Wildlife August 2011

[Maggi Young]

Brings a whole new meaning to fast food......

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark,

I noticed that some bats flew quite close to the seagull and I wonder if they were "mobbing" it in the manner some birds will a predator?

Paddy

[mark smyth]

Paddy if you look closely they are emerging from the gable apex also and as they fly towards the camera it looks like they mob the gull

[Paddy Tobin]

Ah, I see, Mark. Paddy

[mark smyth]

I'm so excited. I've just seen something over here I havent seen in 30 years. It's also 1% of the N Irish breeding population.

[mark smyth]

A Barn owl. It gave me goose bumps all over

[Lesley Cox]

A barn owl gives goose bumps? What does a goose give? Barn owl bumps? Sorry to be flippant Mark. You're very fortunate. I think they are magnificent creatures and I would love to see a real one, not just in a TV programme.

[daveyp1970]

There's nothing more special that watching a Barn owl hunt at dusk on a summers night,it's a shame it will be a rarer site in the future.

[mark smyth]

Estimates say there are 100 or less barn owls in N Ireland

[Roma]

I found this Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar when weeding on Sunday.  I had to dash inside as the rain came on heavy as I picked it up.  I returned it to a willow herb when the rain went off.  Last year was the first time I saw one and expected never to see one again.

[mark smyth]

Good find Roma. I have only seen one.

[Paddy Tobin]

Mark, we are very fortunate to have barn owls very close to us and regularly see them in the evenings, even coming on them on the road on occasions. The best sight we ever had was watching a barn owl "quartering" a boggy field. It was amazing how it flew the length of the field, moved across a little and flew back down again before repeating the action a little further over. A marvellous sight.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

I used to see barn owls quartering on our Norfolk Broad holidays. Frequently see them in the headlights of the car in and around Dunblane. I remember a barn owl roost in the craig at Craigforth near Stirling. I was still at school and a couple of friends and I were looking for a kestrel's nest. We didn't find it but disturbed the owls and a nesting mallard. There was a 60' drop onto a steep bank of nettles and trees below the ledge we, and the mallard nest, were on and the barn owl roost was just below it.

Elephant hawk caterpillars also feed on fuchsia.

[PDJ]

We have a very sophisticated barn owl.  Twice while watching the BBC Proms we noticed the barn owl sat on the porch guttering watching the TV. 

[Lesley Cox]

Smart barn owl. We'll be having the Proms concerts here very shortly but not on TV unfortunately, only the radio, but better than nothing. The ONLY classical music we've had on TV in years was a doco about the NZSO's wonderfully successful trip to Europe some months ago (standing ovations in Vienna!) but for some inexplicable reason the person who narrated it and interviewed conductor and players and others, was the most sleazy and unpleasant person imaginable, a "personality" on NZ TV but just crap really, making pathetic jokes with sexual and totally unacceptable content, in the context of the event. I can't imagine why such a person would have been chosen to front the programme. It spoiled it for just about everyone who saw it. Sorry, this is a genuine moan, not wildlife at all, except that I was and still am wild about it.