What have you seen
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I saw clouds of small butterflies as I walked through some pastureland this morning (the cows are in another area so the mixed grass has grown well and is seeding.) I think they might be the Small Heath butterflies? They were plain and small and just skimmed over the grass. Where we live it's been very dry and we've noticed the butterflies are doing well this year, plenty of nectar around.
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Today I saw seven, yes seven, in a field but I guess I really shouldn't tell you that! These have been much maligned but stunningly beautiful birds in my opinion. That irredesent purple and green contrasting the pied white. As a child I only saw the very odd one, mostly dead ones strung up on fences surrounding pastoral farms. They seemed special to me though. Yes, they do predate but that's a natural role they 'play' in a healthy Eco system. Although quiet common these days seeing so many at once was brilliant and a sign of changing attitudes!
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I assume you are talking about Magpies, Micky, or is this a new game?
Had a lovely surprise when looking out of the kitchen window at lunchtime today. A female Bullfinch taking seeds from a Herb Bennett plan that Mrs WN overlooked. She usually pulls most of them up but has now decided to leave a few more. We watched her for a minute or so. No sign of the male though.
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2 peacock butterflies on our budleia 😃. First I've seen this year. Beautiful.
Actually saw our hedgehog the night before last, it moved very swiftly before I git back with OH. Didn't eat food from the hedgehog house then but it had gone by the morning. Do we have 2?? Friends up the road have had 3 jn the garden at once and a neighbour down the road had 7 at once last year!
Sadly a black cat took one of the feeding birds this morning 😢
We actually have a magpie and it's single offspring visit regularly. I hope that what I put out will save an egg or bird 😲.
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We saw this Deer Stag one evening from our caravan while staying at the clubs Ilfracombe site, and I promised the Wardens I would post the picture on here.
Not the best picture, but it was a in the field beyond the dog walk.
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Yes, saw a few sandmartins too but not any burrows in which they nest. The Housemartins I saw had built those typical mud nests, the likes of which you would normally & traditionally see under the eaves of houses. However, these nests were 'glued high on the sea cliffs. I just wondered if this was a new phenomena given the fact that less houses these days are Housemartin friendly. When I was a child many houses and farm buildings in our village had these structures occupied by these wonderful birds.
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Returned yesterday from a trip to mid Wales, enjoyed the Carnival at Rhayder on Saturday, but very disturbed to see the reckless driving of some caravaners at the junction in the centre of town. HGV drivers managed to make some very tricky manoeuvres without mounting the pavement, while caravans were towed through at speed and several mounted the pavement with one woman being bounced across the pavement into a wall. The driver either didn't look or just drove on.
After the distraction we made our way up to the Red Kite feeding station and were delighted to see the absolutely gorgeous Leuceric Kite, white Kite in the pics. What a delight.
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Thanks OP
I was rather lucky in two ways, firstly, I was walking just behind the woman that was bumped by the caravan, so another metre and I would have been hit.
The Kite had been on the ground for a about one minute earlier, but I had not seen it until the OH pointed it out in the air. There was so many flying around that it was nearly impossible to track. However as the feeding frenzy calmed, it became easier to see. I believe there were fear when it was first sighted as a juvenile that it would be mobbed by the other Kites because if it's colour, but it seems to be tolerated.
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One free packet of Sunflower seeds and "zoom!" they're heading skywards!
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When we were at The Old Orchard CL last year we picked some of the Sunflower seeds from the flowers along the edge of the CL which we planted this Spring. When we left home for this latest trip they had grown to nearly 4ft in height. I just wonder what they'll look like when we get back in a fortnight's time?
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That's what we will do too. The lad who does our next door neighbour's garden has already asked for a few for his own garden!!
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This was a first for us. I had spotted an unusual butterfly in our garden over the last week. In flight it has a flash of bright orange but when it was resting today I managed to take a closer look and then looked it up. So this is a Jersey Tiger, not rare but not common either.
The second photo is a small slow worm, we have a lot of them in a warm compost tub so he went back in after the photo.
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I discovered this on a fuchsia munching on busy lizzy leaves. I think it might be a hawk moth caterpillar but I'm not certain can't find an image identical.
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Think it could well be an Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar, B2.
We saw lots of Peacock and Red Admiral Butterflies today on our walk.
I guess that Autumn is just round the corner as there were well over 50 House Martins sitting on the telegraph wires close to the site yesterday & leaves are starting to go yellow and fall of the trees.Summer seems to be ending earlier than ever, unfortunately.
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Middle of August & I was watching 3 fledgling Wrens being fed by a raggedy looking Mum, geez is she ready for a rest. I hope she gets back in condition before the Autumnal weather closes in👍🏻.
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Well just had a surprise just about to fill the kettle for an evening drink and outside the kitchen window a Hoopoe walking about and pecking into the ground for insects never been that close about 3 metres, made my day but no camera to hand even OH said what a amazing bird to see.
The swallows are starting to gather around here and it is feeling autumnal in the mornings even though it has been 30C plus over the weekend. Went for a walk this afternoon and in one field full of flowers there was a lot of butterflies about a wonderful sight after all the heat we have had. A good Monday.
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We have to say Gerald the peacock. We’ve visited Lower Wensleydale Club site 3 times and he never fails to make us smile.
Last weekend he seemed to be doing quite a lot of calling - not sure he wasn’t “on the pull”
He really is an asset to an already wonderful site
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RK, good spot. Hope to be in the Brenne about 12 days time so hope there are still plenty of birds around. Swallows around the Mosel are still feeding their young so not ready to migrate yet. Sand Martins at home generally leave towards the end of September.
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Today no Hoopoe but 3 wood larks about 5 metres from one of the lounge windows busy looking for insects in the wet grass as we had 9.9mm of rain overnight very welcome and the grass is starting to green up. Got a lot of grasshoppers about now with blue or red underwings quite a flash of colour when they jump away from you when walking about.
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As we were coming down the Chapel House forest road, above Newby Bridge, this afternoon a Red Squirrel trotted across infront of me. This is the first time that we've seen one this far south in the Lakes.
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