Author Topic: Local Wildlife  (Read 527505 times)

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Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1545 on: August 17, 2019, 04:54:46 pm »
Isn't nature wonderful Steve

Offline Ian

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1546 on: August 18, 2019, 09:14:04 am »
Robins seem to have some fascinating behaviours.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.


Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1547 on: August 22, 2019, 11:09:39 am »
For some years now I have been feeding suet cakes to the birds that come in my garden.     I hang the suet cakes on a tree and the small birds seem to love them and the cakes last quite a while.     
That was until the last two weeks when they all seem to have lasted for one day only so I thought that it might be the Crows, the Magpies or the Pigeons that were responsible
That was until last night about 10.00 pm and I found out who was the culprit.    The security light came on and the Badger came to eat the peanuts I had left for him.  After he finished eating the peanuts he walked to the tree in the garden and to our surprise he leapt into the tree and climbed up it until he came to the suet cake and ate the lot
I didn't realise that they could climb like that so no more suet cakes are going on that tree again

Offline Ian

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1548 on: August 22, 2019, 02:03:51 pm »
When I discovered that most cows can leap farm gates effortlessly, I decided that I should drop any preconceptions of what animals can and can't do. They're always surprising us.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1549 on: August 22, 2019, 02:42:15 pm »
I think Ian's got it right, just enjoy the surprises, looking forward to the next one............

Offline Quiggs

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1550 on: August 22, 2019, 03:25:43 pm »
One occasion whilst travelling from Sychnant to Conwy, just after the cattle grid, I caught sight of a movement on the top of the hedge, immediately checking rear view mirror saw a Cow landing on the road. Three seconds earlier and it would have been on the bonnet of the car 🚙 and I probably would not be able to tell this story
Dictum Meum Pactum

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1551 on: August 22, 2019, 03:48:38 pm »
I read somewhere that cows, although they can walk up steps they are unable to walk down them and here lies a mystery that I don't know the answer to.
I was born in Llandudno and lived in Cwm Place and at the time there were no houses or shops behind us, just open fields as far as John Bright's Grammar School.
Sometimes animals used to wander from the fields into the street and I remember one day seeing a black and white cow about thirty yards from our house.  I was under 5 at the time and can remember telling my Nain about the cow and then she wouldn't let me go out again just in case I got hurt.
In those days things were so different and people used to leave their doors wide open and one such person was my next door neighbour Sam Owen.    A really nice man who at that time lived in the upstairs flat.
Other older boys had also seen the cow and they herded it into Sam's garden and then they herded it upstairs into his flat.   The stairs went straight into the lounge and old Sam who was in his kitchen at the time heard a racket going on in the lounge and came in to see the  cow knocking all his furniture about.
I can't remember my parents telling me how they got the cow down the stairs, perhaps it was the herdsman John Morris who also lived in the street who got it down but it still remains a mystery to me

Offline SteveH

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #1552 on: August 22, 2019, 04:29:49 pm »
This is complete coincidence I was looking at a You tube video about tools, and this was next in line for viewing, after reading about climbing badgers and leaping cows, I thought you might like this...............

I watched the first one, but there are others...
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ibex+climbing+dam+wall


Offline Ian

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1553 on: August 22, 2019, 05:11:09 pm »
We've seen a cow jump a farm gate. It was lured by the Bull a few fields away, but was very docile when we went to usher her back into the field from which she'd made the flying  escape.  But they can go down steps - not sure about stairs. I've seen them gingerly descending stepped surfaces.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1554 on: August 27, 2019, 07:03:19 am »
Now that I've seen the Badger in my garden climb up the tree I know now why the peanut feeders, fat ball feeders etc have been found on the lawn in the mornings. I blamed the Squirrel for it at first until that evening when I saw the Badger leap up on to the tree.
Now there is no point in me leaving food for the birds on that tree as the Badger will eat everything I put up there.
Last night the Badger made his nightly visit slightly later than normal, just as I was going up stairs to bed but I was still able to get my camera and take some photos through the window of the sun lounge
 

Offline SteveH

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1555 on: August 27, 2019, 10:07:56 am »
It looks in extremely good condition ,,,,,,,,, all that extra food.     I forgot for awhile,  that it was a cast iron frog :-[

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1556 on: August 27, 2019, 10:38:33 am »
Even the Squirrel knows where all the peanuts are hidden

Offline spotty dog

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1557 on: August 27, 2019, 10:44:54 am »
I keep waiting for you to post a picture of your lawn all plowed up Hugo, a friend of mine had friendly badgers visit regularly then one morning he came down to a destroyed lawn. Apparently if they find grubs under the turf they will root up the hole lawn overnight. I still think it's worth it to watch them

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1558 on: August 27, 2019, 11:09:20 am »
Tell your friend not to be so mean and to feed the Badgers instead, it has worked for me so far.       :D

Offline SteveH

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1559 on: August 27, 2019, 11:26:01 am »
I keep waiting for you to post a picture of your lawn all plowed up Hugo, a friend of mine had friendly badgers visit regularly then one morning he came down to a destroyed lawn. Apparently if they find grubs under the turf they will root up the hole lawn overnight. I still think it's worth it to watch them

I have the T shirt, when I lived up the valley, I found the scenes you mention, not just me, but, as far as I could see, affecting a lot of the sheep farmers,  my property bordered forestry land, and one year they renewed the fencing, a job extremely well done, with few gaps, I bought galleons of creosote and sprinkled it along the fence line, whether it was one or both, it worked.

PS Hugo if the feeding stops working, remember the creosote  ;)