Wildlife October 2010

[fermi de Sousa]

I thought it might've been the Black Rabbit of Inlé!

[Anthony Darby]

I thought it might've been the Black Rabbit of Inlé!

Its eyes are too bright Fermi!

[mark smyth]

Out doing a bat survey yesterday I looked at this house for evidence of bats using it. Bat droppings in most rooms and lots of hibernating butterflies. They were too high to ID

[Anthony Darby]

Out doing a bat survey yesterday I looked at this house for evidence of bats using it. Bat droppings in most rooms and lots of hibernating butterflies. They were too high to ID

Smaller with pale band near edge of wing would be small tortoiseshell; larger and almost black would be peacock. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xt-JYFWfAuo/RwfdLt1EyyI/AAAAAAAABtA/92x_y0zlOVM/s400/peacock8012.jpg
Unlikely to be anything else Mark.
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn1.arkive.org/media/78/78FB6B5E-62ED-4B5F-A55D-841BDE6F213A/Presentation.Thumb/Small-tortoiseshell-butterfly-hibernating-covered-in-dew.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.arkive.org/small-tortoiseshell/aglais-urticae/images.html&usg=__eATZftq3fqUIamEHkrYxCGQkHJs=&h=80&w=118&sz=5&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=EExyHtOOwElwlM:&tbnh=60&tbnw=88&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhibernating%2Btortoiseshell%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

[Paddy Tobin]

This little chap certainly chose a bright perch.

Paddy

[Roma]

Found the black rabbit lying dead yesterday at the edge of the garden no more than 3 metres from the front door.  I noticed it about 2.30 and my husband had seen it there when he went off shopping about half an hour previously.  I did not see it when I was out between 11.30 and 12 and my husband had not noticed it about that time either.  I did not examine it closely but it showed no obvious sign of injury.  I don't think it would have come that far off the road to die if it had been hit by a car and I would have thought a predator (cat or buzzard, not a fox near the house in daylight) would take it away.   

[angie]

Hi Roma

Nice to look at bunnies but me being a animal lover never thought I would see the day I killed an animal  but after weeks of attempting to catch the little chap he left me no alternative but to get rid of him. I couldn't believe the damage one rabbit could do. When it came to my plants or one rabbit there was no debate, he had to go.
Saved you having to do it Roma.
Hope you are much better.

Angie

[mark smyth]

Paddy is the lizard in your garden?

[Anthony Darby]

Doesn't look right Mark.

[ranunculus]

Paddy is the lizard in your garden?

Paddy has just got back from Madeira ... there may be a clue there! 

[annew]

We had a woodcock on our patio at the weekend. We were very surprised. I think it was too.

[Paddy Tobin]

Paddy is the lizard in your garden?

Mark,

As Cliff said, the photograph was taken in Madeira. Great sense of heat in it I thought. These little lizards were everywhere, in and out of crevices in rocks and walls. This fellow was about two metres above ground on this shrub.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

Lacerta dugesii, the Madeiran wall lizard.

[Paddy Tobin]

That's just the one, Anthony.

Here's a photograph to show the area where the shot was taken.

Paddy

[ranunculus]

A few from Majorca last week ...

Beetle
Spider (3 off)