John's Mammals 2015 (1 Viewer)

prhodes said:

In north Herts on Sunday these Fallow Deer were nice to see.

By the way, we recently enjoyed a birding trip to Morocco including a long, long drive down to the Aoussard Road. As it was our first trip we concentrated on birds, and mammals were very limited - just Fat Sand Rat and African Savannah Hare. We did enjoy reading Mark's report and wondering about going back on a mammal trip one day (not under estimating the technical demands of such a trip) - well perhaps if you could fly all the way down on Easyjet!

Phil

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You can of course fly to Dakhla ... presume you saw this thread - http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=298874

Top place, wish we'd more effort on the mammals too (though did see Fennec Fox by chance).

Had a site for Fallow Deer pointed out to me the other day - been a long time since seen one of them.

MarkHows said:

Nice one, I am sure we will all help with questions etc. you may have

Mark

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Farnboro John said:

You're in a good place to pick up some cetaceans, anyway. And its not far to go and get that pesky shrew!

John

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Cheers, looks like I might be joining the community then ... if that's ok. Should have made more effort with the mammals over the years, guess it's not too late to start ...

wrt The Shrew - not even been out to those islands for a few years now, but if I do ... might look for some gen tbh. Falmouth has some cetaceans - last year Risso's, Bottlenose and Harbour Porpoise, but have to go a bit further afield usually for Common Dolphin and Minke Whale (only to The Lizard possibly).

So ...

Was speaking only on Tues to someone who reckoned it would be easier to get a higher butterfly list in the uk than a mammal list by chance in a year - I didn't agree, but it might be close.

Reckon with some minimal targeting, 20 or perhaps even 30 species (with luck and more targeting) may be possible in Cornwall in a years birding, we'll see ...

So far, on 6 -

1 Rabbit
2 Red Fox
3 Grey Squirrel
4 Wood Mouse (x3)
5 Brown Rat
6 Bottlenose Dolphin (x6, Carbis Bay on Tuesday)

Did pick up the cheapie bat detector from Argos last year, and access to a few acres of grassland, we'll see ...


(Edit: hang on a minute, perhaps I should actually start a new list thread of mine own on here? ... !!)

dantheman said:

You can of course fly to Dakhla ... presume you saw this thread - http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=298874

Top place, wish we'd more effort on the mammals too (though did see Fennec Fox by chance).

Had a site for Fallow Deer pointed out to me the other day - been a long time since seen one of them.

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Thanks Dan. Interesting thread. We were unable to find any Sudan Golden Sparrows, but as first time visitors we were more than happy with the Desert Sparrows and other regular desert species. I'd love to go back sometime, perhaps using the flight down to Dakhla.

I've been working on a home project. It gives me something to do when I don't feel like standing over a Badger sett for hours....

Since Christmas my local foxes have been competing (increasingly) to get to a single chicken leg provided for passing trade outside my front door. At least three individuals swing past in the hope of getting it. Only one leg per night: I don't mind them becoming habituated but I don't want any of them actually dependent.

Anyway, this week I've started sitting in the hall waiting for them with my camera. One has already worked out (1) that the human is harmless; (2) that the flashy thing is harmless; (3) he's still allowed to get the chicken. His nerve is getting better very quickly, the first time I sat up over the chicken it took him five attempts to get to the chicken before he got brave enough. Tonight he made to dive for cover, stopped, turned away a bit, turned back, then came in and snaffled it. And I got a picture. I shall do better in future!

John

Nice lie in?
o

JWN Andrewes said:

Nice lie in?
o

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Had one this year.... as long as you didn't get any Moles I can live with the consequences.

John

It was actually a tick for me! Well pleased. Heard no talk of Moles on site, so hopefully you can rest easy.

Cheers

James

Farnboro John said:

Had one this year.... as long as you didn't get any Moles I can live with the consequences.

