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buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 20 10:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Mistress Rose wrote:
They do that too. Wildlife seems to delight in being difficult for humans. I suppose it gives them some quiet amusement.


Not so quiet, necessarily, if the manic laughter from the Green Woodpecker is anything to go by

Henry

gz



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8571
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland
PostPosted: Sat Mar 21, 20 11:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

The Yaffle!! Haven't seen or heard any round here for a while

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 20 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

we had ten years with ,say,10 folk who noticed wildlife things most of the time in 30 + acres of wooded quarries and slopes.
as far as i know the many woodpeckers were seen no more than a handful of times although we sometimes knew where they were to the tree.

i must have lived in those woods for about 3 years in total and never saw one, in 60 years i have seen three but have often heard them near or far.

the thing with woodland is you can see the trees but only some bits of some of them from wherever you are and anything in a tree can be very close but out of sight from almost everywhere:lol:

i dont think they really try to hide from people, they make a proper racket on tree trunks and the ones i have seen were not bothered by me gawping at them, i recon tis mostly the dark side of the moon effect in 3D

another thing is that sometimes when they are hammering they are doing home improvements and/or checking the larder inside a hollow bit of trunk or branch which makes them rather difficult to see or even locate.

noise in woodland bounces around as there are few direct lines which makes location by hearing tricky, if you add contours, rocks, soft bits etc it makes it even harder.

to find a critter by sound needs a decent understanding of the soundscape of that environment

we even knew where some of them lived and still hardly ever saw one

Slim



Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6533
Location: New England (In the US of A)
PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 20 2:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Bit different than a pileated woodpecker then? These guys like to find loud surfaces to bang on when it's time to get territorial/find a mate....

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Sun Mar 22, 20 8:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We hear yaffles and greater spotted woodpeckers and also lesser spotted woodpeckers have been seen in a garden just down the track to the woods, so although we have only seen them once or twice on the track, we almost certainly have them too.

The greater spotted woodpeckers have two sounds; the drumming when they are staking out territory, and a fairly random and quieter tapping when they are hunting for food. Not sure which is used when dealing with nest holes, but we have a number of trees with soft parts in them, and there are excavated holes in some of them that must be woodpecker holes for nests. Later they are taken over by all sorts of things; hornets, bees, and I would think almost certainly bats.

Slim, our woodpeckers, certainly round here anyway, are quite content with drumming on trees. Yours may either have harder heads or better cushions between beak and head.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Wed Mar 25, 20 8:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

We were out in the coppice area again yesterday afternoon for a bit. It was really warm, and found quite a lot of violets coming into flower. As well as that there were a number of peacock butterflies, so think they may have all just emerged. There was also one comma butterfly, and saw two brimstones at a distance. Rather lovely yesterday in the sun, even if it made plodding up and down hill hard work.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Mar 26, 20 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

bird town is a rather nice thing to have at the mo

mr brack has now got his full adult suit and orange beak, i will look back and see how long it took from romper suit to well dressed gentleman.

the boys from late clutches of sparrows are just getting their work gear on and have been drying hay, collecting twigs and fibres etc for a selfbuild housing estate.
i think some already have set up home and started a family.

the two woodies, see suspected moider by raptor, are getting fat and seem oblivious to owt but food

i think i saw one of the pippestrelles last night but it was a maybe fleeting view and it was quite dark.

big bumble arrived yesterday and is back looking for a nest site.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 20 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

bird town is starting to look springlike with sticks and fibres and feathers in great demand
the current local part of the greater sparrow colony has about 7 pairs and a few spares as far i can tell from how they interact.
a few have mated more might have

i have slightly lost track of who some are . there have been disappearances and new kids on the block
tweed is still with us, not seen curly for ages. i will try get to know the new ones who are now fairly tame like the ones that have been resident for a while.
i had to back off a bit to let them settle with me before i start snapping them nor did putting them off their dinner seem kind

mr and mrs brack both look fine and are still both out at the same time so i guess little brackets are yet to be laid

youngi and mikii sammison are looking good and getting far more food than they could eat so they must be storing it somewhere again

some inverts knocking about but a limited number of species so far.

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 20 7:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I think we must have lost our pet robins in the garden as the current ones don't seem anything like as friendly. Either that of they are in such a hurry nest building they haven't time to be sociable. Went to the woods yesterday, but was in the yard all day so didn't see very much. No birds have set up home in the fore end loader yet. I just get the impression that the birds are holding back a bit because it has been so cold. The flowers are doing nicely. Some wood anemones even at the top end of the woods, but looks as if there are far more to come. More bluebells thinking about it, but it will depend on how mild it is I think. Currently that is not very.

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 20 8:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

sparrow news

i do not have numbers but the local flock seems about twice as big over ten years.

the local butchers sell 50 kg of seed mix a week, some will feed sparrows, my crew of sparrows + others get about 2kg+nuts and mealworms a week.
if enough of those inputs increase adult winter survival and breeding success that will have helped.

many urban gardeners, at least here, have gone "green" and leave places for invertebrates as well as not using insecticides for a "pest" and killing all the other insects as a bonus.

perhaps a bit off the wall but "austerity" might have helped as less folk had money for maintenance etc useful holes etc did not get blocked up as often as before.

as they are heavily dependent on caterpillars etc for raising chicks it seems likely than the insecticide thing has made a lot of difference to urban ones.
comparing the 'pillar curves with the sparrow ones might answer that if i was better at stats.

perhaps a big factor was that sparrows were flagged as at risk so more folk took an interest in them and did a bit(food,nest sites etc)to help their local ones.

good news the major decline seems halted, they disappeared at an alarming rate

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 20 10:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

big news in bird town

mr brack has started to do the shopping

rather than dining out he collected 3 worms and put them in his orange basket to take them home

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 20 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

mr brack seems to be panic buying

mrs brack might be down for a drink late like yesterday but he did wash the last two worms without drying them so maybe not

that last bit would be a very neat bit of behaviour if that is the reason

dpack



Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45374
Location: yes
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 20 6:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

wow mr brack just caught, wiped and rolled in soil a leopard slug .
then he took it home

ed perverse cravings?

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator


Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35056
Location: Devon
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 20 6:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

How big was the leopard slug?

buzzy



Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 20 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

And so a new rural myth is born!

"You want to watch out for they Blackbirds, zur. Round here they kills Leopards and feeds 'em to the females on the nest, that they do!"



Henry

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