Author Topic: Local Wildlife  (Read 527973 times)

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Offline Nemesis

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1230 on: October 03, 2016, 09:10:17 pm »
I imagine that would be the same time as we went walking near Scammonden Dam in West Yorkshire and it was difficult to walk anywhere as there were so many ladybirds crawling about.

There seem to have been many more than usual this year.
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1231 on: October 03, 2016, 10:17:40 pm »
Great photos, the different colourings in such a small group are unusual, and I would have thought a bit late in the season, must be the good weather.

In the seventies I took a long 1 inch tube from the garage, banged it on the drive to clear any muck trapped inside, and was amazed when it emptied hundreds of ladybirds everywhere.

Tellytubby took the first two photos and he's really good at taking photos and I took the other two.   Like I said I can't remember seeing any in my garden this year and I'm in the garden often during the Summer.
That's interesting about the 70's Steve because in 1976 I was working in Rhyl and we had a plague of Ladybirds in the town.  Millions and millions of them all over the pavements etc.   That day they even closed the catering on the prom as the Ladybirds were flying in and landing on the griddles.  Walking into town was awful as you couldn't avoid treading on them


Offline snowcap

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1232 on: October 03, 2016, 10:24:34 pm »
I was working shift work the year in question and we were on night turn, it was about three in the am when having a break outside, it was like walking on hailstones you could only just see the floor. Never seen anything like it since

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1233 on: October 03, 2016, 10:39:37 pm »
I can still remember all the crunching noises as I was walking in the street in Rhyl, it was just awful that day.  It hasn't happened since thank goodness.
In about 1963 I was working with my Father in the Summer in a building site above Llandrillo College and the sky turned black when a swarm of midges came over from the Mochdre area.    They covered the site for about 15 minutes before flying off towards Rhos on Sea.
It would have been bad enough anyway but just before they had arrived I had taken my shirt off and put some oil on my body for protection against the Sun.
The workmen had to hose me down with cold water to get them off.

Offline Nemesis

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1234 on: October 04, 2016, 09:15:19 am »
Unless it is just me, we seem to have many more small black biting insects this year, including mosquitos. They seem to have wish to bite me, as I have been covered in itchy bumps.

A couple of evenings ago I heard a loud angry buzzing in the utility, which has a polycarbonate roof. I went in there bearing a duster to 'flap' the offending creature out of the back door just in time to see it land on a roof beam and a huge spider dash out and grab it. It then retreated between the poly and the beam and proceeded to kill the buzzing insect. The speed it dashed out at was amazing. :o
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Fester

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1235 on: October 04, 2016, 11:49:32 am »
Agreed Nemesis, but in the last month there has been a massive influx of wasps, mostly on the pier.
All the shops have been inundated with them.
I was surprised that they would venture out to sea, surely that's not normal for insects?
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -

Offline Ian

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1236 on: October 04, 2016, 12:14:16 pm »
It isn't, but wasps are now looking to find their winter shelter and they're both hungry and inebriated from the fermented fruit they're scavenging off. Not a good time to deal with them.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline Fester

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1237 on: October 04, 2016, 02:05:47 pm »
It isn't, but wasps are now looking to find their winter shelter and they're both hungry and inebriated from the fermented fruit they're scavenging off. Not a good time to deal with them.

Hungry and inebriated?
That describes not only wasps, but the growing army of people occupying the doorways of all the shops in Mostryn Street every night.
Fester...
- Semper in Excretum, Sole Profundum Variat -

Offline Ian

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1238 on: October 04, 2016, 02:57:29 pm »
 :-X
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 #1239 on: October 10, 2016, 04:44:32 pm »
The Badger came into our back garden the other evening for the peanuts we leave for him.   He normally comes in after we have gone to bed but this time he was a bit earlier so there was a mad scramble to get a camera hence the dodgy photo

Offline SteveH

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1240 on: October 10, 2016, 06:07:07 pm »
You did better than I did, the other night I had 4 hedgehogs running up and down the grass, and with the camera battery low, the end result... zero photos, .....and I think I will have a long wait to capture a similar scene.  :(

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1241 on: October 10, 2016, 07:41:58 pm »
I haven't seen a Hedgehog for a long time, so you are lucky there Steve and at least you've got the memory of seeing them.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1242 on: November 02, 2016, 05:43:50 pm »
A few weeks ago we spotted dozens of Ladybirds on posts by Eirias Park Colwyn Bay and when we had a close look we noticed that some of them were quite different to the normal British ones.
In the Daily Mirror there was an article on these unusual Ladybirds, they are called Harlequin Ladybirds and are alleged to carry STI's  and bite humans so it's something to be aware of.
The Harlequins have different colour variations including large red or orange spots on black wing cases.   I used to like Ladybirds but will have to be a bit more careful in the garden from now on.

Offline Nemesis

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1243 on: November 02, 2016, 08:06:16 pm »
Our daughter, in Yorkshire, has had so many invading her house that she has been using the vacuum cleaner to clear them up. When I sent her the article from the Mirror she promptly disinfected the machine !
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline hollins

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Re: Local Wildlife
« Reply #1244 on: November 03, 2016, 08:30:00 am »
Seen a few ladybirds here, mainly more of an orange colour than red but not invaded.
These creatures though are another matter...........