Tag Archives: wildlife

Feb 20 2023
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The overseer

Sunday 19th February 2023, 11.50am (day 4,196)

Robin overseer, 19/2/23

I have developed some druidic powers. I can, fairly reliably, summon a robin. It’s quite easy actually — simply go up to the garden, dig over part of it, and wait five minutes. One will usually appear to check over the bounty that has been revealed. This one was quite unperturbed by the presence of both myself and Clare, and has a look on his face that suggests he thinks we should be doing more digging — I reckon robins are evolving to use humans as manual labour, in fact. Perhaps they will be our overlords in a few dozen millennia,

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Jan 29 2023
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Waxbills

Saturday 28th January 2023, 12.55pm (day 4,174)

Waxbills, 28/1/23

I’m fairly certain these are juvenile common waxbills (Estrilda astrild), a member of the finch family. They don’t yet have the bright red bill that gives the species its name (as it looks like it has been dipped in sealing wax) but everything else about them matches the description, particularly the red stripe through the eye. The one on the lower branch flew off the instant I pressed the shutter, and is fluffing himself up ready to make the jump. Taken on my walk to the summit of the island, Diana’s Peak — more photos from the day can be seen on my other blog.

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Nov 27 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Red kite

Friday 25th November 2022, 2.00pm (day 4,110)

Red kite, 25/11/22

Certainly a red kite, a species of bird that was close to becoming extinct in the UK some decades ago, but thanks to a number of programmes of reintroduction, now making a fine recovery. I caught a number of these on camera in Wales some years ago, but those were coming to an organised feeding station. This one was as wild as they come, soaring on the thermals above a road in Lincolnshire. It turned into the sunlight just as I had it in the sights.

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Oct 27 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Robin Poser

Wednesday 26th October 2022, 2.55pm (day 4,080)

Robin poser, 26/10/22

What is it with robins as a species — why are they, more than any other type of wild bird, so completely unfazed by being a few feet away from a human? Not only that, but a human who has stopped walking, and is pointing a camera at them? This one even hopped from side to side for a minute, offering me a selection of poses. This one won. I hope he approves.

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Oct 02 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Staying above it all

Saturday 1st October 2022, 11.05am (day 4,055)

Pigeon scrum, 1/10/22

A pigeon food-fight, a moshpit of grain consumption, of a kind that must say something about how evolution will progress for this species, though what that is, we don’t yet know. The one in the middle seems to be staying above it all, however. But probably he’s just taking a quick breather.

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Jun 01 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Return of the jay?

Tuesday 31st May 2022, 1.55pm (day 3,932)

Jay, 31/5/22

Jays are very handsome birds and it’s a shame we don’t see more of them. I could say that this specimen is the second jay to appear on the blog, but it may be the same one as depicted just under four years ago — as this photo was taken only around 100 yards from that one; both in close proximity to the Ellen Wilkinson building on campus (a.k.a. ‘the office’). I can’t spot any obvious differences in plumage, and I have a feeling that corvids like this can happily live for a decade or more, so I think I will declare this to be only the third bird — after two herons (Humph and Maris Crane) — that might have appeared on here more than once.

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May 28 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Blackbird

Friday 27th May 2022, 11.30am (day 3,928)

Blackbird, 27/5/22

There has been a lot of movement around the country for me lately, but today marks the start of a longish stretch at home. As in other such periods I will have to hope that Hebden Bridge keeps me inspired. The local fauna and flora is often a good place to start: this blackbird posed somewhat impatiently, but did allow me to get in his close-ups.

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May 17 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Fox, central London

Monday 16th May 2022, 9.55am (day 3,917)

London fox, 16/5/22

This is the second fox to appear on this blog. The first was depicted on the hills above Kentmere in the Lake District (on 4/3/2020) which one might think was an appopriate location to see one. However, I believe there are now more urban foxes in the UK than rural ones, and this one was seen less than five minutes’ walk from King’s Cross station, at roughly 10am on a Monday morning in central London.

It’s injured though. Whatever is up with its front left leg, it wasn’t putting any weight on it. Nothing I could do about it, sadly. I hope it is OK.

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Apr 01 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Nesting

Friday 1st April 2022, 4.10pm (day 3,872)

Nesting duck, 1/4/22

Now, she’s on the nest. If it wasn’t for the presence of the nearby, and bright green, drake (unpictured), I would never have seen this nesting mother among the undergrowth. Seeing as ducks don’t have a great deal of offensive capacity, doubtless this camouflage is her only real protection against having the brood eaten by someone/thing or other. She was definitely keeping an eye on me, put it that way.

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Mar 31 2022
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Transport

Towpath life

Wednesday 30th March 2022, 3.55pm (day 3,870)

Geese and barge, 30/3/22

Sometimes in my more romantic fantasies of downsizing I wonder what it would be like to live on one of the barges on the Rochdale Canal — but these thoughts never last all that long before I think of the music and movie collections. If I really wanted to do it I’d probably already be doing it. The immediate neighbours would be Canada geese, too.

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