Wildlife Corner

[Stanley]

My trouble is I read War of the Worlds at an early age! I can just imagine one of them twenty feet tall!

[StoneRoad]

From one or maybe two greenfinches a couple of months ago, I saw at least six at once today. Tucking into peanuts in a wire feeder I built about a decade ago (it needs a little tlc atm)

[Stanley]

I keep thinking that's something I should be doing....
How are you?

[Stanley]

I heard a piece on World Service about a woman imitating wolf calls in the night and getting them to respond.
This reminded me of a story I once came across about a man who developed the remarkable skill of imitating the call of the Owl. For weeks he went out into the garden at night and got local owls to respond to his call. This was regarded as quite remarkable until a chance conversation at a local social club revealed that he wasn't the only Owl imitator. Another man had been doing the same thing and was fascinated by the 'conversations' he had with owls at night. You've guessed it, when they compared notes they were calling to each other!

[Tizer]

Some birders use calls to attract birds closer and some will even resort to recorded calls. But it's usually frowned upon by the ornithology community. (Anyone who does it is a cheep cheat! )

[Stanley]

That was a terrible pun, you should be ashamed of yourself....
You reminded me of the calls used by duck and goose hunters.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS video about spotting whales from space.
Ever heard of 'The Blob'? Have a look at THIS for a BBC report on one of the strangest organisms known to science.

[Cathy]

Both fascinating. I wonder why the Blob exists in the first place?

[Tizer]

Same reason as why we exist, Cathy. Evolution. The slime moulds are better adapted to their environment than we are - they don't need to make cars, planes, smartphones etc.

[Stanley]

I've noticed over the last twenty years or so that we are learning more (and being surprised by!) the scale of underground activity in woodlands. Trees exchanging information via their roots, vast bodies of Mycelium (Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus or fungus-like bacterial colony, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. The mass of hyphae is sometimes called shiro, especially within the fairy ring fungi. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates.) and now the Blob.
We are always surprised when we find new information that questions old simplistic beliefs. The same applies to the topic on archaeology earlier this morning. The bottom line is always question beliefs as new evidence emerges. Hitchhiker's Guide posited a theory that white mice were actually in charge of the planet. Adam's was pointing at the same arrogance of thought.

[Cathy]

Not long ago I watched a Judy Dench program where she was showing her woods and they showed how trees communicate with each other in times of stress for eg dryness or to warn each other of invading pests etc. Worth watching.

[Gloria]

We came face to face with this young man this morning, he was very confident, and looked very fit and well.

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[Wendyf]

Lovely!

[Stanley]

I was sat in the dark watching TV and either a small bat or a very large moth fluttered into the room, did a couple of circuits and vanished. Haven't see it since. I felt the disturbed air on my face as it passed close to me so I am favouring a bat. Didn't worry me at all.
(Thinking more about it, if it had been a moth I would have expected it to home in on the bright light of the TV screen.)

[Gloria]

After coming face to face with the young buck yesterday, today we heard a stag in the wood, we couldn't see him, but he was very noisy and sounded big. Perhaps as well he didn't see us.

[Stanley]

The bat/moth visited again last night at roughly the same time.
Gloria, stags are best avoided at this time of year, rutting season is upon us. The first time I heard a rutting stag calling at night was in the far North of Scotland above Lairgs. I was having a pee at the time on a single track road and I thought it was a bloody lion! I don't mind admitting it put the wind up me! Come to think it was at this time of year.

[PanBiker]

Is your flying visitor captive in the house or do you have the door open Stanley?

[plaques]

I doubt its a bat. We have had them fall down the chimney before we put rain cowls on. They flew round the house like a B52 bomber at an incredible speed. You would certainly know from the downdraft as the buzz round the room.

[PanBiker]

One of our cats used to catch them by launching from the bird table in the front garden. He always brought them in carefully in his mouth, unharmed and then let them go! I found the best way to capture them was to shut the doors into the room and wait until they had enough of flying round and needed a rest. A small net curtain came in handy for capture. Managed to capture and release all but one which we missed him fetching in. Turned up dead in a china jug that we had on display on a small wall cupboard.

[Stanley]

The bat (I got a good look and it was definitely a small bat) came to visit again last night. I opened the front door and Jack and I stood in the hall, after about five minutes I caught a glimpse of it at low level heading out into the open air. Nice....

[chinatyke]

We had one take up residence whilst the builders were working on this apartment. This bedroom was open to the outside at the time. We shooed it away, I assume bats are not protected here, there are plenty of them.


It is clinging in an upper corner of the room with its face pointing down towards the bottom of the photo.

[Gloria]

Lovely Stanley, good deed done showing it the way out, hopefully it will link up once again with family.

[PanBiker]

If it has been trapped inside for a few days it will need a feed, I reckon that will be its first priority, high metabolic rate so they need the fuel.

[Wendyf]

There were a lot of insects around in the still air yesterday evening, it would have fed well!

[Gloria]

We had a large bumble bee outside the stables yesterday, didn't stay long.