Not my photo sadly, but a mates. Not London either, obviously, but indulge me with a pair of White Tailed Eagles larking about around a mile up the road from my gaff.
Not my photo sadly, but a mates. Not London either, obviously, but indulge me with a pair of White Tailed Eagles larking about around a mile up the road from my gaff.
Wow, lucky you. I presume these are a pair from the rewilding programme on Culver on the Isle of Wight. Hope they swing over Wallisdown way next time
Re woodpeckers. (No picture) Apparently they do not have a bird song so when we hear them battering a tree they are actually calling for a mate.
Incorrect. When battering a tree they are disturbing insects in the bark on which they feed. Also, they do have individual calls (depending on the species), which they use for attracting others and announcing their territory.
I'm fairly confident this is a woodpecker, he battered the bark for about 20mins, crap photo but was a screenshot from a video clip
That’s a Greater Spotted.
Yup, female. The male has a red flash on the back of his neck. These guys are regular visitors to our garden.
Very occasionally we get the big green ones too. These guys eat ants mainly, so you see them on the ground. And boy, is their cackling laugh call LOUD! Our neighbours are convinced they are escaped parrots lol.
Not my photo sadly, but a mates. Not London either, obviously, but indulge me with a pair of White Tailed Eagles larking about around a mile up the road from my gaff.
Wow, lucky you. I presume these are a pair from the rewilding programme on Culver on the Isle of Wight. Hope they swing over Wallisdown way next time
Yes, I believe they are resident on the IoW but do like a wander around southern England from time to time. I have seen them in person, from a distance but useless trying to get a snap at that range just on a phone. Magnificent beasts.
Not my photo sadly, but a mates. Not London either, obviously, but indulge me with a pair of White Tailed Eagles larking about around a mile up the road from my gaff.
I hope you didn't start chanting "Eagles!" when you saw them...
We had hedgehogs almost every night last year from March to October, saw our first one this year on Sunday night. Just hope they haven't come out too early in this cold snap.
Skylarks are presently nesting in the longer grass at Richmond and Bushy Parks.
Skylarks have a habit of rising vertically from the nest flapping their wings rapidly then parachuting back down. A friend of mine captured this action on her camera phone and sent it to the team at Springwatch. Unfortunately the quality was not of broadcast quality and she was texted back with a message explaining this. There was also a footnote informing her that she had captured a Kestrel and not a Skylark. The kestrel was in fact feeding on the Skylarks. Needless to say her days of submitting films to Springwatch are done and over.
On London soil, but not in the city. At Wallesea Island where they shifted all the excavated Crossrail mud.
The fox was creeping up on the Pheasant (as was I). When it saw me, it stared for a moment before turning away and running off in the other direction. I then carried on walking, at which point the pheasant started making loud 'get off my land' noises, presumably all pleased with itself for seeing off a fox and a human.
We have Blackbirds nesting in our apple tree, have seen a pair of blue tits a few times as well, they were having a nose around inside our summer house last week. We’ve a Robin who is always about when I’m digging the garden and always have loads of parakeets when the apples are out.
We also get frogs In our pond and have a pair of toads living in the bushes behind it.
Not London, but just outside London on the outskirts of Borehamwood I was walking along this quiet path when I saw a Magpie jumping up and down ahead of me, as if it was trying to catch something, and being repelled in some way. It turned out to be a very small and aggressive grass snake sunning itself on the path.
We regularly get woodpeckers but I've no idea if they're quite common or not.
Greater Spotteds are fairly common in SE London; Greens are a bit more unusual in the city. Lesser Spotteds would be an insane find; I've never seen one
Loads of green woodpeckers living in Camberwell New Cemetery / One Tree Hill. Never seem to see them beyond there though
A lesser spotted in my friend's garden in (whisper it) Croydon - he's an Addick though (my friend, didn't ask the woodpecker) so it still counts.
Went on a bit of a road trip and took the injured oriole to a wildlife centre today. Other than the woman saying she thought he was a kingfisher, I think its the best place for him
How did he enjoy the wildlife centre? You should take him to the zoo next.
I wish id seen this earlier. Took a photo of what i thought was an unusual looking buttterfly in Downham at the weekend and spent half an hour online looking to see if it was a rare species. Now see thats its a Jersey Tiger Moth. Im obviously no expert so didnt know moths can be day and night just assumed it was a butterfly as it was daylight.
I think that moths land with flat wings and butterflies with raised wings so that makes them easy to differentiate. I could be wrong, of course, and can't be arsed to look it up.
Comments
I presume these are a pair from the rewilding programme on Culver on the Isle of Wight.
Hope they swing over Wallisdown way next time
Sutcliffe Park, cormorant under cover
as a penguin
When battering a tree they are disturbing insects in the bark on which they feed.
Also, they do have individual calls (depending on the species), which they use for attracting others and announcing their territory.
Very occasionally we get the big green ones too. These guys eat ants mainly, so you see them on the ground. And boy, is their cackling laugh call LOUD! Our neighbours are convinced they are escaped parrots lol.
Skylarks have a habit of rising vertically from the nest flapping their wings rapidly then parachuting back down. A friend of mine captured this action on her camera phone and sent it to the team at Springwatch. Unfortunately the quality was not of broadcast quality and she was texted back with a message explaining this. There was also a footnote informing her that she had captured a Kestrel and not a Skylark. The kestrel was in fact feeding on the Skylarks. Needless to say her days of submitting films to Springwatch are done and over.
The fox was creeping up on the Pheasant (as was I). When it saw me, it stared for a moment before turning away and running off in the other direction. I then carried on walking, at which point the pheasant started making loud 'get off my land' noises, presumably all pleased with itself for seeing off a fox and a human.
They’ve been reading up on it and apparently once they fledge, they cannot fly for a up to 2 weeks.
They have a dog, so to have them on the ground in the garden is far from ideal. Anybody know what we can do with them or how we can help?