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Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 18 9:20 am Post subject:
I have a nest of tree bumble bees in an old hay bale on top of the hen house. Their runway into the nest is on the door, so the bees get a little confused when I have it open to collect eggs, so I try to be quick. Nice watching them land and walk in

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 18 3:31 pm Post subject:
That sounds lovely Nicky. They do get easily confused. When it is is dry we find that the badgers go for bumble bee nests and because they turn the soil over near the entrance, there are a lot of very confused bees around.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 18 10:09 pm Post subject:

stumpi sammison and i just had a nice chat. i am too shy to ask how the loss happened.

biggi sammison is huge for a long tail mouse

sammi seems to have entered the next realm but the extended family of his descendants fill the halls and "forests" with his kin.

there are lady mice but they are rather more shy and demure( or too busy with the kids ) to bother with more than a hiya in passing.

they are rather fun and seeing how they have adapted rural skills to an urban landscape ,with green bits/ urban bits and bird table scraps/ winter feeding but lots of cats and more owls and raptors than most rural locations is fascinating.

sammi decided 2 hounds and a bramble perimeter was a good place to set up a dynasty and moved into the compost, firewood ( and stuff ) store.
smart mouse .

tis a while since i did snaps of em, at least one is likely to vogue for a bit of coconut yogurt

the white tail bees ( lots ) have been joined by a few other species but tis only week one for my blackberry tangle so i hope to beat last years 9 species in a minute at about week 3 of flowering.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 18 10:27 pm Post subject:

ps there is a fledged to hunting alone peregrine again so i guess the minster pair ( or the other less public ones ) have raised chicks and this one follows the last to new lands.

last years one was a fast learner but seeing the odd "lumpy" unplanned landing and a harsh lesson in how to alienate crows and gulls at the same time was pretty funny.

i like peregrines, a while back i was lucky enough to share a place with a pair long enough to watch em get from hatch to "flying" baby .

pps battybat and chums are doing ok on the night fliers and the swallows and housemartins get the day menu

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 18 6:59 am Post subject:
I like peregrines too; they provide me with the odd pigeon so pigeon breasts for dinner.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 18 9:59 am Post subject:
dpack, might biggi sammison be a Yellow Necked Mouse? They are bigger and more brightly coloured than bog standard Wood Mouse. They like soap, and dried cheggies. (And lots of other things, I expect!) Henry

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 18 11:07 am Post subject:
biggi is wearing a rather fetching pale brown onesie, a little darker than most of them have chosen but i would not describe any of them as gaudily dressed. i will bait em out and get some snaps.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 18 12:14 pm Post subject:
Snaps would be good! Henry

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 18 6:54 am Post subject:
We sometimes get woodmice around the yard. They have large ears and big eyes and are rather sweet, but still mice, and can be a nuisance if they get indoors. Still leave the same smell, which I learnt at school, was acetamide.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 18 9:57 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

We sometimes get woodmice around the yard. They have large ears and big eyes and are rather sweet, but still mice, and can be a nuisance if they get indoors. Still leave the same smell, which I learnt at school, was acetamide.

They taught us at school that acetamide was odourless and the smell was produced by the impurity methyl-acetamide. All I know for certain is that when we made acetamide at school, the chemmy lab reeked of mice!

Henry

Shane

Joined: 31 Oct 2005
Posts: 3467
Location: Doha. Is hot.

Posted: Sun Jun 24, 18 3:22 am Post subject:

Just got back from a lovely couple of weeks in Blighty. All the littl'uns seem to have fledged at exactly the same time. Here's a few pics:

Here's one of the two juvenile greater spotteds with his dad:

Juvenile nuthatch:

The two baby blue tits begging for a feed:

One of the baby coal tits braving the constant drizzle:

Mum feeding the bairns:

All the baby frogs made a hop for it at once - they were absolutely everywhere!

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We also had baby blackbirds, great tits and robins, but didn't manage to get any decent shots of them.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16006

Posted: Sun Jun 24, 18 6:49 am Post subject:
Lovely pictures Shane, and seems as if you timed your visit just right for the young birds and frogs. We had to rehome a toad the other day that had decided the heap of wood we had in the log store was just the right place to settle. I moved him to a pile of wood outside the store that won't be disturbed.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8963
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sun Jun 24, 18 9:22 pm Post subject:
Fresh on the gooseberry bush this afternoon..I'm not sure if the caterpillar is the same variety. and on the elderflowers I picked, although it looked more green than in the photo.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Sun Jun 24, 18 9:41 pm Post subject:
Two Magpie Moths and a Magpie Moth caterpillar. The moth (Abraxas grossulariata) used to be regarded as a pest of Gooseberries and currants, but has declined and is now not so much a problem. The wing pattern of the moth is extremely variable. The greenish caterpillar from the Elderflowers is a greenish caterpillar. Henry

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Sun Jun 24, 18 9:51 pm Post subject:
I got the moth - the caterpillar just looks extremely hungry.

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