Wildlife & Gardens

I had the same issue in my last garden. Fill in one hole and they just dug another. It was like a game to them. If they wanted to come in, they were going to find a way to get in.
I also had a bumble bee nest of some sort under the lawn/turf and woke up one morning to find they'd dug a 2 feet hole in the middle of the lawn to get at the nest. Bless 'em.

 

You need a fair number of crew. But in the scheme of things, probably not that expensive. It’s just the licence fee has been hugely reduced in real terms and something has to go.

 

British biased corporation

 

Chris and Michaela say they are on ‘watch’ every season, but when have they turned back any migrants? They just welcome them as ‘seasonal visitors.’

Our Estuaries are full of them, eating British lugworms.

 

'Beavers introduced into British rivers'

More buck toothed foreign freeloaders coming to swim in our effluent

 

Don't know, only the tennis committee know although that may have changed now.
I've reported them to 'Protect the Wild'.
Filth.

 

Has anyone tried chilli powder in the seeds to deter the squirrels?

 

Has anyone tried just feeding the squirrels?

 

Yes, whichever of my neighbours leaves money nuts out for them to come and bury in our garden.

 

There's a bl**dy great horse chestnut tree at the bottom of my neighbours garden which I think half of is buried in my lawn. The new feeder appears to be a great success now, and the squirrels seem content to eat the spillage underneath.

 

In the past, yes, mixed results.
I’ve found best just to use squirrel proof feeders. The squirrels can only empty the catch trays beneath the feeders and keep them empty and clean for me ! The chicken wire spoils the pic but from the house is almost invisible. Without it the sparrow hawks have a field day !

 

I really wouldn’t recommend that. If they like your restaurant, they might choose to squat in your house. I can tell everyone from bitter experience that squirrels nesting in your loft is a complete pain in the… neck.

 

Forgot I had an electronic rat killer in the loft and left it up there for a month. What was left can only be best described as squirrel soup.

 

Just returned home to see a canary in a tree.
Wrong.

 

Yep, should be in a coalmine.

 

Are you sure it wasn't a yellowhammer ? Look very much like canaries.

 

Well it sounded like a canary.
I may not get a chance to see it again...
Just checked on the RSPB,it was definitely a canary.
No brown bits.

 

Yellowhameur you say? WTF is he doing up @I Blame Pozzo ’s tree?

 

You may well ask!

 

3 posts of wildlife photos from tip to Ghana last week. Very luck to see the tree pangolin (guide had seen 7 in 13 years of guiding) and aardvark (only 2nd he'd seen in 13 years). The 7 connected canopy walkways are the highest in Africa and terrifying for someone who is terrified of heights. We spent about 5 hours on them !





Aardvark, Mole National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0999 v8.jpg
Tree pangolin, Bonkro Community Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0057 v9.jpg
Black bee-eater, Ankasa Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0481 v9.jpg
Blotched genet, Mole National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0861 v9.jpg
Common tiger butterfly, Kakum National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0458 v9.jpg
Congo serpent eagle, Canopy walk, Kakum National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_1050 v9.jpg
Egyptian plover, Dapoya nr Mole National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0212 v9.jpg
Gambian giant pouched rat, Ankasa Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0011 v9.jpg
Grasshopper buzzard, Bonkro to Mole National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0030 v9.jpg

 

Green turaco, Kakum National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0218 v9.jpg
2 x leaf mantises of some sort
Long-tailed hawk, Canopy walk, Kakum National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0127 v9.jpg
Moth, Antwikaa, Kakum National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0816 v9.jpg
Pathfinder butterfly, Ankasa Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0389 v9.jpg
Purple roller, Mole National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0575 v9.jpg
2 x Red-throated bee-eater, Mole National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0388 v9.jpg
Rosy Bee-eater, Kakum National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0366 v9.jpg

 

Senegal bushbaby, Mole National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0962 v9.jpg
Shining-blue kingfisher, Ankasa Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0310 v9.jpg
West African crocodile, Ankasa Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0168 v9.jpg
White-bellied kingfisher, Ankasa Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0183 v9.jpg
White-faced whistling duck, Kakum NP to Ankasa NP, Ghana 2-2024 #_0140 v9.jpg
White-spotted flufftail, Antwikaa, Kakum National Park, Ghana 2-2024 #_0633 v9.jpg
Yellow-headed picathartes, Bonkro Community Forest, Ghana 2-2024 #_0051 v9.jpg

 

I come out in a cold sweat when I climb a set of step ladders so the thought of going for a stroll on that tree top walkway makes me feel physically sick. Nice pics

 

Ladders have same effect on me. I stand at the bottom. Tell myself that the 7th rung is only 5 feet off the ground, but climb and legs turn to jelly.
I watched youtube videos on that canopy walkway for weeks before we went trying to assess whether it was even worth the 40 mins uphill walk to attempt it.https://www.google.com/search?q=kak...ate=ive&vld=cid:59e48ed5,vid:ED4S-u5RmoA,st:0
Wasn't helped by reading of a similar walkway owned by the same business crashing to the floor in 2015 !!https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomeP...way-after-it-collapsed-366256#google_vignette

 

Some nice pics - I particularly like the kingfisher.
The Aardvark looks like it's been designed by a disfunctional committee - you know - overpaid CEO, dictatorial boss, assorted poorly qualified mammal designers.

 

Beautiful photos but that walkway looks horrific!

 

Thanks - both kingfisher species in that batch were new to us (after about 13 trips to Africa over the years) and quite hard to see in Africa. the light was really poor in the middle of the forest so they came out better than I was expecting !
The aardvark was really unexpected. The trip was tailor-made through Naturetrek and they had never had a customer see one in Ghana before. So sad they they are being hunted to extinction to satisfy the Chinese demand for their scales.

 

I wish I could take decent photographs. I invested in an idiot proof camera a few years ago but my snaps are still pretty dreadful

 

Snaps of what ? Depends so much what you're trying to take pics of. For pretty much everything, getting the light behind you is absolutely key. There's very little point in ever shooting into the sun for anything. For scenic shots its important to get depth by framing with something in the foreground. I can give you loads of tips if it's wildlife photography !

PS I told you you just caught me on a bad hair day.

 

Even a mediocre phone camera can take decent snaps. It's the extremes where you need a better camera or lens or both. Low light, long distance, fast moving objects as examples.
The technical aspect can pretty much be handeld automatically these days. It's the artistic that need work, correctly framing as said above getting the light direction right etc. Mind you the way AI is going I can see a lot of photography being obsolete.

Here's a picture of a puffin on a rock I took with my AI camera


https://hotpot.ai/art-generator

 

I'll stick with it! Thanks for the tips. I'll let you know if there is any improvement in results!