Wildlife & Gardens

I think I've got another one. Baited the trap with some apple.

 

Illegal as it's an introduced species. Only a mad crazy wildlife lover would release such a creature.

 

Break the law. No-one's looking. Or better, take it to Lootown and stick it in a loft up there.

 

There’s having it killed and then there’s torturing the poor little bugger.

 

Might have done so twice. My logic being that it came in from local countryside so I'm just returning it to where it came from. Moog is the killer......

 

Wonderful Chris Packham programme on Wednesday.
Walking to Winchester Cathedral and recollecting about his father,who sadly died this year.
Funny, poignant and beautiful wildlife as ever.
Do watch it if you can.

 

Hey @Smudger I finally got to see a merlin .....in Iceland !!! 4 separate ones in fact. Great views and photos. We were so lucky with the wildlife sightings there so here are a few photos inc one of the merlins, arctic fox (so lucky with that), gyr falcon at distance, ptarmigan, humpback whale, puffin, golden plover, seal. We saw so much it's going to take me ages to sort out/edit the photos...!

 

Not bad @The undeniable truth

I can go one better though with a lizard and a squirrel the size of a cat at Woburn Center Parcs this weekend.




I don’t know why they’re sideways. Pretty impressive though I’m sure you’ll agree.

 

Nice photos - amazing the way those squirrels can just shin up a vertical wall like that.

 

And that lizard, hard to tell from that but it was at least 12ft long.

 

yes great photo of the megalizard. You can see how its shredded that Scotts pine trunk to the left

 

Need to check with a staff member .
It isn’t simple and I spend 15 mins each time trying to remember how to do it !
I use my photo editing software to resize the pic to only 400 pixels length and then upload which reduces the file size accordingly and means it appears as a small pic in the posting. Not sure how you achieve this without Adobe photoshop software though. Someone should create a “sticky” or something for posters to refer to.

 

Always nice to see roe deer though they are a nuisance eating garden plants that we value !
Iceland was great but not exactly stress free. £500 on cv tests before flying out, before flying back, and then 2 days after return. A major panic on way back as we had cv tests at 1pm on Sunday, drop car at 1.45, and start checking in at 2.10pm. Cv results emailed to us but Mrs TuT was then locked out of her gmail account in the check-in queue ! No proof of negative result, you can’t board the plane. Took 30 mins to manage to verify her account guessing the answers to questions in Icelandic as the check in queue shrank. We started the final day 250 km from the airport in the middle of nowhere so near the airport was the only place we could get a qualifying test …..

 

I was in a hot air balloon when I took it.

 

Wide angle lens even then presumably

 

I've got another one too now. Not yet caught..... baited with seeds and peanut butter.

 

Great set of photos. Iceland was a regular trip for me. Went 12 years on the trot. You were indeed lucky with Arctic Fox. By no means a 'banker' that one. Where were your Merlins? A 'banker' for them for me was always from the road bridge below Godafoss waterfall. Pretty special to see them 'dive-bombing' Ravens there!

 

Saw at least 4 but best views and good photos of 3 of them.

The one above was just climbing into the hills near the start of the drive from Egilsstadir to Dettifoss in the East.

The other 2 were in the western fjords.

This one was driving between Laugarbakki to Suðureyri.


This one was near the ferry point at Brjanslaekur.

 

12 years in a row ? Sounds like you might have been a guide ? You know a lot about Cley too. KelsoHorn/CleyHorn was a guide wasn't he ? Wonder what happened to him ?

 

Beats me.

 

Got'im !
Disposed of just now. Clearly releasing 2 miles away in woodland, away from houses, would have been illegal so I've certainly not done that.

 

Looks like HighStreetHorn has died a death. RIP Kelso.

 

Very sad this morning. I feed a family of foxes each night with a sachet cat food at about an hour after dark (otherwise the magpies eat it !). Female fox. who was looking pregnant. would wait in the bushes and I would catch the reflection of her eyes in my torch light, then she'd come and eat it about 2-3 mins later sometimes while I watched from the top of the garden, otherwise evidenced in the wildlife camera. No eye reflection the last 2 nights and this morning I saw lots of kites and crows in the field next to our garden, and when I took a walk out, there were the freshly stripped bones and head of a adult fox. I presume a dog got her.

 

Oh that is bad, maybe hit by a car? I see a few unfortunately by the roads and my neighbour saw a beautiful dog fox on her way to Paradise Park on Wednesday.
Our foxes know when I put food out and Cub Laurie ( who appeared the day after my brother Laurence died) is always waiting.
Stunning creatures.

 

Unlikely as was in a field c20 yards from a fairly quiet road. Probably a dog. I'm hoping a neighbour (some have chickens) hasn't killed her and just dumped in the field where dog walkers pass through. Heard a strange howling noise a day or two before I found the body, coming from that direction, not the sound of a dog being attacked but maybe the sound of a mate howling to wake up or mourn it's partner ?

 

Yes maybe.
Horrid.

 

Really disturbing news from the Wildcat Haven charity just now.
Finlay the wildcat has been taken from his secure unit by four police officers and a vet.
The charity have been raising Finlay since finding him orphaned they think aged four weeks.
Terrible.

 

Disgraceful stuff and all so that hunters have more birds to shoot. It's truly pathetic why hunting for pleasure of any kind is still allowed in this day and age.