nature sightings

heard squealing out the front and went to have a look and there were two urban foxes going through the binbags (only recycling so slim pickings). one wandered off, the other just curled up in the middle of the road (it's 02:30 and the end of the road's closed for water works so no traffic)

Speaking of foxes and the middle of the road, we have had foxes in our neighborhood for years. It's been fun to catch an occasional glimpse of them at night dashing into someone's yard late at night. But this year, for some reason, they've started shitting in the street. You can tell it's fox scat rather than someone's dog because there are usually some visible berry seeds or the occasional tuft of fur.

Used to walking past foxes in the middle of the day now as they gingerly wait between two parked cars for you to pass by on the pavement just a couple of metres away so they can get back to that tasty binload.

a deer, less than ten metres away, watching us over a fence for a couple of minutes. I'm no deer expert but I think maybe it was a young roe, not a muntjac.

also I've been hearing an owl at night, haven't seen it yet but someone on the street took a photo of it on sitting on a television aerial.

if using my binoculars to watch squirrels have sex is pervy voyeurism then i don't want to be right, squirrels have the cutest sex

most of the squirrel sex outside my kitchen window seems involuntary, a lot of chasing from branch to branch

aw, my little guys do lots of cute grooming and tumbling in the branches, the only chasing happens when an unwanted third pops up!

Am in Taiwan right now. Squirrels here small and dark brown ie black. We've seen lots of birds, mainly black drongos and night herons. At night as well as the aforementioned herons you hear night hawks squawking loudly. They're misnamed...not Raptors, but related to the nightjar. We've heard lots of frogs, but haven't actually spotted any!

drongos r so goth i love them

those bloodred eyes, hell yeah

it is very cool, imo, that you are in taiwan! and hearing invisible frogs! out here in boringsville, usa, i ~think~ i've maybe started to hear quiet froglike creaky croaks near marshy areas -- in addition to the red winged blackbird boys staking out nesting sites for their sweeties -- but it might just be bugs impersonating frogs for secret reasons?

A family of six deers in a field yesterday night on my run - God bless summer time

In seven months of running along the canals and other waterways of Birmingham I've seen plenty of herons, the odd egret and once only the glorious blue flash of a kingfisher. In two runs in Norfolk last week I was somewhat disappointed to see only one muntjac deer and nothing else out of the ordinary.

at home over christmas i saw a muntjac deer carcass by the side of the road (in the wooded area by a motorway bridge) followed about 5 yards further on by another. nobody has ever mentioned seeing live deer around there.

saw a couple of bank vole in the new forest on monday

i am envisioning harried little voles in 3 piece suits

they are carrying tiny editions of the financial times

just spotted in my inner-ish London front garden: a blackcap!

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!

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!

@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.

We saw a Northern Flicker woodpecker on the ground we thought was dead. Turns out it was feeding - they dig for ants and beetles.

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.jpg
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/NFlickers2-yellow_McMullen-red_Steckel.jpg

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.

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).

This magnificent giant Pacific Octopus caught off the coast of California by sportfishers pic.twitter.com/X3upclo62I

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 7, 2024

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