John's Mammals 2012 (3 Viewers)

[Farnboro John]

I had a bash at the Otters on Saturday. I saw the dog Otter at about 0900 in the weir pool but he headed off downstream and I lost him. However over the course of the day I had super views of Kingfishers.

The water is very high at the moment which may be affecting the bits of river the Otters are using.

A dry week may let it drop somewhat.

John

 

[prhodes]

Forgive me John, felt I had to post this somewhere - I was delighted. Had a brief view of the Thetford Otters today at about 8:30. Usual mistake, faffing with the camera rather than enjoying the view. Two animals to the east of the northern-most of the 'Nuns Bridges'. Well I say two animals one jumped in the river and I had a good brief view. The other ran off along the bank so not really full identified if I'm honest (but as they were together at the start in the gloom under the trees).

 

[Farnboro John]

Forgive me John, felt I had to post this somewhere - I was delighted. Had a brief view of the Thetford Otters today at about 8:30. Usual mistake, faffing with the camera rather than enjoying the view. Two animals to the east of the northern-most of the 'Nuns Bridges'. Well I say two animals one jumped in the river and I had a good brief view. The other ran off along the bank so not really full identified if I'm honest (but as they were together at the start in the gloom under the trees).

All mammal news and experience is welcome on here.

John

 

[prhodes]

All mammal news and experience is welcome on here.

John

Thanks John, I'll certainly be checking this site again.

Regards, Phil

 

[Farnboro John]

I went for the stunning Arctic Redpoll at Aldeburgh on Saturday and afterwards we popped into Minsmere in the hope of picking up some of the goodies (small G) there.

Pretty much clanged out on everything, but as we were returning to the visitor centre from South Hide we passed a grassy track through the reedbed just as a big dog Otter leapt out of the reeds and paused in the middle of it. He heard my reactive hiss of "Otter!" and jumped back into the reeds the way he had come. We staked the spot out for a while but he didn't reappear. A Suffolk tick and the first time I have seen an Otter at Mins despite several stakeouts.

John

 

[MarkHows]

Ages since my last post amazing how time goes by, anyway had a few excursions. I was kindly hosted by Jos in Lithuania (details in other forum posts), mammal wise we saw some bison, but woodpeckers were the highlight. Back in blighty I visited the Donna Nook Rookery for some cracking seals and also visited the incarcerated hooded seal. popped in to see the redpoll as well. Last weekend was full of bat hibernacular checks with 7 species - Barbastelle the highlight.

Full details on my blog as always

Mark

 

[Farnboro John]

Ages since my last post amazing how time goes by, anyway had a few excursions.
Mark

You're not wrong, I don't know where this year's gone!

Hooded Seal is an ugly little spud, innit?

John

 

[Mike Richardson]

You're not wrong, I don't know where this year's gone!

Hooded Seal is an ugly little spud, innit?

John

It looked even more ugly with an aerial on top of it's head!

 

[Isurus]

got an email today to tell me there was a dolphin in the town harbour. popped through to a room with a window and added bottlenose dolphin to my "office list" - a rather pleasant pre-christmas surprise.

 

[Mike Richardson]

got an email today to tell me there was a dolphin in the town harbour. popped through to a room with a window and added bottlenose dolphin to my "office list" - a rather pleasant pre-christmas surprise.

Nice one. Just out of interest how many mammals do you have on your 'office list.' From my warehouse in the dead centre of Bridlington I've seen Rabbit, House Mouse, Weasel and Roe Deer (!) actually inside the warehouse and Red Fox outside. Others have seen Brown Rat but thankfully many years ago.

 

[Isurus]

Nice one. Just out of interest how many mammals do you have on your 'office list.' From my warehouse in the dead centre of Bridlington I've seen Rabbit, House Mouse, Weasel and Roe Deer (!) actually inside the warehouse and Red Fox outside. Others have seen Brown Rat but thankfully many years ago.

mammals? After yesterday 1 (we have next to no mammals on the island).
A few decent birds though including white stork.

 

[MarkHows]

Nice one. Just out of interest how many mammals do you have on your 'office list.'

Stoat, Fox, Rabbit, Muntjac, Soprano pip, hare.

Mark

 

[Farnboro John]

Roe Deer, Red Fox, Grey Squirrel, Wood Mouse, Brown Rat, Common Pipistrelle.

John

 

[scary-canary]

Saw this carp (?) at Longham lakes today. It's been well eaten , but what by? I have seen otters at the site in the past, but also foxes too. Any ideas?
Thanks
Chris

 

[Farnboro John]

Saw this carp (?) at Longham lakes today. It's been well eaten , but what by? I have seen otters at the site in the past, but also foxes too. Any ideas?
Thanks
Chris

Clearly we can rule out a fox having caught it, but given that Otters often take a limited amount from their prey that doesn't mean a fox hasn't had a go after an Otter caught it.

How big is it? Could a Heron have caught it and then found it too big to handle? Alternatively is there human fishing at the site that could have resulted in an accidentally dead carp being left there?

That said I would be surprised if there aren't Otters in the area. It would be nice to think it was Otter sign.

John

 

[scary-canary]

Clearly we can rule out a fox having caught it, but given that Otters often take a limited amount from their prey that doesn't mean a fox hasn't had a go after an Otter caught it.

How big is it? Could a Heron have caught it and then found it too big to handle? Alternatively is there human fishing at the site that could have resulted in an accidentally dead carp being left there?

That said I would be surprised if there aren't Otters in the area. It would be nice to think it was Otter sign.

John

John. All of your suggestions seem possible. I thought that too much had been eaten for an otter too. I guess I'll never know!
Chris

 

[Farnboro John]

John. All of your suggestions seem possible. I thought that too much had been eaten for an otter too. I guess I'll never know!
Chris

Yes, we're not quite up to CSI standards I'm afraid. We have been round this block with a few dead fish over the years, so I have an array of questions but far fewer answers!

John

 

[Farnboro John]

The media is now in Review of the Year mode, and, disregarding the chance of a mega-finish rendering this outdated in hours, here for a start is my British Mammal Year List for 2012 and my top five sightings:

Rabbit
Grey Squirrel
Roe Deer
Red Deer
Fallow Deer
Red Fox
Water Shrew
Muntjac
Brown Rat
Otter
Mountain Hare
Brown Hare
Weasel
House Mouse
Grey Seal
Stoat
Badger
Yellow-necked Mouse
Daubenton's Bat
Mink
Soprano Pipistrelle
Feral Goat
Field Vole
Bank Vole
Wood Mouse
Water Vole
Harbour Porpoise
Common Seal
Natterer's Bat
Noctule Bat
Serotine Bat
Sika Deer
Red Squirrel
Common Dolphin
Common Shrew
Common Pipistrelle
Edible Dormouse
Greater Horseshoe Bat
Brown Long-eared Bat
European Beaver (Tick)
Pygmy Shrew
Grey Long-eared Bat (Tick)
Barbastelle
Harvest Mouse
Chinese Water Deer
Wild Boar
Lesser Horseshoe Bat
Bottlenose Dolphin
Hedgehog
Long-finned Pilot Whale

Obviously the two ticks are pretty far up the list, but the Grey Long-eared Bat was more frustrating than exhilarating, so only the beavers make the top five.

I saw and photographed a Roe Deer fawn that was so recently born that it was still falling over when I first saw it. The cuteness factor was more than I could resist and its mother became quite tolerant of me over about a week which was a privilege.

I finally started to get good results photographing the Greater Horseshoe Bats, which after a lot of experiment and practice was very satisfying.

A Brown Rat in my brother's back garden produced what I think is my best mammal photo of the year, peering over the lip of his concrete patio from its lair below his shed. His wife's reaction on Christmas day when she got to the November shot of the calendar I made them was perhaps my second best mammal pic of the year!

Finally for sheer effort and delight in final success it has to be the two expeditions for the Long-finned Pilot Whales in the Firth of Forth.

John

Edit: Oops, forgot to mention the Ermine Stoat which trumps the whales, effort or not; also the non-countable Black-tailed Prairie Dogs which were good value just to watch.

JD

 

[Farnboro John]

Hi. I'm Dennis, John's brother David's cat.

I have an interest in mammals, which Dave keeps interfering with. He stole six Grey Squirrels from me this autumn just because I was eating them under his bed. (Note to self: do not crunch up Grey Squirrels when Dave is actually in bed.)

Dave's wife hates rats.I have included a picture of her finding the "Big Mouse" picture (see post #76 in this thread) in the calendar John gave them for Christmas, to prove it. Anyway I am getting into this Christmas lark so when I caught a Brown Rat in the garden I thought I'd play Santa. Dave locked my cat flap so I couldn't. Rats.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year tomorrow everybody! :cat:

Dennis the Murderous

PS: Any errors in this are John's I can't type. D

Pix:

Eurrh! Hey - that's our shed!
Gottim!
Here comes Santa Dennis!
Hey, who locked the cat flap?

 

[MarkHows]

Thought I would add my mammals 2012 details now 2012 is over

1. Hedgehog
2. Common Shrew
3. Pygmy shrew
4. Water Shrew
5. Greater horseshoe bat
6. Lesser horseshoe bat
7. Whiskered Bat
8. Brandts Bat
9. Natters Bat
10. Bechsteins Bat
11. Daubentons Bat
12. Serotine Bat
13. Noctule Bat
14. Barbastelle Bat
15. Pipistrelle Bat
16. Soprano pipistrelle Bat
17. Nathusius's Pipistrelle Bat
18. Brown Long eared Bat
19. Red Squirrel
20. Grey Squirrel
21. Bank Vole
22. Field Vole
23. Water Vole
24. Wood Mouse
25. Yellow Necked Mouse
26. Harvest Mouse
27. House Mouse
28. Hazel Dormouse
29. Edible Dormouse
30. Brown Rat
31. Red Fox
32. Pine Marten
33. Stoat
34. Weasel
35. Polecat
36. Badger
37. Otter
38. Mink
39. Red Deer
40. Roe Deer
41. Sika Deer
42. Fallow Deer
43. Muntjac Deer
44. Chineese Water Deer
45. Rabbit
46. Brown Hare
47. Mountain Hare
48. Beaver (tick)
49. Common Seal
50. Grey Seal
51. Wild Boar
52. Minke Whale
53. Common Dolphin
54. Harbour Porpoise
55. Risso's Dolphin (tick)
56. Humpback Whale
57. Long Finned Pilot Whale
58. White Sided Dolphin (tick)
59. White Beaked Dolphin
60. Bottle Nosed Dolphin
61. British Primitive Goat
62. British Wild Sheep (tick)
63. Feral Horse / Pony
Black tailed Prairie dog (Escaped - not counted)

A cracking year with 4 ticks in the 63 species seen, 54 photographed or videoed. October was the most prolific month with 30 species seen.

Highlights
Wild Sheep and the amazing trip to St Kilda to see them and seeing White sided dolphins for the first time as well.
An amazing Minke whale and corking pine marten in Scotland and the beavers were excellent both the Tay and Knapdale populations.
Photography
Photography went well with some great bat photos, minke whale, beaver, badger, wild boar, pine marten, water and pygmy shrews.
Trips
Ermine and whales in Aberdeenshire ,Long finned Pilot whales in Forth and Wild Sheep on St Kilda were the trips of note for mammals.

Hope 2013 is half as good - have a happy new year

Mark