Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Ah, it's an escape . . . Category E 3
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Beluga Whale Seen in the Thames (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter David Hatton
- Start date
Bismarck Honeyeater
Barely known member
Slight hijack of the thread, but given talk of escape...
Was the origin of the Stellers Sealion off Cornwall ever established? I find it hard to believe one could escape from a zoo and waddle to the sea!
Was the origin of the Stellers Sealion off Cornwall ever established? I find it hard to believe one could escape from a zoo and waddle to the sea!
Maffong
Well-known member
Ah, it's an escape . . . Category E 3
Seems laughable, but actually this was the case with one of the very few Beluga records from Germany!
Four Belugas were caught for English zoos in 1966 somewhere in the Arctic and transported back to Europe. There the transport ship almost sank in stormy conditions in the English Channel and the Beluga escaped. It soon turned up far up the Rhine, where it stayed for a month, managed to avoid an overly dedicated zoo director and his clumsy attempts to recatch the Beluga and finally swam back out of the Rhine still more or less healthy.
If you want to read up on him Google "Moby Dick Rhine"
TWM
Well-known member
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCb3XBHh_tA
Sadly the Russians are still catching Belugas (and Orcas) for Chinese Aquariums!
Sadly the Russians are still catching Belugas (and Orcas) for Chinese Aquariums!
jurek
Well-known member
Beluga in Rhine was, I think, wild. The mammal atlas of the landlocked North Rhine-Westphalia region has a cetacean species on its list:
http://www.saeugeratlas-nrw.lwl.org/index.php?cat=artenliste
But maybe one can confirm/deny the story that a ship transported an elephant seal to a British zoo, and the seal was washed away during a storm. It washed out dead on the Scottish coast, and a man who discovered it decided to make a practical joke and dumped the corpse in Loch Ness...
http://www.saeugeratlas-nrw.lwl.org/index.php?cat=artenliste
But maybe one can confirm/deny the story that a ship transported an elephant seal to a British zoo, and the seal was washed away during a storm. It washed out dead on the Scottish coast, and a man who discovered it decided to make a practical joke and dumped the corpse in Loch Ness...
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
The story I heard was that it was known to have come from Hamburg (?) Zoo?
Matthebirder
Well-known member
Saturday 10:00 watching it from the Ship & Lobster pub ‘garden’ ; better still, pub is open already!
Richard Prior
Halfway up an Alp
Teddington Lock is the tidal limit Andy.
Pub open already? It sounds like a very civilised twitchB
PYRTLE
Old Berkshire Boy
Just upstream of Teddington Lock and Weir. The stretch between Teddington and Molesey could on occassions become slightly brackish at times of high Spring Tides below Teddington when rarely it could back up.
It could feasibly get up as far as Richmond half - lock if it gets through the Thames Barrier.
P.....ex Environment Agency lock keeper, patrol officer and Navigation Inspector, but always binos handy for birding.
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Matthebirder
Well-known member
Viewing it now at 12:00 from the pub ; on way down stream.
Better get another pint quickly...
Better get another pint quickly...
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Thanks Richard.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Cheers Pat.
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
But not seen after noon
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Originally Posted by Alexjh1
Just an update for anyone interested - was showing fairly regularly from opposite the Riverside Leisure Area between 11-1ish while I was there.
You can't both be right...
John
Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
Just relaying several comments that I've seen on twitter but if Alex was on the ground and saw it then that's good enough for me - not see after 1pm then
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Actually, both can be right: because of Bovine Spongiform Time (BST), noon UTC (when the sun is due south, and highest in the sky) is at 13:00 BST :brains: :t:
