wildlife

[Hans J]

Tristan , very nice pictures from Timon lepidus

[Yann]

Not really fauna or flora but yesterday during my lockdown daily walk i, as almost everyone in the region, discovered an apocalyptic sky with incredible colors. It happened during at least 20-25mn, hopefully i was with my camera and was able to catch this moment.

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Rob for your clues. I found Hans' delightful lizard eventually and partly remined by the photos Anthony Darby puts on Facebook of his NZ native lizards. I wish he would put some here as they are very beautiful with their bright green and gold colours. I'll drop him a note.

I am now almost 4 weeks post knee replacement surgery and overall am very happy with it. I can walk now without crutches and can sleep on either side comfortably. There is pain in my right big toe for some reason but none in my leg and I'm doing some weeding among trays of plants lifted to an outdoor table so my time is not totally spent reading.

I have an appointment with the Dunedin Public Hospital Eye Clinic for late November so I'm hoping my cataracts will soon be sorted too.

I do wish everyone in the UK a speedy end to your new lockdown time. It must be horrible for it to be happening again, especially going into winter. I feel that we in the southern hemisphere have had the best of it, having started with winter and the spring which followed being largely Covid free, and summer which we now start, the same provided we are careful and not complacent. For alpine gardeners here, the worst of it has been the cancellations of our "Visiting speakers," and it may be that that particular programme has ended for good.

We are all shocked and deeply saddened by the news which sits so heavily amongst us.

[Maggi Young]

Good  to hear  you are  improving, Lesley.
 Anthony  Derby  has  posted  some  great photos  of  his  geckos in another  thread -starting  here  -
https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=6476.msg417033#msg417033
 Fascinating  little  creatures that  they are!

[Yann]

A nice sunny afternoon in the forests

[cohan]

Not really fauna or flora but yesterday during my lockdown daily walk i, as almost everyone in the region, discovered an apocalyptic sky with incredible colors. It happened during at least 20-25mn, hopefully i was with my camera and was able to catch this moment.

dramatic sunset, nice captures! nice walk in the forest as well

[Yann]

another walk in the forest before trees are naked 

[Yann]

gloomy day under a scottish drizzle (that's what we used to say in my region), i left the home with just the macro lens so no wide view!

[brianw]

Hi bird watchers. It’s nature watch time.

I have a large Bramley apple tree, maybe 70 years plus old. Hanging from it are 3 bird seed feeders. 2 identical spring loaded anti-squirrel types and 1 caged to keep them out, all with clear plastic tubes. They are each ~10 feet apart. I normally only feed with hulled sun-flower seed, so essentially all are identical. After a time they get quite grubby, partly from grease from the seed and dirt in general that you would expect from 100’s of bird visits. I clean them every so often of course. The grease from the seed takes some cleaning off.
Often I notice that 1 of the feeders attracts little attention, (or conversely all the attention) and when I fill them up maybe 2 are empty and the other almost full. I used to think this was the position as 1 is close to the hedge, 1 in clear open space beneath the centre of the tree, and the other nearer the house. I cleaned 2 of them a couple of weeks ago but left the other, less dirty, until later. I have only recently realised that it is the 2 clean feeders with visibly clearer tubes that get all the attention. If I swap them around the birds change which ones they use within an hour or so and the grubby one is left almost full. It works every time. Even when 2 are completely empty there are few if any small birds on the grubby one. Just a Greater Spotted Woodpecker left feeding this afternoon. No small birds at all.
Who would have thought that garden birds were that choosy about free food? I assume it is because the grease that comes out of the seed stops a clear vision and they don’t recognise the seed. Any other ideas?

[Yann]

another walk in the forests, we're now entering winter for sure. Most of the fauna will struggle to find some much-needed food.

[Yann]

Sunny afternoon and still some nice stuff to see.

[cohan]

another walk in the forests, we're now entering winter for sure. Most of the fauna will struggle to find some much-needed food.

Winter in your woods looks pretty easy for wildlife-- at least the food is not  covered with snow! We've had a couple of warm weeks, so I'm sure the wildlife has been very happy-- snow is not too deep, lots of bare places, and there have been insects moving around, good for the many small birds that rely on insects all winter, they are amazing!

[cohan]

Heading out of the acreage across the road to check mail yesterday, just around sunset, I saw something in a poplar beside the drive-- I thought it was a clump of dried leaves at first, but kept looking, as there was nothing there recently. I soon realised it was actually a Ruffed Grouse/ Bonasa umbellus. It is not the first time I've seen them up in trees (I've seen them far higher) -- eating leaf buds- but it is still odd to see these heavy looking birds so far off the ground-- normally you see them foraging along the ground, and flying low and noisily only when they are spooked. They seem comfortable up there, though, so they probably do it much more often than what I see!

[Yann]

Indeed i'll never wake up with 1m of snow  The best time for forest animals is now until first week of february.
Saturday i'll try to find the Squacco Heron, with global warming several populations don't return anymore to Africa at end of summer.

[cohan]

Indeed i'll never wake up with 1m of snow  The best time for forest animals is now until first week of february.
Saturday i'll try to find the Squacco Heron, with global warming several populations don't return anymore to Africa at end of summer.

Nice! No winter herons here, but I see a couple of Bald Eagles all year, and I don't have confirmation, but I think some crows stay, as well as the ravens that are here all year.