I enjoy going whale watching and although it's hit or miss that we see a whale close enough to see much whale, there are always thousands dolphins playing off the coast of SoCal, so the trip is always a success in my eyes. And yes, they treat bow waves like play grounds.
I see a lot of birds but very few mammals - a few rascally rabbits, the occasion muntjac or roe deer - and very rarely, a fox or a weasel.
I saw my first ever chiffchaff this morning - I've heard them quite often, but I actually saw this one. I saw my first ever redpoll a just over a week ago, at the The Lodge (the RSPB's headquarters) nature reserve . Locally there are lots of wildfowl at our local Country Park, some bright green invaders (Let the Reader understand), and the usual parkland/suburban avifauna. Oh, and many Red kites!
I went out for a walk on Monday and saw a lovely sulfur crested cockatoo in the street tree a couple of houses down. I didn't have luck getting a photo of him, however I am sure there will be other opportunities. Yesterday I rushed out to the worm farm with scraps and could see my streetlight over the roof of the house. There was another cockatoo sitting there and we looked at one another. Then overhead came the most terrible screeching and a whole flock of cockies flew over. I tossed the stuff into the worm farm and rushed inside. It felt as though I was about to be in an Aussie remake of The birds. I haven't moved so fast in ages!
Plenty of bird life in inner Sydney: magpies, cockies, kookaburras & noisy miners. There are brushtail possums in the trees nearby but they are strictly nocturnal. Woe betide you if they get into the roof cavity as they stomp around and grunt/ growl at each other. At sunset the flying foxes are out in droves flying from the Botanical Gardens to Centennial Park.
We have the same (?) Great Barred Owl living in our backyard, more or less. I think it nests in a tall tree of our neighbors, but hunts in our backyard, where we have a huge buffet of squirrels, rabbits, and voles due to the fruit and veg we plant but never get to eat.
I was horrified to read this morning that the lovely superb fairy wren could become extinct in 30-40 years, due to climate change. I guess the only upside is that I won't be here to see it.
These tiny birds nest in our jasmine vine and flit around so quickly that they excite our cats. I hope they will defy the odds ...
We have a vixen with 7 cubs at the end of our garden. We’ve watched her suckling them and the cubs rolling and play fighting. It’s like our own episode of Springwatch!
We have a vixen with 7 cubs at the end of our garden. We’ve watched her suckling them and the cubs rolling and play fighting. It’s like our own episode of Springwatch!
We have a vixen with 7 cubs at the end of our garden. We’ve watched her suckling them and the cubs rolling and play fighting. It’s like our own episode of Springwatch!
Only if they are mostly eaten by birds of prey and rampaging badgers
Lucky enough to see a cormorant in one of my local parks today, a rare bird in these parts. The appearance of a cormorant is always welcomed here because our city's heraldic crest is a mythical creature said to be based on a cormorant or an eagle, or an eagle crossedwith a cormorant.
I'm fortunate to be in a place where seeing cormorants isn't that unusual.
My great joy at the moment is that I've found a place not far from where I live where I can watch a small flock of Ruddy Turnstones. Often they are literally a couple of feet away. I guess it won't be long before they fly north to their arctic breeding grounds. I'll miss them.
My lovely Turnstones have gone! I went to the stretch of seafront where they have been for the winter and they aren't there any more! I knew this day was coming but it is still very sad.
Have a safe migration and a successful breeding season, my lovelies. I hope to see you again in the Autumn.
We'll probably have left before the swifts arrive to nest over the road. But we'll be back before they head off again, screaming at the tops of their voices.
I don't put much food out for the birds, and not regularly - I just brush crumbs off my plates outside the kitchen door occasionally. This morning, though, a female blackbird was waiting for me, and came right up to the windowledge to look in at me, so the birds obviously notice what I'm doing!
The reed beds at the local lake are abuzz with chirping but the reed bunting were all hiding from sight. I saw an egret there a couple of weeks ago.
I noticed a holly blue butterfly and an orange tip butterfly while sitting in the garden this afternoon.
I don't put much food out for the birds, and not regularly - I just brush crumbs off my plates outside the kitchen door occasionally. This morning, though, a female blackbird was waiting for me, and came right up to the windowledge to look in at me, so the birds obviously notice what I'm doing!
Along the canal that I to cycle to work on there is a bloke who regularly throws food down for the birds and I'm convinced they recognise him and approach before he gets it out of his bag.
