new_mexico_birder
Member
What a cool thread. Thanks for sharing these photos.
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John's Mammals 2019 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Farnboro John
- Start date
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Thank you and welcome! Feel free to add your own contributions: tales of sightings, pictures, sharing hot sites for any species. If wild mammals are your thing you may find mammalwatching.com a useful resource as well, though I think BF has more of a community feel. Quite a few BFers seem to turn up over there...
John
prhodes
Well-known member
While travelling for work, and during brief lunch time visits, a Red Squirrel at Vane Farm RSPB (where they are approachable) and Brown Rat at Pennington Flash (where they have sort of over-run the bird feeding station).
Regarding the rats, I have seen one catch an eat a Blue Tit in the past , so hopefully they do not interfere with the vulnerable Willow Tit population.
Regarding the rats, I have seen one catch an eat a Blue Tit in the past , so hopefully they do not interfere with the vulnerable Willow Tit population.
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
I've seen them catch Wood Mice and eat them at night as well, they are opportunistic hunters as well as gleaners and scavengers. I suspect they will still be here when the last human turns its toes up.....
John
bustersymes
Active member
Weasel
Just thought this might be of interest to some readers of this thread.
I very rarely manage to even glimpse a weasel, and I had never managed to photograph one before. I have occasionally had success with stoats (although every close encounter is a rare treat) but never a weasel.
I was therefore very pleased to bump into one at dusk yesterday. It was using a small mammal burrow at the base of a tree stump in an area of recently cleared wooded edge on Therfield Heath, Hertfordshire. It never emerged fully but kept poking its head out of the hole to keep an eye on me. Unfortunately by this stage the light was extremely poor, hence the rather grainy photo. But it is, nevertheless, a photo of a weasel, so I'm pretty chuffed.
I will try to keep an eye on the hole in the next few days in case it turns out to be in regular use, but knowing how awkward these creatures are I won't be holding my breath!
Andy
Just thought this might be of interest to some readers of this thread.
I very rarely manage to even glimpse a weasel, and I had never managed to photograph one before. I have occasionally had success with stoats (although every close encounter is a rare treat) but never a weasel.
I was therefore very pleased to bump into one at dusk yesterday. It was using a small mammal burrow at the base of a tree stump in an area of recently cleared wooded edge on Therfield Heath, Hertfordshire. It never emerged fully but kept poking its head out of the hole to keep an eye on me. Unfortunately by this stage the light was extremely poor, hence the rather grainy photo. But it is, nevertheless, a photo of a weasel, so I'm pretty chuffed.
I will try to keep an eye on the hole in the next few days in case it turns out to be in regular use, but knowing how awkward these creatures are I won't be holding my breath!
Andy
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
I'd be pretty chuffed with that myself, well done! Any useful tips on what you were doing to spot it in the first place?
John
bustersymes
Active member
Thanks! Not sure it was much other than good fortune really - I was just walking over to a spot to watch for a local short-eared owl (that frustratingly only seems to appear at dusk) and noticed the movement. It's a path I've walked hundreds of times before, although perhaps less frequently at that time of day. Back in August I did see what I suspected might have been a weasel a couple of hundred yards away from this sighting, but it was the briefest of glimpses out of the corner of my eye and I hadn't seen anything subsequently.
The animal yesterday didn't seem to respond to my attempts at squeaking, rather poking its head back out for a few seconds every couple of minutes to see if I was still there.
I had a quick look this morning but was only able to give it 20 mins or so and unsurprisingly saw nothing. If I do have any further sightings and any pattern emerges I'll post an update!
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Went to Donna Nook Saturday - no issues about parking, a secondary car park had been opened and was completely firm. Loads of locals there, it must be just wildlife people who are being put off. Burger van and portaloos on site, also farm-fresh vegetables on sale and prices not to be sniffed at. Quality and freshness off the chart....
