Tag: wildlife

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Gruesome Scene – and Doctor Who spoilers (for those outside the UK).

This is what I saw in the bathroom last night.

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The little blob underneath the spider had just hours before been a moth. Life is cruel…

And so…on to the Doctor Who finale’.

It turned out exactly the way I didn’t want it to turn out really. Here’s someone’s YouTube splice of the end of the penultimate episode picking it up on the final episode.

Oh man, it was David Tennant all along!! Still, at least a little further into the program, we get this…

It’s a little bit in (and it’s a long clip), but we get…

Two Doctors! Scrum-didley-uptious!!!

I was SSSOOO pee’d off towards the end though, when Rose gets to go off with the part-human Doctor! Sssssoooo not fair!!!

As for the program itself. It seemed a little too busy. Russell T Davies seemed to be trying to tie up too many loose ends. I really was disappointed plot-wise that he went for this “cop out” regeneration. Having us all on tenterhooks all week wondering if all the filming people had seen of the Christmas special with David Tennant was just a huge smoke-screen and he actually WAS leaving.

I am a little confused about the whole Bad Wolf Bay beach scene where Rose goes off and lives “happily ever after” with the half-human Doctor. And the fact that she needs to go back to living in a parallel universe, I just don’t get that. Having all the characters from other spin-offs and everything as well made it busy.

I dunno. I kind of wanted to dislike it, but I didn’t. I felt shafted over the regeneration, but then was pleased to have two Doctors (three really if you count Donna in as being part-timelord). I really didn’t understand the point of Mickey and Jackie being there. Or even Sarah-Jane for that matter. There was a role for Rose to play in that she came to warn the Doctor of the Daleks plans to destroy all the planets they’d captured, and a role for Martha in trying to save the Earth by blowing it to smithereens (?!), and Jack as well, because the Daleks got Torchwood involved. But other than that, there was just too much scope given to needless characters. I know it was RTD’s swan-song as he gives up the helm of head writer and executive producer, but perhaps someone else would’ve written a better end-of-series script. He’d written such a good script for the 11th episode, but these final two seemed rushed.

Anyway, that’s about it for now. Just had to get that Who stuff off my chest.

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Goldfinch Chicks!!! ***Cuteness Alert***

OMG!

As I type I can see two goldfinch chicks outside my lounge room window. About an hour ago mum and dad arrived to feed from the nyger seed feeders (goldfinches are constant, daily visitors to our garden), shortly followed by one baby. A young baby, newly fledged, still fluttering his wings, begging his mum to feed him. He sat there on the bird bath next to the feeder, flapping furiously, pleading, BEGGING his mum to feed him. In the meantime brother/sister showed up and copied what mum and dad were doing and got on the feeder next door and started to feed him/herself. All this time, baby number one was STILL begging to mum. He begged for MINUTES, then, finally, she relented and fed him!

He settled after that, and gingerly got himself onto the feeder mum and dad were on. He fluttered his wings some more, but mum was taking no notice, so he settled and finally started to feed himself.

IT WAS JUST TOO CUTE!!

After about 10 minutes, they all flew off. Then, about 15 minutes ago, they returned. Mum, dad and the two babies. Baby number one fluttered his wings for a few seconds, then remembered about feeding himself, got onto the feeder and chomped away. Baby number two was on the other feeder looking after himself. Then after a few minutes, mum and dad flew off and the babies stayed behind. They were out there until just after I started typing this out. They looked a bit lost at times, but kept feeding themselves. Oh, they are just too adorable.

We’ve also seen baby blue tits today as well.

I even saw a chaffinch as well! When we first moved to where we live now in 2003, we had a regular visiting pair of chaffinches. But, after a year or two, they stopped coming. So to see a chaffinch visiting again is brilliant. The visits have been fleeting so far, but I’m hoping they’ll become more frequent as the summer goes on.

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And just to keep you informed, no hedgehog in the box for the last few weeks. We keep on putting food out which gets eaten, but the hog isn’t staying in the box. As for the bats…no sightings since that first night however long ago it was now…4-5 weeks ago?? But I keep a look out every night at dusk. The weather hasn’t been the best though lately, so I’m hoping the bat scene will improve from tomorrow onwards (when finer weather is due).

Photo supplied by: foxypar4 under Creative Commons license.

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Good Deed For The Day.

About 12.30pm today Em and I were at home. Em was hand washing a few items of clothes in the kitchen, and I was sitting at the computer editing video. Suddenly there was a loud thud at the kitchen window. It spooked both me and Em and we both thought it must’ve been the little shitty kiddy neighbour and his football hitting the window. But there was also the possibility it might be a bird.

Em went outside to investigate. She initially saw nothing, then on a second inspection she saw a bird in the bramble underneath the kitchen window (not directly under it though, hence he was not spotted the first time). He was a baby pigeon. Still with downy feathers and all grey (no adult plumage/colouring yet). He must’ve only just fledged the nest.

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He was obviously alive, but we couldn’t tell if he’d suffered any wing damage. We cleared away some of the dense bramble (really spiky stuff with vines filled with thorns) and cleared a path for him to come back out. He was quite dazed and shocked.

We spent the next 90 minutes outside keeping an eye on him, making sure no cats could get to him. The weather was starting to turn and I was worried that if he got wet he wouldn’t be able to fly. Em got a big box and I slowly made my way towards him in an attempt to catch him and put him in the box. He started to flap and got a little air-born, but only enough to get him to the neighbours fuchsia bush. We tried to coax him out from there. Eventually he ended up on the neighbours front door step. It became obvious that he hadn’t suffered any wing damage as he was beginning to use them. We stepped back and let him have some room and a minute later he took flight and landed on the neighbour opposites roof. At last he was free and recovered. I hope he stayed on safe ground.

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No bats, no hog :-(

I looked around last night for the bats, but they were a no show and this morning (for the second morning running) there was no hog in the box. The food had been left also yesterday, but it was eaten last night. I’m sure while the weather is being good, he’s just exploring.

The birds are chirping away again today. This time, the ever present chirrup of the sparrows, with the odd dispersal of some other bird I can’t identify. 

I do love my wildlife.
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It’s A Wild-life

The hog is still here, and on top of that, tonight saw the first appearance of the bats!!

Just a half hour ago, Em and I stepped out the front door to watch the bats whizz by our heads. One at first, then a second joined in after a few minutes. 

The wildlife of Britain is just ssssooo cool, and right by our door!

Springwatch is soon. I’m going to try and include a countdown clock, hope it works!
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Photographic Proof!!!

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I told you to stay tuned on hog developments. Photographic proof was requested (well, not proof as such, but pics were requested), but the last 48 hours have proved elusive for sighting Mr (or Ms) Hog.

Nothing in the box for the last 48 hours, but we had been putting food and drink out anyway. It had been taken on the previous night (food), so we were holding out hope the hoggy would return.

This morning we look in the box, and lo!!!

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There Is Hog In The Box!

It seems too early, but already we have a hedgehog in our makeshift box by our front door. It’s not the biggest hog, nor is it a baby. Em wants to get some food for it, but we have more cats in our patch of wood that you can shake a stick at. But we have a set-up that hopefully means the food will only go to the little hoggy. 

Sadly Em did find a dead baby hog nearly 2 weeks ago now, on the lawn. Not sure what happened to it, whether it was an over curious cat, or perhaps even a kill by a bird of prey that was dropped in our garden (we do have birds of prey fly around our neck of the woods ‘cos we border the countryside), who knows? It’s was only the littlest baby. I hope it wasn’t the baby of the one in the box 🙁

Stay tuned on hog developments.

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Death By Monkey?

Just looking around the BBC News web site when I see this story, headlined “Monkeys kill Delhi deputy mayor”. Unbelievable. What a bizarre way to die, the poor man.

Read the full story here.