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gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8974
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Thu Dec 26, 24 10:20 am Post subject:
Gulls move to the food.. unfortunately that is humans' rubbish...and there aren't so many fish in the sea

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16070

Posted: Sat Dec 28, 24 9:09 am Post subject:

The ones at the shops might be there for rubbish, although on the whole this isn't a particularly dirty area. Think they mainly come for the pickings from the fields as this is semi-rural.

Went down to help at an activity centre in the New Forest yesterday and there was a deer out in one of the fields. Clear up work as they had some fallen trees. One of the trees; a medium sized oak had about half a dozen varieties of lichen on it. Really wonderful.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16070

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 25 8:25 am Post subject:

Have seen quite a lot of deer over the last couple of days. In our own woodland complex we have seen a group of 5 roe deer, which is more than we usually see in the woods together, although more have been seen together in the adjacent fields. Yesterday, where we were cutting birch, son saw a herd of about 20 fallow deer and we saw some more crossing the ride ahead of where we were having lunch. Couldn't see them properly but just the tops of their heads bobbing across the track.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2583
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 25 2:53 am Post subject:
With the cold weather and snow the white tail deer are traipsing around the house. This yearling was so close that any closer and it would have been IN the kitchen. I don't know if you can zoom in on the image - it is crisp enough that you can see the eyelashes.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16070

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 25 8:21 am Post subject:

How lovely. Are they looking for food, and is there any for them?

We have seen a few deer lately. I saw some not far from a road we use, which surprised me as it is quite a busy one and between an industrial and a housing estate. I am pretty sure they were fallow deer. We have seen up to 4 roe deer in the woods at one time lately. They are in their dark winter coats at the moment.

We were out in the main part of the wood yesterday and there was a lot of bird song. We have had several storms lately, so whether they were making the most of it between them, or starting to get interested in breeding, not quite sure.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2583
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 25 6:49 pm Post subject:

They are pawing through the snow, Mistress Rose, eating certain groundcover plants in my garden. Also some evergreen shrubs.

I scatter what's labeled as squirrel & critter food - it is black oil sunflower seed, some peanuts in shell, and mostly corn kernels. The squirrels prefer to hang head down on the bird feeders filled with black oil sunflower seed.

That one yearling deer comes close to kitchen steps - I'm sure it is for the corn.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16070

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 25 9:23 am Post subject:
It probably is Jam Lady. Nice to see them. We only usually see them at a distance, but I have managed to stalk a young one just to see how close I could get. They will sometimes not worry about our van, but at certain times they don't like that either.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46305
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 25 1:58 pm Post subject:
nice deer thinking of hanging on a bird feeder, both jackdaws and one do hummingbird impersonations, it looks like most food falls but they get enough to make it worthwhile

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16070

Posted: Sat Feb 01, 25 8:15 am Post subject:
Hanging on the feeder seems to be something that most birds have to learn. I have seen robins hovering until they learnt from their mates how to hang on. A jackdaw doing a humming bird impression must be quite interesting.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46305
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Feb 06, 25 11:33 am Post subject:

the "some sort of paper wasp" in my hair was different

not uk or european as far as i can tell from id charts etc

saved and released with no harm to me or it (hope it finds a cranny to hide in as it is a bit cool for wasps outside)

international trade is loads of fun

im not sure which parcel the "exotic" used as transport, i spose post ice sheets everything is an exotic so the "invasive species bad" thing falls to bits very recently

not as disturbing as a fiddleback ambling across the floor

different may or may not be dangeroos

tis best to use caution if it is an "unknown" spp
paper wasps are fairly harmless, even if they are "strangers"

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2583
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Thu Feb 06, 25 5:03 pm Post subject:
Seen outside my kitchen at about 10:30 p.m. last night Kudos to my camera!

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16070

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 25 8:42 am Post subject:
Rather cute, but they can be a bit destructive can't they? Dpack, I am rather wary of 'exotics' as they can be rather damaging to UK wildlife. We particularly look out for Asian hornets as they can be really bad news. Brown wasps aren't a good idea either as they patrol a territory and will attach anyone or anything.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46305
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Feb 07, 25 12:35 pm Post subject:

UK wildlife were all exotics in the last 12000 yrs or so

other factors(they are called humans) are much more challenging to the resident spp than new comers

the raccoon snap is ace, they have bad habits but they do it with style

yesterday we had a murmuration of several thousand starlings, it has been a few years since we saw more than a few or a lost looking loner

ps decent cameras do help with the image quality, it still needs a snapper to take good uns

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 16070

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 25 9:48 am Post subject:

If you mean they recolonised after the last ice age; yes, that is true. Those that did naturally are regarded as native though. Others have been naturalised for so long they are regarded as semi-native, and it could be argued that man is mainly responsible for most of the exotics. Some don't cause any trouble, like the yucca someone planted in our wood, which succumbed to the cold some winters ago, but thing like rhodi, and some of your nasty spiders really can be a menace.

Agree about the pictures. I have seen any number of awful pictures brought out to admire, but the odd one is really good. One thing with the old film cameras with only 8 or 12 frames to a film was that it made you think about composition very carefully and taught you to see one. Downside was that they weren't really very good for the quick picture as it happened, like the raccoon.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46305
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Feb 08, 25 12:50 pm Post subject:

old film camera, umm contax, leica, roliflex ,hasselblad or practika?

i had a german ww2 era 120 top viewer of undiscernable make, ace camera, compared to £5k of canon R and lenses etc it was different but had a few advantages

making the R work in a very cold or hot place might be challenging,
9 frames a second is a non starter with the 120, etc

i had a practika for 50 snaps, a pinhole in a biscuit tin is a better tool

my cheapo phone(£60) has a camera system that is adequate for show and tell instant snaps or what is that snaps that need doing now with reasonable lighting and speed expectations
not the tool for a "arty" or "technical" hi res snap

re arty, plastic ,10 snap, keyring camera, different practika snap

combine that thing with super primitive image software and a rubbish printer it is possible to make pretty pictures on decent paper

ps pretty will have no resemblance to the details when the button was pressed

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