Wildlife - Summer, Autumn 2008

[mark smyth]

Joakim the last is a very clean female Muscovy duck. Soon they will be added to the British Breeding list

[Paul T]

An Eastern Spinebill (tiny honeyeater, sort of our equivalent of a hummingbird) apparently sunning itself, or else trying to bake to death some lice or something.  Poor quality picture as it was at a distance, but given they normally never stay still at all I'm pretty pleased to even have this picture. 

[annew]

Today we accompanied the East Yorkshire bat group on one of their regular bat box monitoring visits to a local wood. Here are a couple of the characters we were  delighted to see. First photo shows the intrepid hunter. Then there is a sleepy common pipistrelle. Then my first brown long-eared bat: looking cute, looking fierce - only joking!

[annew]

You'd think the ring would hamper such a tiny animal, but the ones with rings all were sharing a box with a memberof the opposite sex, and it's the mating season, so maybe they think it's sexy!

[Lesley Cox]

They look so very small and squashable Anne. I expect you have to handle them very carefully? And do their little hang-on claws hurt when they hang on to your fingers?

[mark smyth]

Who IDd the pip? It looks like a Nathusius'

[annew]

Bat group leaders. It would have been IDd when it was ringed.

[mark smyth]

It looks too big to be a 45 or 55 pip

[annew]

Probably an illusion. It was very tiddly - same size as other pips I've seen.

[Michael J Campbell]

Mark, the dove is definitely gone, has not been here in over a week, and to ensure that you get a decent nights sleep, I removed the weed from the pond and destroyed it.

[mark smyth]

well, you've actually done your bit for Ireland's water ecosystems

[ranunculus]

Caught in the act.
Here is the spider that is using pieces of grit as ballast for the its web.
1 dropping down into a pot.
2 selecting a piece of grit.

Not just grit Michael ...

This one is a flower arranger ...

[annew]

This one has hoisted a piece of dead stem to form a horizontal beam - you can just see the web I hope, and the beastie responsible, doesn't look big enough does he/she? And yes I know I should clean the glass...

[annew]

On the day we went bat monitoring, I also saw this fungus on a dead tree. It looked surprisingly like someone had been depositing their chewing gum daily for a couple of weeks! 

[Maggi Young]

I'm heartened to see your glass house is as grubby as ours, Anne,and that is a strong spider you have there, but I think you are having us on  with that so-called fungus  !!