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Odds & Sods 2023

Mike B
03/01/2023 07:45

After yet another successful year on the Odds & Sods thread, initially started I think by Hazy, it might be wise to kickstart the 2023 thread off.

Thank you to those who have contributed to last years thread, and there has been very interesting odds and sods in "Odds & Sods 2022" that aren't enough to place into a dedicated thread, which you can look back on the following link:

https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/278729/odds-sods-2022/1417300?pifragment-4285=76#pifragment-4285=1

What better for me, and as yet, I've not ventured far, ewe know what I mean, with this lassie on Baddesley Clinton estate yesterday....

Mike

Flickr: Peak Rambler

  • 23/08/2023 08:53

    Lovely shot of the deer Mr Kes ... Thumbsup

  • 25/08/2023 06:17

    How about some swans? Lovely, elegant birds, serenely swimming with super model type looks.

    Here is a Mute swan (sticking my neck out here, ID-wise) in a typical bucolic scene on Colebrook lake (north). Such a gentle bird.

    Not a chance. This is the Mr. G Khan or Mr. A. The Hun of Colebrook lake. He bullies anything and everything on 'his' lake. He took exception to another swan, on this particular morning.

    Tiff over? Territorial boundaries settled? Pecking order established? Nope, Vlad the Impaler continued his harassment. Fair dues, the other swan did try and get out of his way.

     

    I'm not sure why the swan didn't fly to the east end of Colebrook lake (north). It is a large lake.

    Or swim over to Colebrook lake (south)

    Instead, the daft creature just flapped a little way north, and a few tens of yards from bully boy.

    Who simply continued to stalk the other swan. I have some photos of this swan below launch a sustained attack on an Egyptian goose. The harassment went on for about ten minutes.

    The inevitable happened.

    Quite an audience on Tern island.

    Psycho-swan decided that this was enough harassment, as the other swan went a bit further south.

    90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.

  • 25/08/2023 10:00 in reply to Angus M
    Oh dear, he was having none of it, with the other. Nice photos.

    Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  • 26/08/2023 12:22

    Having given up feeding garden birds and hoggies to deter the rat visitors in search of food I was extremely disappointed but amazed at the sight of two young rats taking the goldfish food from the pond ... here is some footage of one of them taken from the kitchen window

    The battle continues with relocation of goldfish to a friend's pond and filling in where the pond used to be!  Very sad!

     

     2013 photos & vids here

    eff37 on Flickr

  • 26/08/2023 16:52
    Do you really have to fill it in Wendy? ponds are so important and rats are always around

    Cin J

  • 26/08/2023 17:40 in reply to WendyBartter
    Sneaky wee beggar....och that will be sad to see the pond go :-(

    (Pardon the Scottish Accent)

  • 26/08/2023 18:06
    Another vote for keeping the pond. Why deny the rest of nature the benefits of the pond? I reckon the rats will leave eventually.

    I have a pond. I've seen a rat occasionally this past year. But since moving our shed and creating a disturbance there has been no sign of the rat. Our cat may also have frightened it off. But I am keeping the pond.

    Oddly, I haven't seen to many frogs this year. I wonder if the rat polished them off. Then again, I haven't really checked the pond for frogs. May be they are there.

    I've also put fine mesh trays under various bird feeders I have. Reduces the amount of spillage and waste considerably, to the point where Wood and Feral pigeons have almost completely given up coming to our garden. Ain't nothing left for rats, once the Robins, Dunnocks, Magpies etc devour anything that falls to the ground.

    I need to put a trail cam out to check rats are gone.

    Then again, we do have a Tawny owl in trees in back of garden. I hear it all the time. Can't see the blighter. I wonder if it snaffled the rat?

    90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.

  • 26/08/2023 20:02

    Getting rid of the pond was a desperate last measure as the rat population was increasing plus we had lost many fish, hence the netting, but the rats can swim so well as demonstrated when we removed the netting, and they were efficiently taking most, if not all, of the pond food! Our fish became spooked and hardly ever came to the top, hadn't seen them for ages! We recovered 10 goldfish, roughly half the number we once had! All the frog spawn and tadpoles were eaten and the frog population vanished! Folk here have resorted to poison and dead traps but rats seem to flourish here in the chalk quarry! A neighbour's cat did visit and catch a baby rat after the pond was removed and a suspected nest was disturbed by my OH but the fact that the rat could have eaten poison is a worry!
    So we shall have to have a long break from providing for the wildlife apart from planting for bugs, bees & pollinators, and berries for the birds!

     

     2013 photos & vids here

    eff37 on Flickr

  • 27/08/2023 06:11

    I picked this swan up quite late on partly as I was photographing bully boy and partly as its glide path took it behind Tern island.

    I do wonder if they go 'Wheeeeeee' as they skid along the water's surface.

    .

    Elegance, darling, serene and suave for appearances.

    90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.

  • 27/08/2023 06:12 in reply to Angus M
    Unknown said:
    I do wonder if they go 'Wheeeeeee'

    LOL