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Nature chit chat

Out and about in nature
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isha
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:15 pm

Re: Nature chit chat

#51

Post by isha »

Yesterday I learned (from himself) that Ireland maintained a very large trade in pine marten pelts from at least Medieval times. They were hunted almost to extinction. 😔

I have seen one quite close up. He was lying full length along a tree branch close to a window and eating from a bird feeder. He was really quite big.
Thinking out loud, and trying to be occasionally less wrong...
765489

Re: Nature chit chat

#52

Post by 765489 »

Plenty of Blackcaps singing around the hedgerows at the moment. If your out and about and hear a sound reminiscent of someone playing random quick notes on a flute it's probably it. Stands out above the rest of the birdsong going around.

765489

Re: Nature chit chat

#53

Post by 765489 »

Ncdjd2 wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:41 am Was lying in bed this morning at about 7am. There was a song thrush outside that had an ambulance siren build into his song. It was a perfect rendition of it exactly as the first 20 seconds of the attached video.

I've never heard of a song thrush mimick something like that before at the start of his songs. Will try and get a recording of it if he's still around over the next few days.
Update on this. The bird is actually a black bird. I've a sound clip of it below I recorded on my phone. It also does a low whistle which I initially thought was someone acting the maggot behind the hedge. It started doing the car alarm sound when I went out to investigate. The novelty of hearing this blackbird's song has worn off on me though. I wish it feck off somewhere else 😀

http://sndup.net/pxnk
765489

Re: Nature chit chat

#54

Post by 765489 »

There's a good few nesting Skylarks around my locality this year. Some of the fields I go into I immediately hear the alarm call. Great to see / hear. I wonder are the chicks nearly fledged now at this stage?
CelticRambler
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Location: Central France

Re: Nature chit chat

#55

Post by CelticRambler »

Well, it seems like I have at least five species of froggy-type things in my new pond. I definitely have the common pond frog, and either the marsh frog or a hybrid pond-marsh species ; then I have confirmed sightings of the common toad and the yellow-belly toad (which I previously mistook for juvenile common toad, but now that I've heard him singing, it's definitely not!) ; and after several weeks' googling, I'm pretty sure there's a European tree frog in the hedgerow beside the pond.

Something arrived this year and started making a fierce racket from dusk till beyond nightfall every night (till it got chilly this last week). At first, I'd assumed it was a frog, but when I tried to spot it, I localised the sound to somewhere in the hedge well above ground level, so decided it was probably a bird - especially as IT'S BLOODY LOUD :o and my supposition was reinforced when it moved to the shrubbery away from the pond. But not matter how hard I tried, I could not see any bird-shaped creature in the bushes, and they're not that dense. Anyhow, last night, on my umpteenth session binge-listening "amphibian sounds" on YouTube, I finally hit upon the song of the tree frog, and yep, that's exactly it.

The pond frogs, though, are mad little fellas altogether. I never realised before just how actively they hunt - always had this idea that they just sit in one place and flick their tongue out at any pour critter that gets close enough. But no - they'll sit in one place for ages, then suddenly go scooting across the pond, climb up the bank and leap off it to snatch a dragon-fly that's perched on a flower-stalk ... and bellyflop back into the pond afterwards!
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Re: Nature chit chat

#56

Post by 765489 »

CR did you create that pond yourself or is it a natural feature you have in your garden ? Do you have to top up the water in it in dry spells ?

I have a natural pond in the corner of my field but the last few yearsit has dried up. Which used to never happen. The result is I've lost tge dragonflies and other pond creatures.
CelticRambler
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Location: Central France

Re: Nature chit chat

#57

Post by CelticRambler »

It's all new. I keep meaning to put up a post about it, including before, during and after photos, but, well, sure you know yourself - after you've spent sixteen hours of the day working on something like that, the enthusiasm fades when you come inside! :mrgreen:

It's part of my anti-drought measures. Here, we've always had our rain fall in short, infrequent torrential downpours, which isn't particularly helpful, so I decided I needed a big tank to catch and hold it. Then a bigger tank. Then feck the tank, what I need is a giant hole. Or two. The objective is to have capacity for about 30-50000 litres, in three sections.

I started digging the first section early last year, but before I had it as deep as I wanted I had to interrupt the excavation to go off and be an employee for a bit. Then it rained (and rained and rained) and filled it up; and then the frogs moved in so I felt I couldn't really drain it again.

This year (this month, in fact - during the heatwave) I dug the second section and didn't stop till it was done, about 1m20 deep at the shallow end, 2m at the deep end. It's about half full already, and I've surprised a couple of the frogs checking it out even though there's no vegetation or obvious insect life in there.

We have a very, very heavy clay soil, so there's very little leakage (our local national park contains thousands of ponds left after the clay was dug out for brick making and other industrial purposes) and I've dug it in such a way as to cut across the water table that slopes up. In the fullness of time, I'll arrange for all the water coming off the roof to be diverted into the orchard from where it'll feed slowly into the three ponds.

Back in May, I did notice that we had millions more dragonflies and damselflies than ever before, and I subsequently saw several females laying eggs in the vegetation that's grown in the first pond since last year. That's probably due to the frogs persuading me to leave everything alone for a year! However, I've realised that the frogs actually like the disruption (at least the males do - they come out to watch the digger!) so I'm being a bit more ruthless this year in order to get the first and second ponds into their final, stable configuration.
765489

Re: Nature chit chat

#58

Post by 765489 »

Brilliant stuff CR. I always wanted to dig out the pond I have here but haven't got around to it yet. Its only a small thing so could do it with the shovel if it dries up again. The water runs out of it too so I might try and dam it to a certain height and just let the overflow run out of it.
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isha
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Re: Nature chit chat

#59

Post by isha »

Ye all probably knew about this for ages but it was a breakthrough for me. I've been absolutely inundated with House Martin shyte since they arrived as they have five nesting places on the house, and much as I love them, I hate their smelly poop.
So I've been scraping it up, power washing it, putting down ugly cardboard and cursing their little arses. None of it worked and their shyte corrodes the concrete.

So now I sorted it out. I laid down a half inch thick swathe of builders sand under their nests which actually blends into colour of concrete paths quite well and then I just lift a layer of the pooped on sand and replace every week or so. It's working great. No more corrosion. 👍👍
Thinking out loud, and trying to be occasionally less wrong...
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