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Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 14819

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 23 7:32 am Post subject:
Saw a couple of deer in the woods yesterday and saw either a pair of buzzards or kites, but couldn't make it out as they were above the trees and hard to see tails. A raven flew over too. Think the other birds were sheltering as it was damp with a north wind, so a bit chilly.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 23 6:03 am Post subject:

deer are fun and Odin's raven is my sort of bird, i did not know you had them down your way, i have only met wild ones in Wales and the Lakes

mr nightingale has a very nice territory and no rival, nor does he have a ladygale so far, but he is wearing his wedding suit and the reception is pre-booked

the sammissons have reopened a grain store, i am not sure if they are using it as lunch, or they are only developing another bunker from the same entrance
there does not seem to be much transit to the drynest so i reckon extending the treasury is the most probable explanation of the activities

they have about half a bucket of rather nice soil in the tailings heap, for tiny beasts they are ace tunnellers

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 14819

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 23 8:43 am Post subject:

We are pretty sure they are ravens, but hard to tell as we only hear them or see them flying over, so scale is tricky to judge.

Deer are all right, and of the ones around, roe are the best, but they can be very destructive. A herd of fallow deer can destroy any land they browse in a night. We have to fence the roe deer out of newly cut coppice or they damage it rather badly. We get lots of natural regeneration in the wood, but they deer often nip the growing tips out of the seedlings, so most have a kink where they have started a new leader.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 23 12:09 pm Post subject:
ask jam lady or me for recipes some are good in a landscape, it does need wolves or folk to keep it to some rather than lots>no food> few and a degraded environment iirc about half current numbers might be about right

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Mar 09, 23 12:24 pm Post subject:

ps ravens sound different to other corvids and they are huge even if far away

squark squark

kite vs buzzard is a detail thing for shape in silhouette

just for fun they adjust their feathers when flying and parallax issues can swap their passport photos a treat

trickier than little brown jobbers as they say in the trade

if you have decent light and a view even with distant ones colour is the easiest way, kites are red shifted in the browns compared to buzzards

ps buzzards are bold with sunbathers, ummm, that still disturbs me a bit

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 14819

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 23 8:56 am Post subject:

I usually see kites and buzzards in the air, so hard to tell the colour as a silhouette. I did see one fairly low recently and the way it moved its tail to steer itself was amazing. the best are kestrels as they can keep their heads perfectly still and hover while looking for prey. Haven't seen any lately, but we used to have a lot around the motorway edges when they were scrubby.

Even in winter it is hard to see birds in flight through the tree canopy, and impossible during summer.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 14819

Posted: Mon Mar 13, 23 9:21 am Post subject:
Travelled down to Dorset yesterday and lots of mirabelle plum in flower along stretches of the road. Also saw quite a lot of primroses, although they aren't really in flower with us yet.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 23 10:41 pm Post subject:

spring is springing up here as well, it has been 5 seasons in a week on the NE coast, last couple of days spring sprung

york seems to be heading to spring, between the two it was variations on a few seasons looking out of a train

birdtown news, speckly and a sammison checked the kitchen was open again

foreign birdtown news is fun and will follow soon with snaps
it was nice that a similar but different flock just accepted me much like mine
far more diverse than the survivors here, i suspect the heat event was not as extreme there, as the little species are the same sort of numbers and as varied as a few years ago if a slightly different mix for lifestyles and migrations

more curlews than i have heard in decades, odd looking honky things in the salt marshes, things in trees and rather critter friendly gardens and buildings, exposed shore birds and the mud pokers have plenty of resources, of the near shore floaters i have no recent report, i stayed in the easy bits and avoided challenge to wrecked old man and delicate machine

the birds i met included a few who obliged for the camera and plenty who just treated me as harmless not useful, i need to upload and edit one or two or three or many

snaps, from a camera screen peek a few may be ok

the random tree creeper next to a tea and cake yard was rather fun, no snap of him or her, no snap of a rather nice honky formation, nice snaps of daws and a few other things

ok , stuff finding wires etc, i know where the slots are, get media etc

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 23 4:24 am Post subject:
it was a near miss no malice but a fair bit of misjudgement by daw

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 14819

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 23 10:04 am Post subject:
We were concerned that we hadn't seen the robin in our 'yard' recently, but the crumbs we left for it were disappearing, and not easy for a mouse to get to. Have now heard it singing on the CCTTV, so it is around. Things seem to be shooting here as well. It has been mild the last couple of days and some of the leaf buds are starting to show signs of green.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 23 6:04 pm Post subject:

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Mar 18, 23 6:20 pm Post subject:
best i could manage at under 2Â mg full fat is huge, the detail one started at close to 15Â mg and is fairly clear what it is reducing the data enough to transfer it and enhancing the information to retain the important stuff is a bit tricky it seems to work, i will practise can you id the bird from the detail snap?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Mar 22, 23 6:28 am Post subject:

the nightingale is still seeking a special friend

the sparrows and sammisons have forgiven me for leaving them for a week with a week's food

they may have feasted and then worried

new dik seemed quite relaxed yesterday

-------------------------------------------

into the realm of the slimey hoard

this winter there has not been more than a week, on two occasions, without active leopard slugs in the yard

having got to know them better, they had an undeserved reputation and are now part of a healthy ecosystem

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 43813
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Mar 22, 23 8:23 am Post subject:
in the last ten mins i saw mr and mrs sammison, then mr sammison and 2 juvenile sammisons i thought the wee ones had moved out, but they are here, healthy and seemingly happy on the estate

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 14819

Posted: Wed Mar 22, 23 8:43 am Post subject:
Nice they are still with you. I noticed a marked increase in bird song in the woods on Monday. Could make out blackbird, robin and one I couldn't identify. Very rarely see any of them so mainly has to be done by sound. Sadly I am very bad at that. Also saw a kite again when going down the road yesterday. Not sure if they are nesting locally, but certainly about very frequently.

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