Staying on the Isle of Mull and red deer are coming down from the hill to graze the grass around the cottage every evening. One is a particularly fine stag with six points per antler, which I think makes it a "Royal"
We had a fire in our local wetland a few months ago and since then I hadn't seen any of the blue waterfowl that lived there. I was so thrilled to see one on the footpath the other day, hopefully that will mean there will be others, yet to return.
I opened my curtains the other morning and was delighted to see one of the little local wrens hopping about, on the ground, just under the low hedge. I normally see them in the back garden, in and out of the jasmine there, and the odd one on my azalea by the front door, or en masse in the street tree, I love watching them, they are so fast!
On Monday, the Knotweed and I took off to a nearby RSPB reserve to see what we could see, and to test the Merlin birdsong app.
We saw reed bunting in numbers neither of us have seen before, yellowhammer, lapwings mobbing* a red kite, glossy ibis, possibly a cuckoo in flight, and heard sedge, reed and grasshopper warblers. Also heard a bittern booming for the first time but best of all saw the first two swifts! Now I am checking our nestbox cam far too often...
One of the few advantages of my current situation is that I can go off in the daytime to do stuff midweek. Later today I'm taking the Maternal Knotweed out to the same reserve as - despite spending years surveying wetlands - she's never heard a bittern. I suspect there will be less song than in the evening, but we will see (hear).
* my fat forefinger initially registered this as lapwings nobbing a red kite, which is a whole different thing!
The Merlin app is really helpful, especially when you can hear a bird but can't see it. I use it all the time.
A few weeks ago, my daughter and I went on a guided birdsong walk at a nearby NT reserve. It was great listening to so many different birds and being given guidance on how to identify them. One of the other people on the walk was a woman in her twenties who was clearly already quite a birder. She got really excited when she spotted a dipper by the river and so we all spent the next 5 minutes imitating the dipper by bobbing up and down.
I use Merlin too. That said, last year I was walking up the hill and a flock of small birds came past cheeping. (With hindsight, possibly linnets.) I checked Merlin and Merlin thought about it, and after a while came up with, "maybe a greenshank?" So it is fallible.
I went to the Queens Botanical Gardens yesterday, and aside from the normal city birds, saw robins and a blue jay. The blue jay is really unusual in the city so that made me happy.
Thanks to a display at the local library I discovered that an insect that was a childhood favourite of mine is endemic to Aotearoa/NZ. It's the Stick Insect, of which there are about 11 varieties.
They are call stick insects because they resemble small green or brown sticks and they eat leaves.
Before I saw a couple in the display case I hadn't seen any for years.
Yesterday's trip to the reserve was a splendid success, thoroughly enjoyed by both of us. A real treat. Hearing the curlews took her right back to her childhood, and she heard the bittern for the first time.
There are now a few swifts wheeling above our house. Summer is here!!
Thanks to a display at the local library I discovered that an insect that was a childhood favourite of mine is endemic to Aotearoa/NZ. It's the Stick Insect, of which there are about 11 varieties.
Aren't there are a couple of thousand varieties of stick insect across the world? Is it 11 species endemic to NZ?
When I was a teenager, we kept stick insects, although it did rather get out of control! We fed them on bramble leaves (easily available) and they bred like mad.
Hooray! Just spotted the first swifts of the season. We're off to Canada in a week and I didn't think I would get to see them before we left but just spotted two zooming around high up in the sky.
The European blackbird pair that roosts in the garden next door, and for whom I put out a feeding station over the winter, had a clutch of three eggs earlier this spring.
Three babies hatched and fledged, but sadly, only one has made it to the finish line of being able to feed itself. I believe the neighborhood cat got two of them while they were on the ground, I had to chase it a few times.
The surviving baby needs to be schooled in feeder etiquette, it makes a helluva mess pooping everywhere it eats. The parents are discreet enough to eat, hop over to the fence, and poop there.
I went for a walk by the coast yesterday and at one point I watched a seal stick its head out of the water, not far from the beach, and it gave a nearby bloke on a paddling board a very hard stare. Then it sank back down under the water and just disappeared.
Walked up a local hill this afternoon, looking for some archaeology after seeing an aerial photo. I was disappointed by the lack of archaeology, but I did see a hare and a red kite!
I was in Tennessee for a few days this past week. I heard, and recorded a bird that sounded very like a Carolina Wren. The song was different from the Carolina Wrens here where I live, so I checked my bird identification app. That's exactly what it was, but with a bit of a 'regional accent'!
