Wildlife August 2011

[Roma]

I got a fright with a toad a few years ago.  I picked up a bag of loose compost with some begonia tubers in it and the compost started moving.  It was a toad waking up from hibernation. 

On another subject .  Yesterday I saw a Speckled Wood butterfly in my garden.  I went back into the house for my camera but it had gone.  It is not supposed to be in this area.  I did see one a couple of years ago at Ballindalloch castle.

[mark smyth]

Crossbill eruption / invasion

Reports are suggesting the UK will soon be hit by an erutption / invasion of crossbills from Scandinavia. Numbers suggest 100s of 1000s of these stunning birds massing in southern Scandinavia with large numbers already in Denmark.

Looks for small red, males, and green, females that look like parrots.
http://www.birdwatch.co.uk/channel/newsitem.asp?c=11&cate=__11008

[Stephenb]

Two-barred crossbills it seems. Have seen no evidence of this up here.

Map of observations so far in August this year in Fennoscandinavia:
http://www.artportalen.se/fennoscandia_birds.asp?speciesid=776&year=2011&month=8

The same map for the whole of August last year:
http://www.artportalen.se/fennoscandia_birds.asp?speciesid=776&year=2010&month=8

Let me know if you can't see these maps.

[Peter Maguire]

That's a wonderful mapping system Stephen. My first thoughts when looking at the August 2010/2011 maps was that it could also reflect the population density of the observers, but checking back over the previous months it shows dramatically how the birds (or at least the records if the birds) are moving south.

Either that or nearly everyone in southern Sweden was still in hibernation in June - and I don't believe that they would miss the midsummer's eve parties. 

[Stephenb]

Thanks, Peter! Why on earth doesn't the UK have anything like this? You have a far higher density of birdwatchers than over here....and it stimulates interest...there are similar systems for plants, insects and mammals...

[Peter Maguire]

I suspect that there may be something similar - on the subscription only sites. 

I used the Scandinavian maps to follow the crane migration through the year; absolutely fascinating, I could waste hours playing about here. 

[t00lie]

Another Saturday another wild pig ....

James ,(on the right), my daughter's boyfriend experienced his first pig hunting trip yesterday,(He's hooked !!  ).
As part of his initiation he was 'allowed' to carry out a 30kg sow earlier in the day ,however he baulked at having to lift this biggie ....

Luckily we only had to drag the animal about 10 metres onto a forestry track and easy access to the motorbike.

Cheers Dave.

 

[Anthony Darby]

My goodness Dave, there must be a fair amount of pork scratching a living in those woods!

[johnw]

there must be a fair amount of pork scratching a living in those woods!

Someone has to bring home the bacon.

johnw

[t00lie]

My goodness Dave, there must be a fair amount of pork scratching a living in those woods!

 

Someone has to bring home the bacon.

johnw

   
John that's why we take along a young fit fellow  .

Although hunting methods are so far advance nowadays with all the electronic stuff ,pigs seem to be more prolific than ever Anthony .(So it looks like I'll be in a position soon to fill requests for meat .... ).

We initially thought that one dog was away mucking around ,(the wind was strong and we couldn't hear any barking),so it wasn't until a second and third dog showed up on the GPS system as being in the same place we realized they were on a pig.....

In my days in a similar position because of the weather conditions most likely you wouldn't get the pig and with an animal that size probably end up with a dog badly injured or even killed.

Just looking out our dining room window i see it's sunny but trying very hard to snow--actually i think it is snowing .Crazy weather.

Cheers Dave.

[Anthony Darby]

Crazy weather indeed: yesterday we had 19^oC; today it was 9^oC!

[David Lyttle]

Dave,

You are really getting into this pig hunting: considering how crook the weather has been this weekend I am surprised that you have stirred far from the fireside though I suppose it was not snowing on Saturday. Snow and sleet all day here with a big clap of thunder and some lightning at one stage.

[mark smyth]

Toolie that's a huge pig

[David Nicholson]

You cant eat pork this month-no "r" in it!

[Anthony Darby]

You cant eat pork this month-no "r" in it!

Isn't that oysters?