they are carrying tiny editions of the financial times
― "enthusiast" (cat), Friday, 5 April 2024 12:20 (two months ago) link
just spotted in my inner-ish London front garden: a blackcap!
― imago, Thursday, 11 April 2024 09:39 (one month ago) link
I really recommend the Merlin app, which identifies birds by their sounds. Know what the birds are before you see them!
https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
It doesn't only work for birdsong; it can identify woodpeckers by their pecking!
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 11 April 2024 10:36 (one month ago) link
learning to identify birdsong yourself (which you'll be able to do over time if you use one of the apps regularly) is genuinely one of the most life-enriching things you can do
what once was just pleasant background noise becomes incredibly engrossing - especially when you can pick out alarm calls and know something (e.g. a hawk) might be about to go down
Also when you know most of the common birds, anytime you hear something out of the ordinary you'll be desperately scrabbling for your app!
― Number None, Thursday, 11 April 2024 13:15 (one month ago) link
@girlinwhiteglasses on instagram has a series of cool posts for birdsong identification: "if it sounds like a..."
https://www.instagram.com/girlinwhiteglasses/
Regarding alarm sounds, I saw a hawk grab lunch from a nest the other day. Various other birds were in the air and branches around it, creating a racket. A few were definitely crows, but there were smaller birds in there that I couldn't identify.
― peace, man, Thursday, 11 April 2024 14:09 (one month ago) link
We saw a Northern Flicker woodpecker on the ground we thought was dead. Turns out it was feeding - they dig for ants and beetles.
― just like Christopher Wray said (brownie), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:20 (one month ago) link
recently saw a yellow shafted northern flicker in the vacant lot outside my kitchen window... I jumped up, had no idea what the hell it was... I thought it might be somebody's escaped pet. Apparently pretty rare in the west, but not unknown in the winter
https://photoartflight.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/mg_3370paf.jpghttps://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/NFlickers2-yellow_McMullen-red_Steckel.jpg
― Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:26 (one month ago) link
Yes, recently I found out the same is true of one of the UK woodpeckers. The green woodpecker feeds mainly on ants on the ground and doesn't forage on tree trunks like the others.
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:31 (one month ago) link
Jeez that yellow woodpecker is beautiful.
Green woodpeckers don't drum either - only greater spot/lesser spot (and it's only in the spring for sexxy reasons, not, as one might think, to get food).
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:57 (one month ago) link
This magnificent giant Pacific Octopus caught off the coast of California by sportfishers pic.twitter.com/X3upclo62I— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 7, 2024
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 12 April 2024 02:22 (one month ago) link
free him
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Friday, 12 April 2024 02:51 (one month ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMg802MW8AEadnd?format=jpg&name=large
because I have a big tree in my garden every summer I get a lot of bees, particularly these ones (chocolate mining bees- pleasing taxonomy, but these fuckers have stung my feet many times). This year I have a nest of them somewhere deep under my garden and they are in big numbers at the side of my house every evening. The garden is raised up 9 ft with a brick wall at the side and they are coming and going in between their nest and my world through gaps in the concrete render and drainage holes in the brick wall.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 19:05 (one month ago) link
gamera say hi to me
https://i.imgur.com/mSfIWjN.jpeg
― the innocent beeves of our youth (cat), Tuesday, 21 May 2024 20:42 (two weeks ago) link
I saw two porpoises in san francisco bay yesterday, right by Pier 30/32... there must be a herring run or something to draw them that far in
― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 21 May 2024 21:25 (two weeks ago) link
not so much of a sighting but...
on the flat roof outside my window i noticed a pebble-sized lump of some pink foam recently. more each day until there were a good 5 or 6 bits of it out there. i think it's insulation from the roof.
yesterday i noticed they'd all been collected up and put into the little water bowl that's out there.
maybe it's experiment time...
― koogs, Friday, 31 May 2024 12:47 (five days ago) link
(just been to have a look, no obvious source for the foam - the recent work has blocked the previous hole by the drain)
― koogs, Friday, 31 May 2024 12:56 (five days ago) link