Your Wildlife Sightings!

What a beautiful photo of a beautiful animal, it has made my Sunday

 

I went to my local my local pond, quite a sizable one, almost pool size on the local farmland early this afternoon and really enjoyed getting great views watching 3 species of Dragonfly and 2 species of damselflies. I also saw a diving beetle species, not sure what one as it was swimming in the water. Also 2 Terrapins are present, they put their heads up but as I tried to get a better view down below they went.

I love mother nature and can really feel her, especially when there are so many idiot humans plaguing our species all over the world. Mother nature hates that as does every human that loves her.

 

I went on a 8 mile hike up in the North Wales moors today. Strong sunshine hit me be a fair bit. No long walks now as heatwave coming tomorrow .
Anyway I saw my first Whinchats of the year at long last. A good population of these ever so handsome birds here. I also saw loads of Stonechat, a female Wheatear and a male Redstart to complete the Chat Grand Slam

I also got good views of a female Cuckoo and a Common Lizard which ran off quickly.

I hate heatwaves but I may some good local Wildlife during it. Hope it snows

 

I've made plans to go up to Tory (Toraigh) island early tomorrow, 05:30 start to catch the 08:30 ferry, spend the day on the island and back on the 17:00 return ferry, i don't think there's much chance of seeing a Corncrake but hopefully there will be a few Puffins and other Sea birds to see and photograph.

 

Wow Johnie that is beyond cool. What a place to go, it looked brilliant on Springwatch. You will have a brilliant time. I cannot wait for your photos and report

My Good friend will quite rightly go crackers when he hears about this

You should see some good stuff from the ferry never mind the Island. Also there is a good chance you will hear Corncrake. If you do watch where the sound comes from because every so often they fly from A to B. That is how I saw my only ever Corncrake. But you need the patience of a saint and a lot of luck which you deserve.

 

Cheers Pete , I'm really looking forward to it, and the forecast is looking fine and dry for the day.

 

Sounds amazing Johnie. Nothing beats seeing some sea birds. The noise, the smell and the sights. Sensational.

 

And me and you are not jealous are we honesty

 

Don't know what the word means good friend.

 

I've been having my own wildlife drama in my back garden for the last few days. We have two cherry trees in our garden. Caroline grew them from seed. Close to being around 20ft in height now. But we have two separate Magpie nests in them. We also have a few Wood Pigeons sitting them. But for the last few days I've been hearing a helluva lot of noise from the magpies. Turns out, it's a young Magpie shouting for food. The parents are doing a superb job. In and out all day long. Brilliant to watch. I'll try and get some pictures to share in my love affair with these Magpies

 

I went up to Toraigh early on thursday morning to catch the 8:30 am ferry, got on to the island around half past nine, i was quite surprised at the size of the island, i thought it was smaller than it is, we asked around for the best place to see the Puffins and were told to go to the far end then take the cliff path up to were the colony is, we started off around ten o'clock, the sun was blazing and the temp was in the high teens and building, we had only started into the walk when i heard the unmistakeable cack cack, cack cack of the Corncrake, it couldn't have been more than six feet away but the sound was coming from thick vegetation and high Nettles, i hung around for a while listening to his calls but couldn't get as much of a glimpse or a pic, we headed off and heard the calls again at two different locations along the road, it took around an hour and a half to walk to the cliff path with the temperature building and no shelter or shade to take the edge off the heat, after a break for a cuppa out of the flask of tea i packed we started up the cliff path and that's when i realised just how heavy my backpack was (i weighed it out of curiosity when i got home and it weighed in at 20 lb), there's no official path up to the colony but years of footfall have left a rough way up the scree, we stopped off at the first flat area we came to and went on a search for any sign of Puffin activity but could find none, i set up my tripod and long (and feckin heavy) lens and got a few shots of the Razorbills, Guillemots and Fulmars on the cliffs below, by this stage the temperature must have been in the mid to high twenties and not as much as a breeze blowing to keep cool, we set off again up the hill and tried another couple of places for a sight of the Puffins but there were none in sight, by this stage i was absolutely roasted, back was breaking with the backpack, my auld knees were in tatters and more than serious i had run out of tea , so i made the decision to head back down the track and abandon the search, it was very disappointing but due to the heat and bad planning on my part i threw in the towel, we went back along the road to the village and heard the Corncrakes again but no sighting again, went to the local pub for an orange juice and was delighted to see a big Celtic crest above the bar, It's a lovely island to spend the day on with lots to see and do, hopefully i'll get back up there next week with a much smaller load to carry, a cooler day and a bike to get from the ferry to the cliff path, i'll post some pics i took when i sort them out

 

Wow Johnie that is some day you had and what a bonus you had in the Pub. Yes that is the beauty of Nature watching we do not always see what we went out see or have real quiet days when we go to amazing places but it just makes it even more enjoyable the next time we see good stuff

 

Sounds like a helluva day Johnie. Even just hearing a Corncrake would make my day

 

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Yes my Good friend it is indeed a very special sound

PS The sound is much better than today's mainstream commercial pop music

 

So when I left for my holidays in Denmark and Sweden the Robbin's babies had just hatched and now last night when we got home we were greeted to the sight of them hopping around in the back garden under the watching eye of mom.