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Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 25 6:53 am Post subject:
Was in the woods yesterday listening to a blackbird at various distances most of the day. Also did some ID on some grasses, and now know that I was wrong on the names of two of them. Couldn't find the one I really wanted to ID, but think it might have been sweet vernal grass.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44405
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 25 10:20 am Post subject:

iirc grasses of (britain and ?)northern europe has thousands of them, tis technical descriptions with no pictures but the definitive book(s) on the subject

you need to learn the technical terms and a bit of latin but most plant id guides have very few grasses/sedges etc

one of my sammisons is getting quite tame, i still have one hand feeding pigeon

at the mo im on antibiotics again and as they sensitize skin to uv daytime observations are rather restricted

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 25 7:04 am Post subject:

I am only concerned with those in the woods. The book I have has pictures, and Keeble Martin which I use for flower ID is also quite useful.

Sorry to hear you are on antibiotics again Dpack; hope the infection soon clears up. Nice to have even a pigeon hand feeding and nice to have a fairly tame sammison. With the sun as it is at the moment, you are probably better off inside with windows open anyway.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 9249
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 25 7:27 am Post subject:
Riding to the gallery in Culzean, heard the yellowhammer for the first time this year

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 25 7:17 am Post subject:

Nice. There was a blackbird singing quite near out open bedroom window yesterday and it was really loud. Found a bumble bee on the ground yesterday, although apparently all right, so son put it on a bramble flower and it seemed to be using its tongue, so hopefully got some nectar and more energy. Also saw a lovely red admiral sunning itself on the ground and had to get it to move as I wanted to walk through there.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 25 6:56 am Post subject:
Had a great tit land on the inside of the bedroom window yesterday. I asked it not to come in, and glad to say it didn't. Last week we had a young blackbird came and perched briefly on the outside of the kitchen door on one of the frames between the panes of glass. Not sure if it was a crash land or didn't see the glass.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44405
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Jun 22, 25 11:04 am Post subject:
short report i think i saw a hen harrier again, last sighting was about 5 wks ago the other stuff is mixed re numbers and thriving or not

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 25 3:58 pm Post subject:
That's rather special Dpack. Not likely to see one of those where I live. Blackbirds still singing well though.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44405
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 25 5:00 pm Post subject:

bird variation news and a few mammal reports

jackdaws at 1000ft in the pennines are around 60% of the size of york ones

they look just as healthy but distinctly smaller, and they also have feeder skills

i forgot to ask how the dosing of the mangy fox was going, arthur, a young one from last year returned to his human feeder with a shabby pelt

the fox folk supplied mange treatment to add to food, a smart way to do it and less traumatic than trap and dip in gamma bhc

the badgers are still around, it probably work for them as well if needs be, do badgers get mange? i dont recall seeing one

here tis as usual, a disturbing lack of insects and those who eat them,
far less birds than there were a few years back, both spp and numbers of those still present
a few things seem to be doing ok, the daws are fine and increasing the flock, the current sammisons are fine, one is getting quite "tame", the worms are better than fine

from almost none to more than many in a decade or so is ok by me

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Tue Jun 24, 25 5:09 am Post subject:
The mange treatment added to food works well. The ones we saw round the 17th century village used to look pretty bad, but now are nice and furry. Ours in the woods seem to be nice and furry.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 25 8:08 am Post subject:

The silver washed fritillaries are now around in the woods. There are a good number of whites and some others too.

A sort of wildlife; we had some children from the local school come up with the new head teacher yesterday. They wanted some wood for dens or something in their wild area and some of them may come up litter picking and generally helping where they can. I have said I will take some of them out doing flora surveys, and the head wants us to go into the school to show them some of the things we make from the woods. She is keen to get the children outside and doing things other than sit in a classroom, which has to be a good thing.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44405
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 25 10:21 am Post subject:
yep, get em young and they will be part of nature for a lifetime

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 44405
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 25 11:28 pm Post subject:
that is quite scarey an hour outside, no moths, no bats, no owl noises etc the harvest mouse by my feet indicates those were not hiding from me the 6th seems well established here

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 25 6:43 am Post subject:
We seem to have plenty of wildlife. Lots of insects flying in the woods and the garden. Birds singing; not many at the moment, but certainly blackbird, wren and something I can't identify, but we hear quite often. Lots of butterflies when the weather is good. Going dormouse surveying again today, so will report on findings, dormice or other tomorrow.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16508

Posted: Sun Jun 29, 25 7:45 am Post subject:

Went out dormouse surveying again yesterday. No dormice, but in an open area of the wood where there is a lot of low growing bramble, several silver washed fritillaries, a good number of whites, probably large whites, meadow brown and some smaller ones I couldn't identify at that distance. Also a humming bird hawk moth. Plenty of other insects including a tick which has attached itself to my arm. The surveyor identified a grass that I had taken for another, so another to add to the list; tussock hair grass, which I had taken as wood millet, but we have that too.

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