John's Mammals 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Farnboro John]

Get this started before I really need it. The plan for 2023 is to focus back onto mammals after a 2022 bird year list of 309: first objective is enough pictures to fill a calendar for the following year, and that's not as easy as it sounds. My rules are:

• All pictures within the period, no going back further;
• Varied species (can't have six deer or eight rodents: the basic groups to pick from in UK are insectivores, bats, rodents (customer feedback insists no rats, mice are OK), carnivores, pinnipeds, ceteacea, ungulates. Of course with foreign trips factored in the choice is wider but still requires a spread of groups.

-Varied views: though I like whole animals, one or two portraits might creep in.
- Change of species from year to year: I've had a couple of Hedgehogs in the last couple of years so a good shrew pic would be nice this year instead. Trouble is I can't hear them any more....

Anyway, only today left before it all kicks off again. January 1 is about birds but after that I'll be trying harder on mammals. Good luck to mammal watching BFers!

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Shakespeare, Henry IV

Glendower: I can call the spirits from the vasty deep.

Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come, when you do call for them?

0030, 1 January 2023 and I clicked my tongue from the open front door half a dozen times. At the end of which I saw a russet form hurrying across the nearby green towards me: Scally the dominant dog fox coming for a handout of chicken - first foxing..... Yes, they will come when I call.

Happy New Year everybody!

John

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

Saw a couple of Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean yesterday John. Glad I was driving slowly. 👍

 

[Paul Chapman]

My first encounter with my patch Otters for 2023 was yesterday with (I believe) a mother & cub. If I am lucky, I see them half a dozen times a year & yesterday was typical. Drizzle & low light generally means that they are prepared to be diurnal. Best pic attached.

 

[Farnboro John]

Otters are intermittently active 24/7 everywhere in Britain, including settled areas (remember the ones in the middle of Thetford when the Dippers were wintering?) That's their natural selves - now that they are not hunted the daylight hours are once more safely available to them. I've seen them during the day in many areas of England except immediately local to me (e.g. Longham Lakes, Blandford Forum, River Otter, Minsmere): I don't think we have many in this area and perhaps I don't do as much at less disturbed waters locally these days.

My foxes have decreased their visits drastically with the onset of the mating season, but two nights ago a very odd thing happened. Patch turned up and stood at the far end of the garden path (only about ten yards away), looked me right in the eye and quietly called "rrow, rrow, rrow" - this is a typical fox contact call but I've never had it used directly to me before! As it happens, by the time I returned from the kitchen with the chicken, Maz had seen his brother Smudge, who had been on the way to us across the green anyway still hopping with his right front held up, have a dispute with him and Patch was disappearing round the far corner of the terrace. Even Smudge only took two drumsticks, making off with the second one.

Rip had been absent for a few days but showed last night: even she took one drumstick and went away to eat it.

This sudden change in behaviour is quite usual but it always unsettles me when they aren't turning up. It means rethinking the normal amount of chicken I hold for a start!

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Scally was first in last night but later on Patch was on the step when I opened the door: he didn't retreat but waited up close to be fed. Reassuring - perhaps for both of us. The others have become perceptibly wilder in recent days - not so close: Smudge would normally curl up on the corner of the step to wait but currently won't come closer than the corner of the green, though his limp seems to have gone. No doubt things will get back to normal eventually.

If the weather would improve I might get out so see some different species, as well!

John

 

[Prestdj]

i saw a very fine looking fox just wandering around my local tesco carpark at around 7am looked very smart nice bushy tail usually i see scruffy ones but this one was quite stunning

 

[Farnboro John]

i saw a very fine looking fox just wandering around my local tesco carpark at around 7am looked very smart nice bushy tail usually i see scruffy ones but this one was quite stunning

Even the juveniles have got their first winter coats now, though those are still slimmer than the adults: but the full winter coat adult foxes look amazing.

The variation is interesting: Patch and Scally though unrelated have similar length and shape tails but Smudge has a much longer one with a jaunty upward curve to it (rather like his sire Big Whitey): little Rip, the vixen, has the bushiest brush in the world, nearly as large as her entire body.

John

 

[Prestdj]

Even the juveniles have got their first winter coats now, though those are still slimmer than the adults: but the full winter coat adult foxes look amazing.

The variation is interesting: Patch and Scally though unrelated have similar length and shape tails but Smudge has a much longer one with a jaunty upward curve to it (rather like his sire Big Whitey): little Rip, the vixen, has the bushiest brush in the world, nearly as large as her entire body.

John

this one did have a very upward tail very bushy with really sparkling white tip............though im not clued on mammals i do enjoy seeing them, i was camping in scarbourgh in april and enjoyed a morning coffee sat outside the van to the sound of hares boxing that was good

 

[Farnboro John]

The foxes are nearly back to normal already - I think I saw everybody except Rip last night and she was present a couple of days ago. Smudge is back on all four feet and will rob anyone below him in the pecking order (I think that's everyone except Scally) - his littermate brother Patch won't take it but does undertake some avoidance manoeuvring.

