Wildlife & Gardens

Cheek - they had already been edited -) !!

 

Spent an hour with this baby blue t1t after it crashed into our kitchen window. Having recovered it didn’t know what to do and so refused to fly away until its parents came back for it. Which they did …..45 mins later…..and after lots of calling and several flybys it flew into a tree and a parent flew straight to it. I guess if they hadn't come back I would now be a step-dad !
Then a green woodpecker arrived 6 feet away from the same window to hammer the living daylights out of an ants nest.
I have great video of the wp and the t1t calling and refusing to fly away from my hand but it seems impossible to upload video presume due to the file sizes....

 

They're often just dazed for a bit and will eventually fly off.

I've got some stickers on my patio doors which seems to have stopped the problem at meister manor

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Humming-Static-Window-Stickers/dp/B082WGCFQ3/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1I8FT45RK7QCG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.t_-2X11Hk9lVG0Xy4T8lkQtq0OjvPZjYP_dvL8mb4KNUj8I5KkS06qvwMYCZg9bxtkcLkKvJEPPGqrPeMvfRkbHfaEBKLn_TZRFwRsO45rllPtMQ2UaV6xjvLE4hS99dJhM0QFkj7NJ_u1MUciF-jfBplN1NBq6ohXEOxAxyx-yvkcnINSGU85caFNW4LvqrqkswWcqgVi6igCgcQgnaS7pMu4CUBR5yE47Gx0M0JQgXFUjMS1P8CRL-Xvajky9N0bYHKoaaq3VkdNe7d7FVb6IutdMJM1Hs9JwGdZiISso.TjIU0LHz0gEbrhsGHN5t4dpp3Fr7-T6UuFDzINjSTE0&dib_tag=se&keywords=bird+strike+stickers&qid=1718709876&sprefix=birdstrike+stic,aps,574&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

 

We have the same but have a lot of glass. To be fully effective they suggest gaps between the silhouettes should be less than 2 feet which just isn’t practical.

 

Finally I have my allotment. Been up there over the weekend to dig out the last persons final crop, (mostly tomatoes), dig over some beds and lay some sheeting to suppress the weeds. It's not a bad one compared to what I could have received.

Since being on the waiting list I acquired a nice greenhouse but the plot came with one, (but no shed). Now on the lookout for a battered shed on marketplace!

 

Given the recent weather, have you considered a paddyfield ?

 

Great shout. Add some chickens, onions and curry leaf and I can literally grow my own chicken katsu curry.

 

I would not put plastic on the soil. It’s rubbish as a long term weed suppressant. I would us Napalm. If not available, a 3 inch layer of stable manure will be sufficient to kill off most weeds. The deep rooted ones will make I through the mulch, but in a weakened state making them easy yo just pull out.

 

3 posts of photos from our recent trip to Chile. WOW what a fabulous place ! Amazing scenery and we were so, so lucky with wildlife sightings. Pumas, king penguins, condors, albatrosses, dolphins, hog-nosed skunk, pudu (rare, and world's smallest deer), giant hummingbird (world's largest), guanacos, 2 types of fox ....even an elephant seal which are supposed to be much further south than we reached. 4 days in the Santiago region, 3 further south in the Lakes/volcanoes region, 2 on Chiloe island, 3 in the far south in Torres del Paine and then 2 on Tierra del Fuego island, with lots of travelling in between.

Andean condor, nr Farellones, nr Santiago
Andean condor, Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine
Andean condor, Punta Arenas to Torres del Paine
Austral pygmy-owl, Campana NP, near Santiago
Black-necked swan, Chiloe Island
Burrowing owl, Batuco wetlands, nr Santiago
Crested caracara, nr Petrohue, Lake district region
Culpeo fox, Pehoe hotel, Torres del Paine
Elephant seal, South of Punta Arenas
Giant hummingbird, Laguna Mantagua, nr Concon

 

2 of 3
Giant monkey puzzle tree forest, Conguillio National Park, Lake district region
Green-backed firecrown, Tepuhueico Park, Chiloe island
Guanaco, Torres del Paine
Humboldt penguin, Chiloe Island
King Penguin, Parque Pinguino Rey, Tierra del Fuego
King Penguin, Parque Pinguino Rey, Tierra del Fuego
Lesser rhea, Torres del Paine
Magellanic penguin, Chiloe Island
Magellanic woodpecker, Conguilio National Park, Lake District
Patagonian hog-nosed skunk, Puerto Natales to Punta Delgada rd, Patagonia

 

3 of 3
Peregrine falcon, Puerto Natales to Punta Delgada rd, Patagonia
Pudu, Tepuhueico Park, Chiloe island
Puma, Torres del Paine
Puma, Torres del Paine
Puma, Torres del Paine
Southern grey fox, Parque Pinguino Rey, Tierra del Fuego
The Hotel Pehoe, Torres del Paine, Patagonia
Torres del Paine, Patagonia
Torres del Paine, Patagonia

 

Amazing pictures. I am incredibly jealous.