Anyway, we had stunningly good weather and light, mind-boggling numbers of Grey Seals point blank at all ages from newborns to old battle-scarred (and indeed recent battle bloodied) bulls and everything in between. It is a fantastic spectacle with a soundtrack of crooning seal voices and distant thunder of the surf.
There was also a superb Pomarine Skua which was what we actually went for, showing amazingly well. It flew 3 feet over our heads at one point and gave views on the ground between twenty and fifty yards, frequently while wolfing down bits of the seal afterbirths lying about all over the place. There's so much food for it that it will probably stick around for a while yet - in fact it may be almost too fat to fly.
Why is it an adult male? We never heard it singing......
A bunch of Whoopers in-off and a flock of very flighty Twite gave added value.
Cheers
John
Anyway, we had stunningly good weather and light, mind-boggling numbers of Grey Seals point blank at all ages from newborns to old battle-scarred (and indeed recent battle bloodied) bulls and everything in between. It is a fantastic spectacle with a soundtrack of crooning seal voices and distant thunder of the surf.
There was also a superb Pomarine Skua which was what we actually went for, showing amazingly well. It flew 3 feet over our heads at one point and gave views on the ground between twenty and fifty yards, frequently while wolfing down bits of the seal afterbirths lying about all over the place. There's so much food for it that it will probably stick around for a while yet - in fact it may be almost too fat to fly.
Why is it an adult male? We never heard it singing......
A bunch of Whoopers in-off and a flock of very flighty Twite gave added value.
Cheers
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Farnboro John
Well-known member
And some more. There are all these seals, the same species but as different from each other as we are, so the temptation is to keep shooting forever!
John
Grey Seal X 5
John
Grey Seal X 5
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Farnboro John
Well-known member
Nearly went flying with Dave yesterday. We actually got to the aircraft, and were considering and checking the latest met before making a decision, when a Noctule flew across from one group of trees to another.
We decided if the weather was dark enough for bats it was too dark for VFR down to the coast and back, and repaired to The Foresters for a pint.
John
We decided if the weather was dark enough for bats it was too dark for VFR down to the coast and back, and repaired to The Foresters for a pint.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Nailed the air recce of the two carriers in Portsmouth yesterday and saw the Noctule by the pan at Farnborough Airport again after we returned. It came from the same group of trees in similar light and disappeared into the same group of trees, hence my assumption it was the same bat! Admittedly that was nearly 1600 whereas the previous day, as I omitted to say, it was but 1430!
John
John
Nice, if distant views of an Otter feeding at Kenfig Pool this morning. Watched him for approx. 20 minutes.
Rich
Rich
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Trip to Norfolk yesterday to inflict Marion's 445th bird in the British Isles upon her: the Eastern Yellow Wagtail at Sedgeford. Very nice bird and with access along a tarmac track a lot easier to get to than the Dunwich beach one! Excellent views against the dark backdrop of the dungheaps, also flying round calling and sitting up in a tree. Good value.
A Chinese Water Deer feeding on the saltmarsh West of the path at Titchwell RSPB - right out among the creeks, not back in the reeds or the fields - was the only interesting mammal of the day. We didn't do much else as I'm struggling with a cold at the moment: a field of 11,500 Pinkfeet at Choseley (not my estimate but the whole field was rammed with geese so it sounds right!) had two Barnacle Geese that I found fairly easily but without a scope the three Tundra Bean Geese were a non-starter so we took the opportunity to get a good way towards home in what passed for daylight.
John
A Chinese Water Deer feeding on the saltmarsh West of the path at Titchwell RSPB - right out among the creeks, not back in the reeds or the fields - was the only interesting mammal of the day. We didn't do much else as I'm struggling with a cold at the moment: a field of 11,500 Pinkfeet at Choseley (not my estimate but the whole field was rammed with geese so it sounds right!) had two Barnacle Geese that I found fairly easily but without a scope the three Tundra Bean Geese were a non-starter so we took the opportunity to get a good way towards home in what passed for daylight.
John