John

 

[prhodes]

I took a short drive down to Rochford, Essex to see the Common Seal (hope ID correct) that has been in the news recently. Seems a bit sad, but has been feeding well on the stock of fish in the lake. Plans are apparently underway to relocate the animal back to coastal waters. Hope this doesn't become too distressing for him or her. Any thoughts guys?

 

[Farnboro John]

I believe there is considerable anger among the anglers and Essex is fairly lawless so I should think if it isn't moved it will be killed one way or another. Stressing it by moving it will be better than that. One of its hind flippers already looks damaged? Best to get it out of there soon.

Maybe the BDMLRS can do something other than euthanase animals and make absurd statements about disturbance for once.

John

 

[prhodes]

Thanks John, let's hope the relocation goes to plan. Phil

 

[jurek]

I thought that seals regularly swim up rivers and to coastal lakes and spend some time fishing there?

 

[Farnboro John]

I thought that seals regularly swim up rivers and to coastal lakes and spend some time fishing there?

Up rivers yes, and where lakes are part of the river system, no problem. This however is a separate carp lake - stocked by the anglers - that the seal must have nipped overland a short distance to reach. I sympathise a bit - it's rather like seeing a heron land by your goldfish pond.....

John

 

[Farnboro John]

An afternoon down at the Burgh with Clare added a few birds to my year list (more to hers) with Bewick's Swan, both partridges, Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer, plus Barn Owl, all enhancing my total and Cattle Egret, Marsh Harrier and even Buzzard adding to Clare's. There were masses of Red Kites about as well. Glorious light for watching all of them.

We had quite a good afternoon for mammals as well, with several Roe Deer generally at scope distances, a minimum of 20 Brown Hares in various fields and the biggest fattest Brown Rat we'd seen for a long time noshing away at the funnel of a seed feeder. A very small rat was told to buzz off, sharpish, and disappeared down a hole right by the feeder - one of several, in fact the area by this feeder looked like the Western Front. By another feeder back near the magnificent flint walled house at the top of the road, a very nervous Bank Vole was zipping in and out of its hole, commuting to underneath the feeder.

Back home I've had both Smudge (bitten face and left fore held up a lot of the time) and Patch (currently fit after a week or more with his left fore held up) come to dinner and stay for a good meal of chicken drumsticks.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

I returned to the Burgh the following day but still had no luck with either Hen Harriers or Short-eared Owls. I got a couple of record shots of Brown Hares a bit closer than previously.

Yesterday (Monday) after a bit of dithering I decided to try for the Shorelark at Hurst Beach at the far end of Hampshire, as I needed it for my county list. Over the years I hadn't paid that much attention - living in the far North-east corner of Hampshire I would generally go for closer birds over the Berkshire or Surrey border - but a few years ago I counted it up and realised I was in shouting distance of 300. Since then I have broken the barrier and now I intend to go for the few birds new for me.

On the way down I thought I'd finish the open can of Diet Coke in the drinks holder in my car. Wrong - frozen solid!

On arrival I immediately noticed a huge immature Raven in the field next to where I parked at Cut Bridge, and got a few nice pictures of it in the sunshine before it started bullying the local Carrion Crows.

Anyway, of course I arrived ten minutes after the bird had flown off to the saltmarsh and been lost. I covered the whole spit out to the castle and back to where the bird had last been seen, then spent much of the afternoon scrutinising that area, without success. There were a few Rock Pipits and a single Linnet in addition to occasional visits from the two Skylarks that had been mentioned as hanging out with the Shorelark. Loads of waders gradually appeared as the tide began to fall.

Eventually, suffering a bit from the cold North-east breeze despite bright sunshine, I gave up and began trudging back to Cut Bridge. Two birders were levelling cameras at a bird on the high tide line below the bank: inquiry revealed they had the Shorelark, a mere 300 yards from the bridge! How long had it been there undiscovered by birders passing on top of the bank? I was very glad to see it, get a few record shots and add bird no. 305 to my Hampshire list.

On the way home through the New Forest I passed a herd of perhaps 20 Fallow Deer grazing in the open near the road. A nice new mammal for the year as well: what a good afternoon out!

John

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Sorry to hijack your thread but I wonder if you could identify the culprit making these marks (Brecks/Fens interface) Sorry for the terrible pictures but the footprints were feint.

 

[Farnboro John]

Not a hijack, we do this stuff here too. A size comparison (bic biro, pound coin for the affluent, etc) would be useful but for me the first one is dog, there seem to be claw tips and the central pad is broader than fox. The second one I'm not sure what I'm looking at!

John

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Not a hijack, we do this stuff here too. A size comparison (bic biro, pound coin for the affluent, etc) would be useful but for me the first one is dog, there seem to be claw tips and the central pad is broader than fox. The second one I'm not sure what I'm looking at!

John

Thanks

I did suspect that’s probably what it was. I don’t carry a pen, or cash come to that. I would have put my phone down, but I was using that to take the picture.

My only suspects (seen nearby) were Cat, Dog, Hedgehog, Fox and Otter.

Anything else present is way too small. I live in hope of a Badger one day.