Wildlife in the garden - Spring and what is this bird?
- Thread starter Dog Star
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Arun Sharma
Western Thunderer
Not content with just swooping down and taking the food I put out in the garden for the rooks, this chap[?] has now taken up residence in a nearby tree and spends much of the
day whistling
day whistling
Not sure where you're located, but it might be a Red Kite (spreading rapidly from Bucks/Oxon border to surrounding counties). They whistle to each other all the time. They don't kill live prey; they are scavengers. Hence carrion crows mob them, as they are competing for the same food.
On the wing, Red Kites are very beautiful birds, gliding effortlessly on the air. Sometimes seen in numbers, as they are very sociable birds.
Arun Sharma
Western Thunderer
Yes it is a Red Kite [see my post #32 earlier in this thread] - I live in Abingdon where we regularly see half a dozen or more circling around. The tree that this one is sitting in used to be home to a rookery until the beginning of the year but the rooks have seemingly been displaced and departed for pastures new.
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Arun Sharma
Western Thunderer
The red kite is now pretty well established in the rooks' former tree. I suppose whether it is male or female is really only of interest to another kite.
Ressaldar
Western Thunderer
One of the many regular squirrels that come to use the feeders
who we call Buddhy as he takes the Buddha like stance when he feeds, he gets comfortable on his perch and just has to lean forward and help himself.
cheers
Mike
Taken through the kitchen window using a Lumix GX7 with a 45 - 200 f4 - 5.6 Lumix lens @ 200mm
who we call Buddhy as he takes the Buddha like stance when he feeds, he gets comfortable on his perch and just has to lean forward and help himself.
cheers
Mike
Taken through the kitchen window using a Lumix GX7 with a 45 - 200 f4 - 5.6 Lumix lens @ 200mm
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
We have Red Kites often over our fields here in Suffolk, 7 miles south of the Norfolk border. But a more common sight is Buzzards.
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
Occasionally, maybe once a week, our Golden Retriever finds a Hedgehog in the garden - he picks up the 'hog and then plays with the spiky ball. After a couple of minutes our dog puts the 'hog on the ground and walks away. The Hedgehog waits for a few minutes and then continues a night time meander. Timing of the meeting is variable and after 10pm.
We decided recently to provide food and fresh water for the 'hog, for the last week we have out food where we think our dog finds the 'hog and each morning the food and water bowls are empty.
The big question... what is coming to the impromptu cafe? It is not our dogs as they are not allowed in the garden when the feeding dishes are on the ground.
I guess that the choice is one of Hedgehog, Rat and Squirrel. Squirrel is unlikely because the visits to our garden are so late in the day. A rat might be possible and I think not so because our dogs (retriever and spaniel) have never told us about such a presence. So Hedgehog it is then.
Sorry, no pictures as the visits are always in the dark and beyond the capabilities of the Box Brownie.
What tales can you tell about nocturnal visitors to your garden?
regards, Graham
We decided recently to provide food and fresh water for the 'hog, for the last week we have out food where we think our dog finds the 'hog and each morning the food and water bowls are empty.
The big question... what is coming to the impromptu cafe? It is not our dogs as they are not allowed in the garden when the feeding dishes are on the ground.
I guess that the choice is one of Hedgehog, Rat and Squirrel. Squirrel is unlikely because the visits to our garden are so late in the day. A rat might be possible and I think not so because our dogs (retriever and spaniel) have never told us about such a presence. So Hedgehog it is then.
Sorry, no pictures as the visits are always in the dark and beyond the capabilities of the Box Brownie.
What tales can you tell about nocturnal visitors to your garden?
regards, Graham
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
We still have lot's of hedgehog visitors to our feeders. We average 5-6 each evening (between 8 and 11pm but we have seen as many as 9 individuals in one evening (last week). Much of our evening time is spent watching them.
Unfortunately as solitary creatures when encountering their brethren, their first instinct is to duff them up. Males and females seem to get on okay (as you might expect) but if more than one male or more than one female arrive while one of them is already there, even though there are 3 feeders to choose from they head directly to the one that's occupied and charge the occupant with their snouts to make them curl up in a ball.
Last night we had one quietly eating away, a second came, dashed into the feeder made the first one curl up in a ball and then proceeded to eat. Then a third arrived and did exactly the same to the other two but was struggling to eat because one of those curled in a ball was on top of the dish of food.
Then a fourth arrived, rinse and repeat. 4 hogs in one feeder, 3 curled up and the last struggling to eat...
After watching similar antics over this year it appears that none of them is especially dominant. It seems to be the last one in gets the drop on the others and once backfooted they don't seem to retaliate, they just stay curled up until the intruder wanders off.
