What have you seen
Comments
-
I've never seen one, that I know of, but as we get lots of Starlings in our garden I'll keep a sharp lookout when we get home next weekend.
.Heard more cuckoos today when out walking in Swynnerton Old Park today, also spotted a Treecreeper while we sat having our picnic.
0 -
"B List Drama!"
Just what we needed on a very hot day, a swarm of bees arrived in one of our apple trees.
Much phoning around and internet searching for help then via a local web site we located two people. Luckily the first bee keeper was at home. Hope we didn't ruin his Sunday lunch. He was very interesting when we had a chat.
Bees were caught via a ladder into the tree and dropped into a box with smoker nearby. They'll be collected this evening, checked for diseases and hopefully rehomed in a vacant local hive.
Blow me if I didn't spot a giant hornet later but it was "one of ours!"
2 -
Well snap brue. I took these on 1st and 3rd June but gone by 5th, whilst walking in our local estate. There has been/is a nest of wild bees under a nearby fallen tree trunk so I assume they came from there. Once I'd seen it I recalled, a swarm of bees in June us worth a Kings ransom. Hope yours have settled and have been collected.
I've always had a hankering for beekeeping but doesn't fit in with motorhoming 🤣🤣🤣
Our resident hedgehogs, we have at least 2, are eating us out of house and home so hopefully they have family. We are very lucky here despite idiot drivers, can't read large 20mph signs on the tarmac 😤😤 and are often double that - don't start me!, the neighbourhood has a thriving population of hedgehogs.
Whilst sorting bookshelves in the wee small hours the other night dog was going crazy when the fox visited she was up for it 😱😱. Luckily by then I'd called her in and locked the doors. Plenty on my mind, but sleeping, when dog was barking and growling at the front door, nothing to see back or front but I let her give voice as there has been some nighttime activity by lowlife. Couldn't resettle so used the time productively 🤣. Mind you local neighbourhood fb page had comment about barking dog - had pleasure in saying she was guarding!
I'm very proud of our garden at the moment. Rambling rector is beginning to make a fabulous show. No photo at the moment. We'll I just did one! Doesn't really do it justice but another couple of days......
Managed a sit in the shade by the pond for a bit this afternoon watched 3 Common newts swimming and a great crested one. Sadly a decapitated common shrivelled on the edge. Despite a leak which has considerably reduced the water level things are thriving in it.
2 -
Had a ride out today and went down some steep hills to get to the river Dordogne a lot of butterflies about then stopped at a lake with picnic area and have not seen so many dragonflies, broad bodied darters, and damselflies over most of the lake and quite a big lake must have been hundreds if not thousands what a sight and did managed a couple of photos but not on here yet will try when we get home next week.
A lot of red kites around here more than buzzards.
0 -
MiL mentioned that her father used to be the local "man to call" in the event of a bit of bee trouble. He used to go around with his bee suit and smoker and collect them. Ha da few hives of his own. He was a Head Gardener at a "House" so probably had experience of them.
We had a drive up to the Moors today and saw a Female Hen Harrier quartering a bit of land. Also a Red Kite high up on the Moors as well.
1 -
Bakers2 A Quotation, if I may, from my late Father { another Apiarist ! } but where he got it from you'll have to ask the bees
A swarm of bees in May is worth a bale of hay
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon
But a swarm of bees in July is not worth a butterfly.
All purely based on the value of honey + the profit thereof
P.S. / Edit :-- Its always good to let the neighbours know that the pup was disturbed by strange folks around ~~ Might keep other residents on the look out
0 -
Just had a visit from one of our local, big, crows, a rather clever one at that. He arrived in the garden with what looked like half a slice of bread in his beak. He warily looked around and then went up onto the bird bath and dunked the bread in the water until it was soft enough to eat more easily.
This isn't the first time he's done this. We saw this behaviour on a few occasions last year. Presumably, probably, the same crow as he comes on his own so no other to demonstrate the tactic to.
2 -
Had a pair of Ring Ouzels fly in front of us on Tuesday just after we had left the viewpoint outside Bort-les-Orgues not seen them for a few years and on the train trip yesterday a Honey Buzzard was flying low around a local wood, also plenty of unusual flowers which I had to look up so a good trip and plenty of photo stops.
2 -
Had a walk over the moors near Middleham today, lots of blue butterflies about, assume to be common blue. Some small heaths about, too.
On site, we always put a bird feeder up. Here, at Hawes Club site, I’ve had to refill it 3 times already, in 6 days. Just the usual suspects, of course, but plenty of them. 🙂
0 -
Read a report in todays Daily Rag that the Painted Lady has earned the distinction of the longest known migration flight of any insect. They come from below the sub Sahara.
Would personally have thought the Monarch Butterfly might have had that record but I'll defer to the experts. Whichever, both are extraordinary feats of endurance for such small wildlife.
1 -
Had a lot of these popping up over the last 3 weeks, but on a more serious note, if you look very carefully you can just see the seal bobbing about, lots of them at Godrevy, beautiful place, but must be manic July & August
0 -
Foulshaw Moss today, good views of the ospreys. The 3 chicks are pretty well grown now and quite active in the nest.
Plenty of dragon and damselflies about, unable to identify most of them, they don’t keep still! Also saw a lot of tree sparrows, a bird we never get at home. 🙂
1 -
Dengie peninsula today, corn buntings, grey wagtails, a cuckoo and a buzzard picking up a baby rabbit right in front of us. I know they're all part of the food chain but sometimes it's nature in the raw. Lots of holly blues around too, hot weather encouraging them out.
2 -
Had a good walk this morning before weather changes again and saw 2 Golden Orioles but heard at least 4 more singing and a Hoopoe flew over and landed in a oak tree right next to me lovely to see so close, also heard 2 sets of calls from Turtle Doves so looks like we have got at least 4 or more now, Nightingale still singing and the Cuckoo, plenty of butterflies about, now the wind has picked up and very cloudy but muggy.
2 -
Sitting here in the kitchen doodling away on the computer, looked up out of the window onto the raised embankment behind the cottage and 3 Hares dashed across the width of the window, one after the other.
This in addition to the Green Woodpecker feeding on the newly mown lawns this morning whilst the Red Kite glided over about head height to us.
2 -
If anyone is interested and presently at Baltic Wharf.
The Avon gorge peregrine juveniles (3) are honing their skills along the Portway (A4) just past the suspension bridge where the sloping slabs are painted upon. Mid to late afternoon seems to be a favoured time.
Also a family of Kestrels are active near the Observatory near the bridge.
1 -
We had a adult Peregrine fly over our car as we were parked in Leclerc in Villefrance and very low just did not have chance for photo, also plenty of red kites about they seemed to like that area possibly as it is quite hilly.
OH has cut the field and the birds are enjoying it looking for insects, song thrushes, wood larks, kestrel, starlings with young ones and even the local domestic doves from a neighbours house.
1 -
+1, gravy makes it into an ordinary pie👍🏻. Beans & sweetcorn compliment it👏🏻👏🏻
0 -
Heretics! 😛
0 -
It makes it almost palatable😝😝
0 -
Came down to find this almost translucent beauty on a conservatory window . It had changed windows when I returned with my phone and wasn't so translucent on this window. Originally all I could see at first was the black outline.
A box tree moth, can't recall seeing one before.
3
