After a bit of the alternative Xmas, one not to be repeated, I hope, The Hideout has been a welcome refuge while trying to get back on my feet again.
The Hideout, just a random name I gave it, is my man cave, an integral brick built extension to the garage, which became a convenient dumping ground when we moved in 23 years ago, now nicely converted to a man cave.
A short 4 minute guided tour, no waffle, of The Hideout, which can be viewed HERE.
In my previous The Hideout thread, I did confess to honourably borrowing an annual based theme, so here it starts, and a link to the shorter 2023 thread, "Some from The Hideout 2023";
https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/285975/some-from-the-hideout-2023
Not many photos to start with, I didn't fancy lugging the camera and dropping it, but The Hideout has been a comfort, heating on, gentle music in the background and urban nature (if such a term exists, well it does now), going about its business, and particularly nest building.
A pair of magpies seemed to be nest building atop our cherry tree, twigs etc being taken in, then the next day, the twigs seemed to be transported out, and to another tree, most likely a lot higher, further away. it may have been the cherry tree provided a central storage place, or not.....
The Hideout is definitely fulfilling its intended role.
Less of the waffle, and more photos.....
What better than an early sign of spring, daffodil shoots, that started showing very early December, which they always do here.
Mr BB looking for more suet pellets to be thrown from The Hideout, onto the grass....
Yesterday, 13th Jan,
Blue skies
and a magpie enjoying a bathe...
These first few images were taken through a dirty kitchen window, I know, should be clean, but I had been a guest of our fabulous NHS over Xmas/NY
Though blurred and out of focus, I hadn't anticipated the magpie taking flight,
These last few were taken from The Hideout
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Excellent Mike. I have never been lucky enough to see a Badger in the wild.
Great to see Mike
Billysdad said:Excellent Mike. I have never been lucky enough to see a Badger in the wild.
A lucky moment, or perhaps not, depending on the reason(s) for the visit. Watching the video footage, it was certainly getting around with no issues, and feeding well, and currently is a regular nighttime visitor.
Not for 50+ years have I've not seen a living badger in the wild, though I've seen many on the roadsides.
SnappyMac said:Great to see Mike
Absolutely, and as I type, she is making regular returns to the garden at night.
For those wondering what names are used to define adult and gender,
Is that a generic defintion? (N.B. correct for badgers; not correct for other species. English is such a wiggly, wobbly language and refuses to be pinned down.)
:)
Bears are also boars, sows and cubs.
More badger activity, and one of the regular foxes is not happy......
The badger was not bothered one bit, so the fox felt it was best to wait the other side of the pond. Look for the white dots, of the fox's eyes catching the infrared of the trailcam.
A rare visit from a peacock butterfly, sunning itself on the wall
Before taking flight
A young Mr GSW on the feeder
I can only think of one occasion when I was in Pembrokeshire driving down a narrow lane that must have been a good couple of miles down hill, and with a couple of pals in the car I said to them it’s amazing there are no lights just my headlights from the car and we have not seen any wildlife, a few moments later there was a cow in the middle of the road, once the cow found its way back to where it came from we continued down the hill and saw a badger in the distance crossing the road. Having never seen one apart from road kill this was the first live badger that I had seen a real treat, as for foxes I have seen quite a few at night in built up area's, always great to see. Thanks Mike for providing the photos from your trail camera, great to see.
i love robins said:I can only think of one occasion when I was in Pembrokeshire driving down a narrow lane that must have been a good couple of miles down hill, and with a couple of pals in the car I said to them it’s amazing there are no lights just my headlights from the car and we have not seen any wildlife, a few moments later there was a cow in the middle of the road, once the cow found its way back to where it came from we continued down the hill and saw a badger in the distance crossing the road. Having never seen one apart from road kill this was the first live badger that I had seen a real treat, as for foxes I have seen quite a few at night in built up area's, always great to see. Thanks Mike for providing the photos from your trail camera, great to see.
Badgers are very shy, and being nocturnal, it is rare to see them, and they are lovely creatures to watch. I'm just a little concerned that our visiting hedgehogs seem to have gone quiet. It could be seasonal, there's no evidence of territorial activity, but the food supply may not be adequate enough for both. Certainly slugs seem to be very low in number considering how moist the ground has been.
I'm monitoring, and talking to the local Wildlife Trust, so unless the advice is different, do something to assist the food supply issue.
Being a fisherman I used to riddle off my maggots on my lawn and any that were left by the birds the hedgehogs used to hoover up at night time, I Know this because I had a sensor overlooking the lawn and if anything that passed the sensor the control unit beeped and that’s when I looked out of the window and saw a hedgehog eating the leftover maggots. One night the buzzer beeped and there was a guy trying my door to see if I had left it unlocked I then saw two other guys trying the neighbours doors. The police caught them. So you might want to buy some maggots for the hedgehogs. ?
Trailcams are very handy, not just for nature, but also as a secondary cctv. I do have cctv operational, and it has been very useful.