 

Parakeets seem to be appearing in Rickmansworth. I believe this is bad news for the native
d1 cky birds and have approached the council to see if they will arrange a cull of the new squawkers before they get out of hand. Perhaps they could bump off some of the bloody deer and squirrels that are running amok round here too.

 

Unfortunately UK has given up on parakeet culls now I believe as there are just so many in the UK that any attempt to stop them invading Ricky would be futile. Focus seems to be directed at smaller colonies of monk parakeets to prevent that species getting a hold and expanding in similar numbers.

 

Valuable intelligence, Undy, thank you. Leaving aside their bad habits, they don't say much etc etc, how do I tell a monk parakeet from the more common type?

 

Yours will be the "ring-necked" (aka "rose-ringed") parakeets. Other parrots/parakeets are only in small colonies (there was a monk parakeet colony in Borehamwood IIRC). https://trogtrogblog.blogspot.com/2022/03/bird-of-week-ring-necked-parakeet.html see map at the bottom of this blog to show how well-spread they are these days....

 

Christ they're everywhere! I remember seeing some in one of the London parks (I can't remember which one. St James's?) years ago. People were feeding them like pigeons.

 

When the Chelsea Flower Show moved to September a couple of years ago because of Covid, you could hear them everywhere in the trees around the showground as the sun was setting. It was quite atmospheric, actually.

 

There used to be a huge roost of several thousand at a rugby club ground in London - I went to see it perhaps 20 years ago. Presume it's still there.
EDIT - Esher rugby club per this (anyone can edit wiki). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Britain "According to the London Natural History Society, in the early 2000s the largest population of rose-ringed parakeets was believed to exist in the South London suburbs, where the birds roosted principally in Esher Rugby Ground, Esher until 2007 (Esher Rugby Club named its women's team "The Parakeets" in a tribute to the birds)."

 

They do have a very distinctive squawk. I've just done some googling and apparently Parakeets aren't aggressive birds but their colouring and size plus the racket they make, scares the other birds off and they take over.

 

If you go to a match at Fulham you can see loads of them in the park you walk through between the tube station and the ground.

 

Had a few scorpions here, but got a spray and hope these ****ers can do I. Apparently, a nasty bite.

Might have come in new furniture packaging as not really time of year. But, had 5 around and they aren't small.

Mrs has gone mental about them but we'd fumigated once as it is recently.

Think they came in the boxes.

Two were hand size, not nice to see.

 

Which part of Hertfordshire is this?

 

I'm well away from my Welwyn Village upbringing!

 

They live in monastries?

 

Spectacular return today after 15 months in the wilderness in exile ?

 

Suspended?

 

I wish. Instead it is a more boring case of acute depression and finding the time and ability to escape from 24/7; 365 day sole caring.

 

Sorry to hear, and make light of your absence !

 

So sorry to hear you've been having a tough time. Hope your return to the forum is a sign that you are coming out the other side

 

Thanks both. Probably the wrong thread to go into details but I am just trying to find some kind of positive somewhere - although why it should be connected to Watford FC I cannot imgine

 

Are seagulls daft? We get one comes crying out for food so when we put something out for him instead of just eating it he shouts his shrill cry so lots of others come down and then he fights them for the food.

 

Maybe he just wanted an excuse for a fight ?

 

They all seem to do it - maybe they are Luton fans

 

A few wildlife photos from recent holiday to Cape Town & The Kalahari. 1 of 2.

Meercat, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa
Meercat, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa
Orange-breasted sunbird, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Cape Town, South Africa
Cape sugarbird, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, Cape Town, South Africa
Meercat, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa
African penguin, Boulders beach, Cape Town, South Africa
Orange-breasted sunbird, Rooi-Els, South Africa
White rhino, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa
Lions, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa.
South African oryx, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa