What a splendid thread this is,I live outside London,and I have to say the highlight of my day,is going downstairs in the morning and be greeted by the wildlife that surrounds us.There are usually 3-4 squirrels tapping on my patio awaiting feeding,my fences are packed full of birds,also awaiting breakfast,and then I have two beautiful foxes who must sleep in my garden as they always seem to be there whatever time I rise(they get fed as well).I do fear for our wildlife,more fields going to developers more colossal road schemes,what did Joni say,Paved Paradise put up a parking lot,wont be missed until its gone.
I seem to be seeing an amazing number of Grass Snakes at the moment in the north of Enfield and south Herts area. Today I saw 2 snakes pretty close up, plus one which was sadly squashed on a very quiet country road. You can just about see a snake scuttling away in the middle of this photo
It's also surprising how many herons I see around.
Nice photo mate and it has reminded me of an incident I witnessed many years ago on a canal on Thamesmead, very much like the one in your picture. Basically, a heron was perched canal side exactly like yours in the photo. Meanwhile a pair of swans were making their way along the centre of the canal, a cob (male) in front and pen (female) immediately behind. When they got to within about 20 yards of the Heron, the Cob swan purposefully altered course towards the heron, raising it's wings slightly and adopting an aggressive posture. The heron continued to stare intently down into the water, but I wondered how close the swan would get before the heron flew off. When it got to within about 5 yards, the heron finally broke concentration and casually looked up at the swan and proceeded to open and shut it's beak violently. This made an insanely loud clacking noise, at which point the swan shat itself, immediately changed course back to the centre of the canal and away, in a rather hurried, nothing-to-see-here way. Made me chuckle and if swans had egos, this one was severely deflated. The heron just returned to it's previous intense concentration. Respect!
There was a real battle going on in my garden at lunchtime today as a Frog was intent on eating the caterpillar of a Privet Hawk Moth. The caterpillar put up an an amazing fight and perhaps surprisingly walked away, seemingly unscathed, after the frog had finally given up.
Great photos! That's a massive, and hideous caterpillar
Thanks. After that, I went back to work as I had a video call with my boss. Mrs Stig picked the caterpillar up in a dustpan (she wanted to move it somewhere to safety, but daren't touch it). She brought it into the house to show me and I had to explain to the boss what was going on. I picked it up in my fingers to show him on the video cam what the kerfuffle was about. I could barely believe the power this thing had as it wriggled in my fingers. Not sure how impressed the boss was.
Great photos! That's a massive, and hideous caterpillar
Thanks. After that, I went back to work as I had a video call with my boss. Mrs Stig picked the caterpillar up in a dustpan (she wanted to move it somewhere to safety, but daren't touch it). She brought it into the house to show me and I had to explain to the boss what was going on. I picked it up in my fingers to show him on the video cam what the kerfuffle was about. I could barely believe the power this thing had as it wriggled in my fingers. Not sure how impressed the boss was.
By the sound of things, the caterpillar wasn't impressed either! I'm not sure I'd particularly want to pick that up...
We now live on the Isle of Wight and we receive daily visits from badgers, looking for food. This particular one has developed the endearing habit of lying down on our patio and just waiting to be fed. She can lie there for up to 30 minutes, just staring at the patio doors. If we still haven't fed her by then she will get up and knock on the doors with her nose. When we do open the patio doors to feed her she never backs away, just stands up and comes right up to us and starts eating while we are still putting the peanuts on the ground. I have never seen such unusual behaviour from a wild animal before.
Spotted in our conservatory this afternoon, had to look it up, apparently its a Elephant Hawk Moth about 4cm long. Couldn't get a decent picture, because of the light, but when I got it in to the daylight it was as per the second picture from the interweb.
We now live on the Isle of Wight and we receive daily visits from badgers, looking for food. This particular one has developed the endearing habit of lying down on our patio and just waiting to be fed. She can lie there for up to 30 minutes, just staring at the patio doors. If we still haven't fed her by then she will get up and knock on the doors with her nose. When we do open the patio doors to feed her she never backs away, just stands up and comes right up to us and starts eating while we are still putting the peanuts on the ground. I have never seen such unusual behaviour from a wild animal before.
We now live on the Isle of Wight and we receive daily visits from badgers, looking for food. This particular one has developed the endearing habit of lying down on our patio and just waiting to be fed. She can lie there for up to 30 minutes, just staring at the patio doors. If we still haven't fed her by then she will get up and knock on the doors with her nose. When we do open the patio doors to feed her she never backs away, just stands up and comes right up to us and starts eating while we are still putting the peanuts on the ground. I have never seen such unusual behaviour from a wild animal before.
Amazing! Can I ask whereabouts on the Island you live?
We now live on the Isle of Wight and we receive daily visits from badgers, looking for food. This particular one has developed the endearing habit of lying down on our patio and just waiting to be fed. She can lie there for up to 30 minutes, just staring at the patio doors. If we still haven't fed her by then she will get up and knock on the doors with her nose. When we do open the patio doors to feed her she never backs away, just stands up and comes right up to us and starts eating while we are still putting the peanuts on the ground. I have never seen such unusual behaviour from a wild animal before.
Amazing! Can I ask whereabouts on the Island you live?
We live in St. Lawrence, just along the coast from Ventnor.
We now live on the Isle of Wight and we receive daily visits from badgers, looking for food. This particular one has developed the endearing habit of lying down on our patio and just waiting to be fed. She can lie there for up to 30 minutes, just staring at the patio doors. If we still haven't fed her by then she will get up and knock on the doors with her nose. When we do open the patio doors to feed her she never backs away, just stands up and comes right up to us and starts eating while we are still putting the peanuts on the ground. I have never seen such unusual behaviour from a wild animal before.
Amazing! Can I ask whereabouts on the Island you live?
We live in St. Lawrence, just along the coast from Ventnor.
Cool thanks, I was just curious. I fell in love with the Island after I first visited way back in 1965. I like all of it, but I have a particular love for the area roughly covered by a triangle between Sandown, Bembridge and Brading. Saw my first ever Red Squirrel there back in the early 80's
We now live on the Isle of Wight and we receive daily visits from badgers, looking for food. This particular one has developed the endearing habit of lying down on our patio and just waiting to be fed. She can lie there for up to 30 minutes, just staring at the patio doors. If we still haven't fed her by then she will get up and knock on the doors with her nose. When we do open the patio doors to feed her she never backs away, just stands up and comes right up to us and starts eating while we are still putting the peanuts on the ground. I have never seen such unusual behaviour from a wild animal before.
Amazing! Can I ask whereabouts on the Island you live?
We live in St. Lawrence, just along the coast from Ventnor.
Cool thanks, I was just curious. I fell in love with the Island after I first visited way back in 1965. I like all of it, but I have a particular love for the area roughly covered by a triangle between Sandown, Bembridge and Brading. Saw my first ever Red Squirrel there back in the early 80's
We now live on the Isle of Wight and we receive daily visits from badgers, looking for food. This particular one has developed the endearing habit of lying down on our patio and just waiting to be fed. She can lie there for up to 30 minutes, just staring at the patio doors. If we still haven't fed her by then she will get up and knock on the doors with her nose. When we do open the patio doors to feed her she never backs away, just stands up and comes right up to us and starts eating while we are still putting the peanuts on the ground. I have never seen such unusual behaviour from a wild animal before.
Amazing! Can I ask whereabouts on the Island you live?
We live in St. Lawrence, just along the coast from Ventnor.
Cool thanks, I was just curious. I fell in love with the Island after I first visited way back in 1965. I like all of it, but I have a particular love for the area roughly covered by a triangle between Sandown, Bembridge and Brading. Saw my first ever Red Squirrel there back in the early 80's
Yes, as well as badgers we get plenty of visits from red squirrels as well. It is a great island.
Not a London spotting, but after watching England's ducks at Lord's on Monday, I saw these Muscovy Ducks (I had to look them up) in Milton Keynes yesterday!
There's a second species of parakeet in London, the monk parakeet. There's a very small population on the Isle of Dogs, which can sometimes be seen in Mudchute Park. They're more common on the continent.
At one time the local council was trying to exterminate the London population, but lots of residents refused to let the pest controllers into their gardens, so the parakeets survived long enough that eventually the council's budget got cut and they gave up.
My brother took this photo of a green woodpecker in his Bromley garden a couple of days ago..
Not sure I buy into the photo he sent me yesterday claiming that the woodpecker was working a logical grid system.
Either your brother is messing you about or he has more than one woodpecker. This one's a juvenile (no black mark on its face), only the adults who are weighed down with parental responsibility dig in straight lines. Woodpecker kids are more freewheeling.
After last night's rain slugs have invaded the garden, they are everywhere and it is difficult to walk on the lawn without treading on them.
I don't suppose they have invaded as such, they were there all along. Most slugs live underground. I guess these guys have just popped up to take advantage of the wet conditions.
Comments
Basically, a heron was perched canal side exactly like yours in the photo.
Meanwhile a pair of swans were making their way along the centre of the canal, a cob (male) in front and pen (female) immediately behind.
When they got to within about 20 yards of the Heron, the Cob swan purposefully altered course towards the heron, raising it's wings slightly and adopting an aggressive posture.
The heron continued to stare intently down into the water, but I wondered how close the swan would get before the heron flew off.
When it got to within about 5 yards, the heron finally broke concentration and casually looked up at the swan and proceeded to open and shut it's beak violently.
This made an insanely loud clacking noise, at which point the swan shat itself, immediately changed course back to the centre of the canal and away, in a rather hurried, nothing-to-see-here way.
Made me chuckle and if swans had egos, this one was severely deflated.
The heron just returned to it's previous intense concentration. Respect!
I'll take some more pictures of that beautiful wood duck soon, his feathers are starting to develop, and he's getting more beautiful every day!
Can I ask whereabouts on the Island you live?
I fell in love with the Island after I first visited way back in 1965.
I like all of it, but I have a particular love for the area roughly covered by a triangle between Sandown, Bembridge and Brading.
Saw my first ever Red Squirrel there back in the early 80's
His blue tail feathers are starting to develop and his eye is looking redder. He also has some feathers developing on his head!
At one time the local council was trying to exterminate the London population, but lots of residents refused to let the pest controllers into their gardens, so the parakeets survived long enough that eventually the council's budget got cut and they gave up.
Will eventually look like this ...
Not sure I buy into the photo he sent me yesterday claiming that the woodpecker was working a logical grid system.