We are in a small French seaside village. In the category of "things you don't expect to see", earlier this afternoon, we spotted a mole scuttling down the street. No idea what it was doing there.
We have been hearing about a bear destroying pool screens in other parts of our neighborhood, and just two days ago, we heard of a bear about four houses down from us!
About three weeks ago, I saw what looked like a red headed iguana running across a parking lot. I thought I was seeing things, but no! It's an Agama, and they are invasive here!
Daughter was riding her bike last night, and saw the big owl that chased her a month or so ago. She keeps well clear of that one!
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BTW Mrs Gramps just saw a fox go through our back yard.
I saw my first ever chiffchaff this morning - I've heard them quite often, but I actually saw this one. I saw my first ever redpoll a just over a week ago, at the The Lodge (the RSPB's headquarters) nature reserve . Locally there are lots of wildfowl at our local Country Park, some bright green invaders (Let the Reader understand), and the usual parkland/suburban avifauna. Oh, and many Red kites!
These tiny birds nest in our jasmine vine and flit around so quickly that they excite our cats. I hope they will defy the odds ...
Good spot. I used to see wasp spiders, which as the name suggests, look like wasps.
That's a lot of cubs!
Only if they are mostly eaten by birds of prey and rampaging badgers
My great joy at the moment is that I've found a place not far from where I live where I can watch a small flock of Ruddy Turnstones. Often they are literally a couple of feet away. I guess it won't be long before they fly north to their arctic breeding grounds. I'll miss them.
My lovely Turnstones have gone! I went to the stretch of seafront where they have been for the winter and they aren't there any more! I knew this day was coming but it is still very sad.
Have a safe migration and a successful breeding season, my lovelies. I hope to see you again in the Autumn.
I noticed a holly blue butterfly and an orange tip butterfly while sitting in the garden this afternoon.
Along the canal that I to cycle to work on there is a bloke who regularly throws food down for the birds and I'm convinced they recognise him and approach before he gets it out of his bag.
I opened my curtains the other morning and was delighted to see one of the little local wrens hopping about, on the ground, just under the low hedge. I normally see them in the back garden, in and out of the jasmine there, and the odd one on my azalea by the front door, or en masse in the street tree, I love watching them, they are so fast!
We saw reed bunting in numbers neither of us have seen before, yellowhammer, lapwings mobbing* a red kite, glossy ibis, possibly a cuckoo in flight, and heard sedge, reed and grasshopper warblers. Also heard a bittern booming for the first time but best of all saw the first two swifts! Now I am checking our nestbox cam far too often...
One of the few advantages of my current situation is that I can go off in the daytime to do stuff midweek. Later today I'm taking the Maternal Knotweed out to the same reserve as - despite spending years surveying wetlands - she's never heard a bittern. I suspect there will be less song than in the evening, but we will see (hear).
* my fat forefinger initially registered this as lapwings nobbing a red kite, which is a whole different thing!
A few weeks ago, my daughter and I went on a guided birdsong walk at a nearby NT reserve. It was great listening to so many different birds and being given guidance on how to identify them. One of the other people on the walk was a woman in her twenties who was clearly already quite a birder. She got really excited when she spotted a dipper by the river and so we all spent the next 5 minutes imitating the dipper by bobbing up and down.
They are call stick insects because they resemble small green or brown sticks and they eat leaves.
Before I saw a couple in the display case I hadn't seen any for years.
There are now a few swifts wheeling above our house. Summer is here!!
Three babies hatched and fledged, but sadly, only one has made it to the finish line of being able to feed itself. I believe the neighborhood cat got two of them while they were on the ground, I had to chase it a few times.
The surviving baby needs to be schooled in feeder etiquette, it makes a helluva mess pooping everywhere it eats. The parents are discreet enough to eat, hop over to the fence, and poop there.
AFF
Yay! Flamingos!!!
I love Sète - had the most awesome holiday there once.
AFF
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rKFMuiHdL7YKcjF87
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rdm65Fpqbk4yZPk7A
The second video shows her entering my cat-proof feeding station. 🙂
About three weeks ago, I saw what looked like a red headed iguana running across a parking lot. I thought I was seeing things, but no! It's an Agama, and they are invasive here!
Daughter was riding her bike last night, and saw the big owl that chased her a month or so ago. She keeps well clear of that one!