wildlife – Page 5 – University & Unicorns

21 October 2007

Attack Of The Killer Ladybirds!

I was just reading a story on the BBC News web site about ladybirds (700,000 of the little blighters) being sent into Manhattan on attack to kill aphids. Well I don’t want to disappoint the recipients involved in this deployment but after watching The Nature of Britain last Wednesday night, it would appear the ladybird is not the lean (well, they are not exactly “lean” anyway), mean, aphid killing machine as initially suggested. From the depiction given on the television the other night the ladybirds usually just walk past aphids and it’s only them clumsily walking over them forcing the aphids to fall off plants and get caught in spider webs do the ladybirds actually help combat aphids.

Let’s hope it works out for the people involved. Go ladybirds!!

Read the full BBC story here.
Photo supplied by Jasmic under creative commons (some rights reserved).

19 October 2007

Our little tiny mate.

We have a new little resident in our garden. On Wednesday night I was watching TV and Chrissy our cat was asleep on the lounge next to me when we both heard a noise from outside. It wasn’t a particularly breezy night, so I knew it wasn’t a gust of wind blowing something over. My partner Em went out to have a look and there, right by the front door was a little hedgehog, helping himself to what was left of the cat food put out for Kitty (one of the neighbourhood cats). Em put some more food out for him and some fresh water as well.

Last night he returned (right outside the front door again, as if demanding food!), and I went out to see him too. He’s a little one, so I hope we can help him fatten up before hibernation. He was happily munching away last night until Em opened the door. He got a little scared, but his tactics are to stay still rather than run. At least it gave us a photo opportunity.

6 September 2007

Long-tailed tits!

Guess what we had yesterday morning in our garden? We had not just one…or two, or even three. We had approximately TEN long-tailed tits!! Up to five of them were on the feeder containing the fat balls. They stayed less than five minutes, and when they were ready to leave, they all left one by one from the tree. I’d NEVER had long-tailed tits in my garden before (either here or at Birchen Grove) and to see so many all at once was just brilliant. Cute little birds – I dearly hope they come back and it’s not a one-off!

29 August 2007

Things coming up (or that have been) that are exciting me.

After you see the list, you’ll see I’m VERY easy to please 🙂

Firstly, I purchased myself a “new” used mobile phone on eBay. When I was in Oz, my niece had a Samsung D520, I thought it was a nice looking phone and had the things I wanted to upgrade my phone for – mp3 playing and ringtones, video play and record and Bluetooth. I knew it was a Samsung, but had to check with her what model it was. After getting her reply, I looked on eBay (before that I’d be chasing a Nokia 5200 but wasn’t having much luck getting one for the £40 mark) and someone was selling a used D520 for £30. I thought great price for a well specified phone, so jumped at it. Now I am EAGERLY awaiting its arrival in the post.

Samsung D520

The other thing that is exciting me is the sight of two baby goldfinches in the garden. They arrived yesterday with the regular pair, who I can only assume are mum and dad of these babies.

Last but not least, the prospect of being able to get out and about next week as we might be hiring a car for several days so Em can help out a mate of hers with his computer stuff. Somehow getting around the UK on public transport is just not very appealing. I’ll give you an example why.

We live around 35 miles (around 56 kms) from Cambridge. When we had a car, we might visit Cambridge 2-3 times a year. Needless to say we’ve not been there since being without a car. That journey to Cambridge by car would take around 45 minutes. That same journey via public transport would take at least an extra hour and cost £40 (around $95 Australian) for two people!! We could hire a car for the day and be able to buy the fuel to get us to and from Cambridge for the same amount of money! It’s obscene! That’s why we “don’t do” public transport in Britain. Not because we don’t want to, but because it’s a total waste of time and money.

20 August 2007

Bats in the belfry (well, the garden anyway).

The are some perks to the English summer, in particular a damp one. Because damp summers mean lots of insects and lots of insects mean BATS! Yes, our little sonar friends are making an appearance again and it’s wonderful. I love standing outside watching them fly around. To see them in flight is amazing, they are so adept at flying, then I suppose you’d be pretty good at it if you relied on sonar. I’m sure lots of people would be put off, as they can get pretty put off at the thought of a bat flying past their head (and they do fly right past us if we stand in the right part of the garden), but I think they are amazing little creatures and really enjoy seeing them each night. A little “wonder of the world” in my own garden. Brilliant!

A Pipistrelle Bat (of the type we think we’re seeing)

5 August 2007

I Saw A Tit!

I could hardly contain myself yesterday. For the first time this summer (baring in mind I’ve only been back in the country since July 18, after being absent since Feb 28) I have seen a Blue Tittie in my garden! Yay!!! And the said tittie was eating from an apple that was stuck out on a post. I’ve not seen a tittie go for an apple before. Well, not the ones that visit here anyway.
Also at the moment (I must try and record this) we have a female blackbird who seems to like to spend almost the entire day telling every one off in the way only a blackbird can! At first you hear very high-pitched shrill calls, then there is a burst of annoyed tutting which is as loud as a car alarm! She gets SO pee-d off! At what, I have no idea…life, I presume. It borders on both funny AND infuriating as she can go on one of these “tuts” for a good 15 minutes!

Wildlife – you’ve gotta love it!

3 August 2007

Albino Sparrows in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.

I was looking at the BBC News website this morning. I like Fridays on Beeb news as there is a quiz called “7 days, 7 questions” which I like doing. ANYWAY…as I was looking on the website to try and locate the quiz, I came across this story.

Albino Sparrow story (click to read)

Amazing that there is two of them! They are the CUTEST little things! It was only yesterday while looking for appropriate blackbird pics to add for my previous post that I saw pics of a partial albino blackbird, but this little “knees-up” is totally white. I hope they get to live to a ripe old age. Life is tough for albino animals. Here’s hoping to a long life…

2 August 2007

But which Thrush is which?

I only got out of bed around 30 mins ago, and only just come downstairs to my kitchen around 10 mins ago. I was standing in my kitchen, making a cup of tea when I see a rather bedraggled blackbird. Poor thing! It looked like it was either a dad who’d had too much on his hands during the spring and was moulting, or it was a baby that had just got his black adult feathers. Then I see another bird…very speckled on the body. At first I dismissed it as a juvenile blackbird but then thought “no, way too speckled” and then wondered “could it be?”. Could this speckled creature be a Song Thrush?

I think it very well might have been. Here’s the evidence.

Song Thrush

Juvenile Blackbird

I’m still not entirely sure, but the bird was quite speckled so I hope it was a song thrush.

1 August 2007

Oh dear, it’s a deer!!

We (Em & I) went on an adventure yesterday. Since around October/November last year we’ve been without a car. Our car died and it’s gonna take a lot of money thrown at it to repair it. We just don’t have that sort of money, so when he have needed a car for a day, we’ve hired one. More often its shanks’ pony or taking a bus. We haven’t done any travel like that together this year until yesterday. We went to Hitchin for the day. The bus goes around all the back villages of Hertfordshire. It’s only a short walk to the bus stop from where we are. Anyway, because the route the bus goes around the Hertfordshire countryside, yesterday we got to see a deer leaping across the road as we hurtled towards it! It was a young fawn, still very Bambi-like, but it had some speed. There were about 8-10 of us on the bus and there were gasps and cries of “It’s a deer!”. Fleeting as it was, it was really lovely to see. Bus trips around village backwaters DO have their advantages!

A Beautiful Red Deer fawn.

1 August 2007

Tubs The Goldfinch.

During the last 12 months we’ve had visits from goldfinches, probably the most exotically colourful birds we see in Britain. We used to get a pair, and only just when I got back from Oz did I see the pair, but of late there has only been a single goldfinch visit. Em has come to call him “Tubs” as he sits on the nyger seed feeder for at least 10 minutes, topping himself up with food. He looks a little rotund these days and sometimes he can visit our garden 3-4 times in one day! He has in the last week, single-handedly depleted our stock of nyger seed. So on our travels out yesterday, we picked up two bags of nyger seed and topped up the feeder. I am hoping that this will entice Tubs’ lady friend (I assume the other goldfinch must be female) to come back and visit with him. They are such gorgeous birds.

Here is a pic of a goldfinch – not Tubs himself, I will endeavour to get a pic of him – for you to enjoy.