I saw a thing in the garden (3 Viewers)

[flashback]

i got lucky, at times they were dicing literally overhead. i'm not sure it's a fully grown kite; they can grow to a wingspan of over 5 foot, so the difference in size can be even more marked. it was missing a tail feather, clear in the photo here, so perhaps a crow had previously scored a point against it.View attachment 13921

that crow looks like a hard bastard.

Where roughly would you be seeing these Kites? In Ireland?

You could sometimes tell if birds are young from plumage. Dunno how you could tell if it was fully grown, is it a Red Kite yeah? Red kite - Wikipedia

I saw some class of an eagle with a decent sized snake hanging out of it's tallons flying over my allotment last week. I never get tired of them. Class animals.

 

[magicbastarder]

That was taken in North county Dublin, a few km North of finglas. They were driven to extinction here, but a successful reintroduction program began a few years back - newbridge house near donabate and Avoca were the two main release sites IIRC. We've seen four circling together down in Avoca, they're gregarious birds, but I've also seen a photo with over twenty birds visible in the one shot.

 

[seanc]

Our downstairs neighbour has a tortoise in his garden, which came out of hibernation a few weeks ago. At pretty much the same time, a vixen has had a litter of three cubs in the garden. I'd never seen a fox cub before, playful little things.

We were worried they wouldn't get along, but the tortoise owner isn't worried, he's had it for 40 years now.

I'd get a pic, but they move too fast and the tortoise is pretty well camouflaged. I have seen him though.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Our downstairs neighbour has a tortoise in his garden, which came out of hibernation a few weeks ago. At pretty much the same time, a vixen has had a litter of three cubs in the garden. I'd never seen a fox cub before, playful little things.

We were worried they wouldn't get along, but the tortoise owner isn't worried, he's had it for 40 years now.

I'd get a pic, but they move too fast and the tortoise is pretty well camouflaged. I have seen him though.

Great stuff

Is this a city garden?

 

[flashback]

Our downstairs neighbour has a tortoise in his garden, which came out of hibernation a few weeks ago. At pretty much the same time, a vixen has had a litter of three cubs in the garden. I'd never seen a fox cub before, playful little things.

We were worried they wouldn't get along, but the tortoise owner isn't worried, he's had it for 40 years now.

I'd get a pic, but they move too fast and the tortoise is pretty well camouflaged. I have seen him though.

I've found a couple of tortoises out by me strolling about. Allegedly they clamber into compost heaps, or piles of leaves or whatever, and spend the winter in there. They do the usual reptile trick, hanging around on bits of rock or concrete in the sun, and making a break for it if they spot you.

Here's a crappy photo I took of a lad from last year I think.

 

[seanc]

Great stuff

Is this a city garden?

Yeah it's a city garden. Small for a human, but all the gardens back onto each other, so it's quite a big green space from the foxes point of view. ALso the houses are roughly 140 years old I think, so there's lots of mature trees. We get lots of birds, parakeets are bastards.

 

[ann post]

Our downstairs neighbour has a tortoise in his garden, which came out of hibernation a few weeks ago.

Shelled Isolating.

 

[Diddles]

I think I heard a cuckoo in the garden this morning. In Crumlint. It was around dawn. If it wakes me up again I'll try and record it. There are always herons around here as well, they just love Crumlint!

 

[flashback]

I think I heard a cuckoo in the garden this morning. In Crumlint. It was around dawn. If it wakes me up again I'll try and record it. There are always herons around here as well, they just love Crumlint!

Are cuckoos more common in England or something? They're always in books and films and stuff.

When you look at the distribution on wikipedia it's a big ol bright green / Least Concern mark for Ireland. I've never heard one of them.

 

[Diddles]

Are cuckoos more common in England or something? They're always in books and films and stuff.

When you look at the distribution on wikipedia it's a big ol bright green / Least Concern mark for Ireland. I've never heard one of them.

They do come here but I thought they stay more rural . Maybe it was an owl. It better be something `awesome for waking me up!

 

[flashback]

They do come here but I thought they stay more rural . Maybe it was an owl. It better be something `awesome for waking me up!

No way. As far as I'm concerned it's a cuckoo.

There's owls round me, they live in this bit of the forest called Owl Alley, which is just past Frogville. They hoot during the day sometimes. I always thought they only did it at night.

 

[Cormcolash]

Are cuckoos more common in England or something? They're always in books and films and stuff.

It's cause that country are experts at taking over other peoples' homes.

 

[flashback]

It's cause that country are experts at taking over other peoples' homes.

They're mad for a bit of infanticide alright.

 

[flashback]

This is the balcony, as of this morning. I saw a few lads out there looking suspicious earlier in the week.

 

[ann post]

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[flashback]

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He's probably got a nest full of little Augustus Gloops.

No Daddy, ve vould like the chocolate vurms.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Magpies have built a nest in the tree outside my house. They were going into the back garden and digging up our thyme, and using that out the front for the best. Wish I could see in but it’s cool nonetheless.

Also, the sheer diversity of the bee species in my back garden is staggering. They keep coming into the kitchen and I have to ferry them out in a glass. I’ve loss track of the number of species (though I think there’s only 13 native species).

 

[flashback]

Magpies have built a nest in the tree outside my house. They were going into the back garden and digging up our thyme, and using that out the front for the best. Wish I could see in but it’s cool nonetheless.

Also, the sheer diversity of the bee species in my back garden is staggering. They keep coming into the kitchen and I have to ferry them out in a glass. I’ve loss track of the number of species (though I think there’s only 13 native species).

Snazzy magpies.
I had wrens nesting in my place last year, two sets of them. The first nest I peered in and noticed a piece of snakeskin on the bottom. Huh. Kind of a goth wren set up. Sound.

Then the next batch of them were in, and they had a snakeskin liner too! I looked it up. Snakeskin is what the, and I think I'm quoting Audubon verbatim here: "all the fucking bijou wrens have".

So the thyme liner might be a thing, they are really particular. Keep them fleas at bay or something. They also cart off the baby's poos in their beaks. There was no poo around the nest, the poo goes in this little sort of... bag almost, like a pod, and the parents carry it off somewhere and dump it. Keeps everything nice and tidy.


Anyway I have the balcony all opened up here, and a few plants and things outside. The state of the bees I've been getting though. They're like aulflas on the way home from an especially rough Paddy's day. I gave up trying to deal with their ridiculous furry flying, and let them sleep it off where they lay.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

This
Presumably a killer hornet

 

[magicbastarder]

latest arrival. i call him hank, but my wife did a lottery for friend's kids and friends of hers to name him, and somehow came up with mark hedges figgis, so his name is hank.
he only has three legs, cos someone hit him with a strimmer or lawnmower, and i think he's still a little spaced out from the painkillers after the op.