We do have one exception the original hog that I first posted photos of way back in June last year. He's a well seasoned hog and although he don't indulge in the pushing and shoving he doesn't allow the younger ones to push him around either. The night before last he was quietly eating when a cocky younger male tried to get the better of him. Instead of curling up he just turned his shoulder to the intruder, tucked his face away and braced the opposite two legs. Try as the younger one might, he couldn't budge Norman (as we call him) and gave up in disgust in the end. Norm then went placidly on his unhurried way.
Unfortunately as solitary creatures when encountering their brethren, their first instinct is to duff them up. Males and females seem to get on okay (as you might expect) but if more than one male or more than one female arrive while one of them is already there, even though there are 3 feeders to choose from they head directly to the one that's occupied and charge the occupant with their snouts to make them curl up in a ball.
Last night we had one quietly eating away, a second came, dashed into the feeder made the first one curl up in a ball and then proceeded to eat. Then a third arrived and did exactly the same to the other two but was struggling to eat because one of those curled in a ball was on top of the dish of food.
Then a fourth arrived, rinse and repeat. 4 hogs in one feeder, 3 curled up and the last struggling to eat...
After watching similar antics over this year it appears that none of them is especially dominant. It seems to be the last one in gets the drop on the others and once backfooted they don't seem to retaliate, they just stay curled up until the intruder wanders off.
We do have one exception the original hog that I first posted photos of way back in June last year. He's a well seasoned hog and although he don't indulge in the pushing and shoving he doesn't allow the younger ones to push him around either. The night before last he was quietly eating when a cocky younger male tried to get the better of him. Instead of curling up he just turned his shoulder to the intruder, tucked his face away and braced the opposite two legs. Try as the younger one might, he couldn't budge Norman (as we call him) and gave up in disgust in the end. Norm then went placidly on his unhurried way.
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
Our feeders have covers over them that allow the hedgehogs in/out but stop cats and birds - we have had three young magpies trying their utmost to get in for some food in the last couple of weeks but they haven't managed it yet.
The covers are made from the plastic storage trays that you get for storing things under beds with a block of 6x6 timber at the entrance to stop the other critters. We do get the occasional field mouse in but they don't eat much...
Dishes of fresh water are probably more important than food just now and ass soon as out hog visitors come under the gate they head straight for the water dishes for a nice long drink before seeking out food. - unless there is another hog present (see my last post)...
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
At this point, being the start of an adventure, the food is "Brambles Crunchy Hedgehog Food" which is dry meat-based pellets. I put a handful in the food bowl each evening and (nearly) all is gone by morning.
We have found a snail eating the food - just how many pellets can fit in a snail shell?
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
It might be worth considering purchasing a trail camera. Steph bought us one a few Christmases ago and we've seen deer, rabbits, quite a few mice (which get indoors most Autumns and have to be captured and released a few miles away). We can also identify which particular local cats dig up our garden and who visits our front door when we are away from home. So far, in six years, we've seen no rats which is a surprise as we are in farming country - in our last house which was a bit more isolated but also in farmland we had rats around the place all the time. For good or ill it is one creature which I refuse to tolerate. (On one notable occasion we also had a brown hare in one of the poly cloches eating our lettuces and that I can more than tolerate).
I suggest the use of a trail camera because we have a friend in Suffolk, sadly now with Altzheimers, who has a routine of "feeding the hedgehogs" every night. He gets through pounds of the stuff every week and we suspect he's actually feeding the local rat population but actually have no way of knowing. Perhaps he has a thriving hedgehog population like you, Rob.
Brian
I suggest the use of a trail camera because we have a friend in Suffolk, sadly now with Altzheimers, who has a routine of "feeding the hedgehogs" every night. He gets through pounds of the stuff every week and we suspect he's actually feeding the local rat population but actually have no way of knowing. Perhaps he has a thriving hedgehog population like you, Rob.
Brian
Arun Sharma
Western Thunderer
In Abingdon we seem to have a line of demarcation between the buzzards and the kites. The buzzards can always be seen lurking around the line of the A34 which the kites don't seem to be terribly interested in. Similarly, the buzzards are almost never seen over the built-up area.
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Here in SE Bucks next to the Chilterns we see red kites and buzzards without any sense of demarcation. There are, however, more red kites than buzzards. In recent times the crows seem to have lost interest in mobbing the kites. They always appeared to mob the kites and not the buzzards and I suspect that's because kites are not averse to picking of the occasional chick despite being predominantly carrion feeders.
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
Reminds me of a 'T' shirt one of my old mates used to wear, had a pair of skinny Vultures sitting on a tree limb staring at the ground with, printed underneath " Sod this I'm gonna kill something ! ".
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
This landed on the window ledge next to my desk at the office today (taken through glass on a mobile phone).
richard carr
Western Thunderer
The Parakeets are back to eat all our apples.
We also had some juvenile green woodpeckers show up
Richard
We also had some juvenile green woodpeckers show up
Richard