compelling developers to leave hedgehog holes in fences etc in new developments.

I’m glad your hedgehog keeps to the pavement, Rick. It makes me so sad and angry when I see yet another of our precious hedgehog colony lying dead on our road with its guts spilling out. Perhaps the reduction in traffic will have helped this year’s breeding season to be more successful, although our local FB wildlife site has had lots of pics of deer in people’s back gardens etc, so maybe the wildlife is getting too relaxed for its own good round here.

 

[Margaid]

Very weirdly OH looked this up yesterday for someone down the road, and according to British hedgehogs society and various other organisations it needs to be 13x13cm (5x5ins) which is ideal for them but excludes domestic pets from getting into your garden.

Cats will climb fences and walls anyway ...

Took the 6"x 4" sheep netting out of the bottom of my post and rail fence so that the cats, particularly Smokey, could get into the fields more easily. Even chunky Pickle could get through the netting but Smokey has long legs and I think maybe she got caught up and that's how she broke her femur.

 

[rick]

I think I'll try a 127mm drill on the rear boundary wall as an experiment. If I can make a jig for it so its easy to do anywhere I think I may advertise a hedgehog hole making service.
Signed the petition - a very good idea and will ask our ecologist what is happening already in planning. Do have to say, being in planning myself; there is also a push from council members to increase tree canopy cover in the city from 18 to 25% through planning conditions. I'm all for planning and developers having this as a goal but developers are only involved year on year in a tiny fraction of what is already out there and most of what is happening is under permitted development (paving over driveways and going to B&Q etc.) I hate to be a sceptic but politicians will have retired with numerous policy accolades well before any effect is measurable and the maths say a 1% increase over 60 years is all you could possibly get through development alone. Meanwhile policy has halved the allocation of public open space per 1000 population and squeezed private garden sizes due to meeting housing density targets. (Can you tell I'm somewhat frustrated?!)
Sceptical but not defeated - there simply has to be a way. Of course planning and development has to be exemplary so as not to make things worse and set a good example but the lions share of what can have a truly significant effect is in the small individual efforts and choices made by existing private property owners. It really is power to the people - if that's what they want.

When building the new wall on the side boundary, did leave a hole by arching over the pear tree but our garden doesn't offer much at all in way of interest for a hedgehog. Main problem is it is also a dead end so needs another hole or two on the other boundaries.

 

[bigyetiman]

That's really good Rick.
here are a few moths from the last couple of nights. We got a really plain one out that turned out to be called a Timothy Tortrix

 

[MrsBiscuit]

Your photos are so fascinating, every single moth looks interesting, far more than when I see them in real life. I love the Timothy name 9even the girls?!) and I particularly like the brown tail because it looks as though the moth is wearing a non-PC ermine robe!

 

[dinosaw]

I've just been trawling through this thread and am amazed at how many different types of moth you have managed get BYM, great job. I went up to photograph a couple of chicks that my broody Sussex had hatched on Wednesday and managed to snap this butterfly. I think it is a marbled white but have to admit I had to look it up. I couldn't get anywhere near any of the moths flying about, dozens of red and black ones which I think are Cinnabars.

 

[Hen-Gen]

I remember as a kid telling people that when I grew up I wanted to be an entomologist. That soon went the way of other childish aspirations but I’ve always loved seeing insects even though I can’t name most of them.
One of the downsides of living up here is that insects, reptiles and amphibians are under represented. One of my enduring memories is of laying in the grass down south listening to the sounds of bees, hover flies and grass hoppers. And of wasps chewing the wooden trellis work that supported the clematis. You could hear their little mandibles chomping on the wood.
So for me it’s not about the beauty of some new butterfly. It’s about the whole web of life of which we are just a small part.
And the one day a year when all the ant nest in the area synchronised the emergence of males and queens and for one day everywhere was crawling with ants. For me it beats the Serengeti any day.

 

[bigyetiman]

Here is a Cinnabar moth.
I agree Hen-Gen the whole insect world is fascinating. Wish I could ID some of the micromoths I get in the trap but they are so small and very similar to each other. Some of the moths come in all shades from pale to dark, not easy when the book only shows you one colour and not all the variants.

I think Marbled Whites are stunning, some of the brambles at the local golf course are covered in them at the moment.

Dragonflies at well, they are amazing