Wildlife Corner

[Moh]

Most of the swallows at the caravan site have left, they congregated last Tuesday morning and were gone by lunchtime, just leaving 4 behind.
Another thing I have noticed all the blackbirds have disappeared, we had loads in Spring and they reared plenty of young ones, but there are none about now.

[Stanley]

Do blackbirds migrate? The black birds in Valley Gardens seem to be there all year round, certainly still there now.

[David Whipp]

Commuting, not migrating; geese returning to their night time haunt (not a roost, surely?) yesterday evening.

[Stanley]

I love to see the Canada Geese commuting over Barlick between Whitemoor Reservoir and the wet lands near the canal behind Gill Brow. A direct line over the town centre.

[Tizer]

I hope one day you might get cranes flying above Barlick. We're very fortunate to live near where they were re-introduced on the Somerset Levels and sometimes see large V formations of them flying high and making their characteristic loud honking sound. Very impressive, big birds.

[Whyperion]

Blackbirds do seem to be a bit elusive, its either the cat (now banished to an indefinite inside stretch), or if looking in gardens I suspect spring food needs and nesting in garden hedges means more sightings in spring, I think they go into woodlands in the autumn( nuts and betles in the rotting undergrowth as opposed to tidy gardens)

[Gloria]

Our swallows are still here.

[Stanley]

Midges in Valley Gardens this morning and three skeins of geese on their way from Whitemoor to Greenberfield.

[LizG]

Visited my brother-in-law and his wife in their new holiday house over the weekend. The setting is beautiful backing onto a national park. She mentioned that she was concerned about snakes and we all re-assured her that there would be no problem, she likely wouldn't see any.

We went for a walk down to the beach after lunch and on the way back we saw a small grass snake and all had a laugh, walked around the next corner and there was an almost 3 metre black snake on the path. I don't think she'll walk down there again for a while. She was bouncing on the spot unable to move!! Not my favourite things either.

[Stanley]

Liz, I met a four foot long Black Snake once.... I was staying with friends near Dubbo and went out to get something out of the ute. When I got in the cab and my eyes got used to the transition between the bright sun and the gloom of the shed I realised that there was a big black snake coiled up on the bonnet! I shut the door and got on the CB radio only to be told by John not to piss about with it! I managed to get him to listen to me and he came straight out with his shotgun and blew the snake apart! Didn't do the finish on the ute any good... But he said I'd done just right, he knew it was about and had been after it for a while because as you know, they are very venomous....

[Cathy]

As a child of about 8yrs old I once stepped over a very long very fat carpet snake not realising what it was. I assumed it was a log until it moved Sometimes here in the hills suburbs we get warnings that snakes are on the move coming down from the higher part of the hills for water, not that unusual really but I was surpised last year when I saw the kangaroo making its way up my street.

[Stanley]

Red bellied black snake. I was on a beach in Oz and heard someone shout "Red bellied black coming through!" I thought that's interesting, I wonder what it is? Then I saw this snake coming towards me and took a pic as it passed about four feet from me. It was about three feet long. Then I noticed I was on my own! The bloke who had shouted came up and said "Well done, you did the right thing by standing still." I asked him what was special about it, was it dangerous? He gave me a funny look and said "Could be twenty minutes and we're an hour from the nearest hospital". As my dad always said, there is a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots!
On our walk this morning a black cat with a shrew in it's mouth popped out of the undergrowth in Valley Gardens, crossed the path and disappeared down the beck side. Jack doesn't bother cats and the cat took no notice of Jack. Nature red in tooth and claw in the undergrowth!

[LizG]

That's the one Stanley. The only good thing about them is that they leave you alone if you leave them.

We had another black cockatoo fly by yesterday. I tried to get a photo but I need lessons on how to take photos of black birds against a grey sky. Not one was worth looking at.

[Stanley]

Always looks like crap on the negative Liz.... Those red bellies can get up to 6ft long....

[Tizer]

Over the years we've spotted kingfishers in some odd places, especially rundown and ex-industrial areas and now these photos on the BBC site give further evidence...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-29204055

[Tizer]

This is not really wildlife but it's the wild world!
`Japan's Mount Ontake volcanic eruption traps hikers'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-29392810

[Stanley]

It seems to have caught even the Japanese by surprise. Probably the best volcanic activity monitoring system in the world.
Nice skein of geese in transit from Whitemoor to Greenberfield at 07:00 yesterday morning. Very disciplined! Funny thing is I can't imagine them falling out, they are so sociable.

[LizG]

Looks like we might be having a bad year for snakes. We took our Grandson on a walk in the state park behind our house and saw another red bellied black snake; only a small one this time.

A little 3 year old boy was bitten by a tiger snake in the local botanic gardens. He's recovering in hospital - another venomous snake.

We obviously need to be vigilant this year, first time in a while.

[Cathy]

Scary Liz, scary. Can you get proper walking boots for 3yr olds, and hopefully ones that a snake can't bite thru?
I'd have him on a child's leash (reins ?) so that he can't stray off the path

[Stanley]

I remember once taking a short cut across a bit of spare land in Whittier, CA and a bloke called out to warn me there were Rattlers in it. Not something we Brits think about! He was right, he tossed a stick into the grass and there were at least two! Under Californian state rules, if a child was bitten by a snake on school property the teacher was supposed to capture the snake so the risk could be identified. As my friend Susi said, (she was a teacher) nobody ever told us exactly how we were supposed to catch them! My American students were equally ignorant about stinging nettles, I always had to warn them. Again, I wouldn't know poison ivy if it punched me on the nose!

[Cathy]

(Found it) Check out Boxing Kangaroos in a suburban street and driveway trying to show each other who is boss on our NSW central coast.
Short video on yahoo.com/7news. lol

[Stanley]

Our hares do the same thing in the breeding season Cathy. Hence the saying 'Mad as a March Hare'.

[Stanley]

My Top Cat lodger (Ian Capstick's cat actually from across the street) warming her bum on a car which had just arrived. This is, apart from being a bully, a very smart cat....

[Cathy]

We have a very determined cat hanging around at the moment and getting a bit too close to our open windows and doors. Scared the life out of me the other night when I went into a room and saw a big black and white shape looking at me thru the flyscreen My indoor cat (remember that we are in the suburbs) is a good 'watch cat' and lets me know if something different is happening outside. I've tried to deter this visitor who I think is either interested in the birds in my gardens or in my own cat (a female) with the broom (I'd never touch the visitor with the broom), I've also filled in some holes under the fence where foliage has died down and it still finds it's way thru, also if it's gets too close and upsets my cat at the open front door I spray it with water. I think my cat feels and follows my own reaction and is now possibly over-reacting, so as not to stress her I will have to pull back a bit. This visitor is one very determined cat.

[Stanley]

If it has decided, for whatever reason, that you are part of it's territory, you'll have a job stopping it. The farmer next to Robert's Circus Winter quarters at New Brighton near Gargrave used to clear all their waste for them. He once told me that Tiger muck distributed round the garden fence kept all the pests out..... First find your tiger!