My friend was sitting on his patio watching two squirrels chase each other up in a very high pine. One of them slipped and dropped into the surrounding brush. Although it didn't make a sound, he said his two cats which appeared to have been fast asleep instantly snapped awake and focused on the spot and then headed that way.
My annual "first frogspawn this year" photo. Glad I add it to this thread as it helps me compare dates.
Despite all the rain this winter, I attached a 12V battery to the wires at the base of our Canadian Maple and...surprise,surprise...our camera/computer birdbox fired up and we are getting good pictures! This will give us something else to do when we get fed up with watching the news.
Like you Owen, not exactly in my back garden. But at work today, a family of young swifts started to dive-bomb me for fun. It was great to watch and quite sweet really. As has been said before on the forum lately, wildlife are clearly enjoying the lack of humans around the place due to coronavirus.
Either that or you have started to attract insects ! And it isn't just in the great outdoors 'Dancing' mice spotted on quiet Tube platform
Not a picture but reports of a noise but I think this is the best place. My cat has a noise she makes when she is outside and wants to come in. It is different from the other noises she makes. She often makes it outside my study window and I get out of my chair and open the porch door. Increasingly I have done this only to find that the cat isn't there - I've put it down to a sort of feline knock and run - today I discovered what's really happening. Opening the door, whilst there was no cat, the noise continued, intermingled with bird calls etc. Some bird is mimicking the cat - probably a starling although blackbirds also mimic other species. It is remarkably good the only way to tell is that it hasn't got the volume of the moggy. I believe the more varied is the bird's song the more attractive as a mate it becomes hence the mimickery, however can't help wondering if pretending to be a cat might be counter productive!
Does the UK permit domestic cats to roam at will? We have a wide variety of wildlife in our immediate neighbourhood. Coyotes, foxes, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks along with dozens of wild bird species. Marauding domestic cats are the biggest threat to those populations but thankfully, the coyotes do find them to be delicious and are effective in keeping the numbers down. For the few that remain, a live trap and swimming lessons works very well.
Domestic cats are a pain in the arse. They destroy wildlife & shit in my front garden. Last night in back garden I had 3 hedgehogs wandering around where I was sat & 2 species of bat flying around my head. I've ordered a bat detector so I can listen to them.
This is a photo of a bird that landed on my neighbour’s roof. I have no idea what kind of bird it is and the photo isn’t the best, but does anyone know what bird it is? I’ve never seen one before, but it was quite large with a crown on its head.
The nest we are monitoring in our garden contains 4 great tit eggs and 5 blue tit eggs. "Mum" is a blue tit and will incubate them all for another 3 or 4 days before they start hatching. She will feed & nurture them all, as if they were all her babies. Isn't nature wonderfull?
Yes, it was taken in the US. Looking at some pictures of Great Blue Heron's online you might be right. The photo was taken a few years ago, but I recall that it had more of a crown of feather's on its head,which you can vaguely see in the photo, than the ones I saw online, Thanks for your response.
When the wildlife in your backyard can have you for lunch. p.s. - This grizzly was tranquilized, not killed.
Not very exotic I realise, but the noise outside this morning told me it was that starling “feed the young ‘uns” time of year again! And this was just a fraction of the mob. Is it me, or do starling young always look bigger than mum and dad? Apologies for the poor quality, I only had my phone camera to hand. Oh, added bonus for you all, there are a lot of ants in this piccy.
