The Wildlife (and Gardening for Wildlife) thread

[stevejp]

... well, Ok, not strictly speaking cannibalism - but the opportunity was too good to miss! Edited April 7, 2021 by stevejp

[mikeprice]

Anyway - back on topic (yes it is me my account hasn't been hacked)

 

went out on my bike for the first time in days - found a heron swanning around

 

 

and a Beluga (OK not the actual whale - but the name is on topic!)

 

 

for the confused - it is the name of the planes that Airbus use to transport wings around Europe - it normally lands at Hawarden near Chester - but if the wind is strong and in the wrong direction they often divert to Liverpool and wait for better conditions.

[jmak]

Anyway - back on topic (yes it is me my account hasn't been hacked)

 

 

and a Beluga (OK not the actual whale - but the name is on topic!)

 

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for the confused - it is the name of the planes that Airbus use to transport wings around Europe - it normally lands at Hawarden near Chester - but if the wind is strong and in the wrong direction they often divert to Liverpool and wait for better conditions.

 

So not actually on topic at all [emoji57]

[elsiegee40]

We have been rather concerned about one of the pair of blue tits in our camera box. I think it’s the male. He got his head mangled a couple of weeks ago in circumstances unknown. He looks better than he did, but I fear he can’t see out of his right eye

[elsiegee40]

I have very carefully extracted the leafcutter bee cocoons from their bee hotel. They won’t emerge until next month so they’ll stay in a ventilated tub in the garage for a few more weeks. The construction is fascinating. They use pieces of leaf, mostly rose, and by the look of it a few rose petals to make the cells to lay their eggs in. And each cell has a ball of pollen for the bee grub to feed on. There’s a lovely smell of pot pourri from these cocoons!

 

The bee hotel has been in the garage, safe from frost, all winter but I wanted to clean it to ensure there were no parasites hanging around to grab this year’s bees. Obviously, you can’t use insecticide on the bee hotel so the trays were scrubbed in hot water and, when they’re dry, they’ll go in the freezer for a few days to ensure no parasite eggs remain alive.

 

Out in the garden, a second Red Mason Bee has emerged from its cocoon 10 days after the first. I have been bringing these into the garage on frosty nights. Hopefully the rest will emerge soon [emoji4]

[RobD]

We've got eggs in our nest box.

 

[elsiegee40]

We've got eggs in our nest box.

 

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Wow! Our tits are still faffing about moving the moss around

[elsiegee40]

Survey on attitudes to the reintroduction of European Lynx that you might like to complete

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdUWtei8XB-6FPAdHCNdv5OLl_TjtrFst3hx_mWFzpVyxKLvQ/formResponse

[RobD]

Wow! Our tits are still faffing about moving the moss around

 

I've got some footage of them being laid but couldn't decide how appropriate it would be to post it.

[elsiegee40]

I've got some footage of them being laid but couldn't decide how appropriate it would be to post it.

 

Very! What’s inappropriate about tits mating and laying eggs? [emoji848]

[RobD]

Very! What’s inappropriate about tits mating and laying eggs? [emoji848]

 

Here it is, I'll pop a few more up later.

[6Foot2]

Link 1: Giant Hogweed Locations Map (UK) [What Shed?]

 

Giant Hogweed is known as “the most dangerous plant in Britain”, just lightly touching the plant’s sap can pose a considerable threat to human health. If you want to find out why it’s so dangerous you can read our in-depth resource article on Giant Hogweed or if you want to just get the simple facts then you can look at this Giant Hogweed infographic to help give you a quick overview.

 

The spread of this invasive species across the UK has become increasingly rapid, it must be stopped. The first step in tackling this invasive species is accurately determining where Giant Hogweed is found. To do that, we need your help!

 

The Environment Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural Resources Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency joined forces to create an app that was formally used to tack this invasive and dangerous plant. Unfortunately due to funding issues, The PlantTracker app is now no longer available from the iTunes App Store, Google Play Store and Windows Store. We all hoped that this would be temporary but now after over 18 months it’s looking like this is not going to happen.

 

To help continue the collection of this important data for the Biological Records Centre’s iRecord system WhatShed have created this interactive map that shows all the locations for Giant Hogweed sightings in the UK. We have also created a simple form below the map where we ask people who have seen this dangerous plant to enter the details of the sighting so an expert can verify it.

 

We need to keep collecting the data, we need your help!

 

 

Link 2: Giant Hogweed Locations Interactive Map (UK)

[LeMarchand]

Got one of these from the dump a while back (just had to bodge caps either end),

 

 

Hint for anyone with similar composters: If it's getting full up enough to make turning difficult, it's time to take out some compost. That will be a lot less hassle than having to lighten the load enough for you to be able to manoeuvre the barrel back into its mounts after it has got so heavy that the mounting arms have splayed.

[mikeprice]

ANother bike ride along the canal - with a camera

 

took this of a heron on the far bank

 

 

just after I took the shot - it saw a fish and stabbed at it

but the camera was busy saving the image and resetting

as soon as it was ready I just pressed the button - no time for proper aiming, framing etc etc

 

came out like this

 

 

 

pretty good considering!