John

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There was one yesterday. :t:

chris butterworth said:

There was one yesterday. :t:

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Inside information?

chris butterworth said:

There was one yesterday. :t:

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Yes, I saw your report. I took a WAG that there wouldn't be a repeat on Saturday. I year-ticked Adder and had a local Hen Harrier so I did have a decent day out as well as a lie in.

JOhn

Oh well. I was on site and managed to miss out. There's a lot of front to cover, especially with two little boys in tow, although I think Arch was more excited about the Short-eared Owl than the Harvest Mouse!

Cheers

James

chris butterworth said:

There was one yesterday. :t:

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And on Friday - that one was on Friday just spotted the time of the post.

Mark

MarkHows said:

And on Friday

Mark

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Ah. My mistake: I thought the reference was to the Friday one. However, as Arch says, its easy to be in the wrong place along the front, so going might not have helped!

Fallow and Roe Deer today at Bransbury Common.

John

Parkgate really produced on Friday with two harvest mice, a water shrew countless field and bank voles but the star was a mole, but it met its end in the belly of a heron. Finished off with the Formby Red squirrels as well.


Mark

A good mammal week with Parkgate the highlight in the previous post, but I caught a couple of wood mice in my garden. Had loads of roe deer on Burwell Fen and a common seal on the River Ouse.

Mark

A fab Parkgate trip, Mark! Should have thought to check the tides and nobble you for a lift...

A bit of a catch-up: more Red Fox action through the front door and Rabbits and Roe Deer at Moor Green, where five of the latter are hanging out together at the moment.

John

Red Fox
Rabbit
Roe Deer (buck in velvet)
Red Fox

Hi, sorry to hijack the thread. Can you ID these three tracks? 3 separate animals, all in the middle of the woods in Germany? Red area around the flag is 5cm (52mm) long.

jurek said:

Hi, sorry to hijack the thread. Can you ID these three tracks? 3 separate animals, all in the middle of the woods in Germany? Red area around the flag is 5cm (52mm) long.

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Its not a hijack, we've been international all year! IMHO:

1. Lynx
2. Domestic/Wild Cat
3. Canis sp. Probably not Wolf, maybe too big for Red Fox. Domestic dog would be my guess.

Not, of course, that I do much tracking in snow: but between one thing and another I have looked at quite a lot of real and imaged Lynx tracks lately and several Wolf tracks too. (My brother is at his in-laws in Finland just now and has texted me pix of Lynx tracks: if he sees the animal there will be trouble.)

Meantime back in England there has been fox action chez Dixon.

Last night I forgot to put a chicken leg out till late, so chucked one out of the door on my way to bed. I was settling down when I heard "Yarr, yarrr" and an answering meek "Yip, yip, yip": looking out of the window I saw not one but two foxes on the lawn, one clearly enjoying a chicken leg and the other being kept at bay by pecking order issues.

Its a secret and you mustn't tell anyone, but I'm a soft git at heart so I got up again, slipped downstairs to the fridge and took out two more chicken legs.

When I opened the door both foxes retreated ten yards or so (in opposite directions) but as I threw out first one then another morsel, their attention sharpened and they started back towards me. Our regular friend with the black smudge on the front of his ear and a nice white tip to his brush basically trotted straight in, grabbed the new snack and departed stage right. The other fox had a bit of a think, took an indirect route across next door's lawn up close to their house and then made a diagonal approach (thus facing partly away from me) to take the other drumstick and depart back left.

Everybody happy, I went back to bed and slept the sleep of the just.

Tonight Maz called me from the front of the house where she was taking the night air to say that a fox was about twenty yards away waiting patiently. I quickly extracted tonight's ration from the fridge and put it out. Foxy came straight in and grabbed it before I was ready with the camera (unsporting!) but only retreated to the nearby green where Maz had spotted him. Again I went for the resupply option and quickly settled down camera at the ready.

The fox approached to within a few yards, saw me in the hall, paused, gathered his courage and trotted in for his reward while the camera flash fired three times. Once again, everybody happy. Pix later.

John