[6Foot2]

Link 1: The Gardening4Health Directory [Gardening4Health.co.uk]

 

t is hoped that this list becomes a directory of all the Social and Therapeutic Horticulture activities and organisations operating in the UK.

 

There has been a huge growth in this area and I am very aware that the landscape is changing all the time, however, I hope I will be able to maintain it as a comprehensive and up to date list for people to use.

 

This obviously relies on the army of staff, volunteers and members of the public out there letting me know of services that are not included, have changed, relocated or that have ceased to exist so that I can keep it up to date for others. To do this, please use the form on the contact page.

 

As the curator of the directory, I obviously cannot be held responsible for the organisations themselves. I am simply trying to publicise their existence.

 

Scroll on the map to zoom in on your region and see what’s available. Alternatively, use the list below – Alphabetically* – Country by Country and County by County:

 

*That alphabetical list is on the linked webpage, not reproduced here.

 

Link 2: The Gardening4Health Interactive Map

 

 

Link 3: Gardening For Wellbeing [Trellis]

 

Find a Therapeutic Gardening Project in the Network hover over the marker to get the project details - you will probably need to scroll to get to the individual project details (hold ctrl key and scroll the mouse wheel)

 

If you click on the name it will give you more details for the project...

 

[elsiegee40]

We have lived here 22 years... and this is definitely a garden first!

 

Lactating female badger.

 

 

Not good news for our hedgehogs, but I am still grinning from ear to ear and may need to go and run round doing s happy dance for a bit! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargggghhhh!!!!!!!! [emoji16][emoji4][emoji7]🥰🦡🤯

[Ditto]

Got one of these from the dump a while back (just had to bodge caps either end),

 

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Hint for anyone with similar composters: If it's getting full up enough to make turning difficult, it's time to take out some compost. That will be a lot less hassle than having to lighten the load enough for you to be able to manoeuvre the barrel back into its mounts after it has got so heavy that the mounting arms have splayed.

Nice find! So, sort of recycling, recycling, recycling then

[6Foot2]

Link:

[Picture Tweet]

 

The ducks are guarding one of our accommodation blocks!...

 

 

[6Foot2]

Link: The Wytham Tit Project

 

The Wytham Tit Project is a long-term population study of two woodland bird species - great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) - based at Wytham Woods near Oxford, UK, and is run by the Edward Grey Institute in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. Although the majority of the work focusses on great and blue tits, there are smaller populations of coal tits (Periparus ater) and marsh tits (Poecile palustris) which are of particular interest for their role in interspecific flocking and information spread. Sadly, as with much of the UK, the willow tit (Poecile montana) no longer breeds in Wytham.

 

Wytham Woods was bequeathed to the University by the ffennell family in 1942 after the death of their only child, Hazel. The ffennels requested that the woods be used "for the instruction of suitable students" and to "provide facilities for research". Accordingly, the woods became the University's ecological laboratory (a.k.a. The Laboratory with Leaves), with scientists using the woods to research environmental change, conservation, palaeoecology, long-term vegetation change, community ecology, and the behaviour and ecology birds, bats, badgers and rodents.

 

The Wytham Tit Project was set up in 1947 by John Gibb and David Lack, inspired by pioneering work by Kluijver in the Netherlands, in order to study the breeding biology of the great tit. Lack initially put up 100 nest boxes in Marley Wood, one section of Wytham Woods; the study was later expanded around 1960 to cover the entire 385-hectare woodland using over 1000 fixed location nest boxes. Over the last 57 years, we have monitored all the breeding attempts in these boxes and individually-marked all parents and offspring (spanning up to 40 generations), making this one of the longest running ecological studies of marked wild individual animals in the world.

 

[elsiegee40]

Four hedgehogs at the feed station last night. The one sat in the food dish looking out is a female.

 

The first male to investigate her is balled in the corner of the feed station after being beaten up by the second male to turn up.

 

The second male is the one on the left by the water dish... he came out for a drink.

 

While he was drinking, male 3 turned up and another fight ensued... won by male 3. Male 3 then went in the feed station and beat up the still balled male 1 just for the sake of it before turning on his charm for the lady. She seemed singularly unimpressed with all of them

[Andrew_C]

Our ladies don't seem much impressed with the quality of the local males either. New house put in yesterday.

 

Funnily enough, I saw a feeding station just like elsie's when looking at a FB Hog page. Complete with fox this time...

[Ditto]

I have a feeling we are going to need content warnings on future video feeds from @elsiegee40, or maybe one of those old red triangles from Channel 4 in the mid '80's

[6Foot2]

 

A rare Sei whale was captured cruising around a quiet Scottish bay - far from its usual habitat of Polar regions. The third largest whale species, they are usually found in deeper colder waters within Polar regions, or off the coasts of the Galapagos Isles and typically grow up to 66ft in length. A rare sighting was recorded along the Angus coast in 2012.

[stevejp]

 

...but I thought all whales lived in the sei?

 

[mikeprice]

Link: The Wytham Tit Project

 

 

 

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Sounds like a wonderful place

 

nice to get uplifting information - thanks