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Graces7 · 22-07-2018 5:00pm

Graces7 wrote: »

Just been out with the dog along the rose hip /bramble rich lane for the first time since the heat hit.

The pattern is that roses that flowered and set before the real heatwave are ripening well, and there are green blackberries.

But the later flowering ones are "blind" and no fruit, just withered flower ends.

As for elderberries; the attempt at a second flowering after Hector hit has failed badly due to the heat

Gives pause for thought re changing weather patterns.. Also the rose hips look ready to pick, more than a month early.

Pattern is worse than I thought. They are not ripening evenly; fronts ripe, shaded backs yellow, and then withering and rotting

Graces7 · 22-07-2018 5:02pm

When I was first up at early light there were literally hundreds of birds lined up on the electricity cables, not moving. Strange sight.

Graces7 · 22-07-2018 5:04pm

appledrop wrote: »

It's not soft I love having birds in the garden. We live in urban area but mature estate + we have huge range of birds especially in winter when we feed them sunflower hearts which are goldfinches favourite. I'm putting out an apple each day in garden + 4 blackbirds fighting over it yesterday. It is so dry they can't find worms.

Mine are doing fine on grubs and flies. They come in with beaks full

recedite · 22-07-2018 8:38pm

There's a phenomenal amount of flying insects around today, including flying ants. A drop of rain a few days ago, and now the temperature has risen back up to 25 degrees, but its also humid at the same time. Seems to have triggered them.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 22-07-2018 9:12pm

recedite wrote: »

There's a phenomenal amount of flying insects around today, including flying ants. A drop of rain a few days ago, and now the temperature has risen back up to 25 degrees, but its also humid at the same time. Seems to have triggered them.

Perfect conditions; July and hot humid day after a wet spell.

magicbastarder · 22-07-2018 9:33pm

i ingested at least half a dozen flies on my cycle earlier.
i could joke about getting some protein, but i don't know if flies are more chitin than protein.

recedite · 22-07-2018 10:17pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

i ingested at least half a dozen flies on my cycle earlier.
i could joke about getting some protein, but i don't know if flies are more chitin than protein.

Its not chitin unless you consume above the legal limit and they are on the banned substances list. And even then you can always do a Froome and claim "dehydration"

New Home · 23-07-2018 10:13pm

As I was saying elsewhere, two large hornets dropped in unannounced this evening, I've been trying to get them out of the house (or to send them to meet their maker, if they won't go out). But that got me thinking - what are they for? Swallows and bats won't eat anything that might sting (or so I was told), so whose food are they, and what purpose do they serve?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 23-07-2018 10:39pm

New Home wrote: »

As I was saying elsewhere, two large hornets dropped in unannounced this evening, I've been trying to get them out of the house (or to send them to meet their maker, if they won't go out). But that got me thinking - what are they for? Swallows and bats won't eat anything that might sting (or so I was told), so whose food are they, and what purpose do they serve?

Firstly, are you certain they are Hornets and not horntail or wood wasps? We haven't hornets.

Starlings, Magpies and Blackbirds eat wasps. Purpose doesn't come in to nature or evolution other than for the species itself to survive.

Edit. Realised I don't know your location. If outside Ireland, the above holds for hornets too, birds will eat them and ants take their grubs.

New Home · 23-07-2018 10:56pm

Good to know, Srameen, cheers.

recedite · 23-07-2018 11:11pm

New Home wrote: »

Hornets - what are they for? Swallows and bats won't eat anything that might sting (or so I was told), so whose food are they, and what purpose do they serve?

They're not for eatin, them's for stingin !
But yeah, probably wood wasps anyway. Emerging for a brief life on the wing.

Graces7 · 24-07-2018 7:36am

magicbastarder wrote: »

i ingested at least half a dozen flies on my cycle earlier.
i could joke about getting some protein, but i don't know if flies are more chitin than protein.

Have you never heard of "squashed fly biscuits"? A great delicacy in my childhood... Before you freak out.. aka garibaldis!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 24-07-2018 8:54am

House Sparrows are clearly in to their third clutch of the year. Fresh material is being ferried to the nests all day yesterday and again this morning.

recedite · 24-07-2018 10:29am

Graces7 wrote: »

Have you never heard of "squashed fly biscuits"? A great delicacy in my childhood... Before you freak out.. aka garibaldis!

Ah yes, I remember that

Kids have some great names for things. It was a long time before I discovered that "frogspawn" dessert was actually called tapioca.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 25-07-2018 8:06am

Seems to have been a successful breeding season, so far. 14 young House Sparrows, 7 young Great Tits, 5 young Chaffinch, and 2 young Robins sharing the bird table this morning. I may start charging creche fees.

Graces7 · 25-07-2018 3:23pm

recedite wrote: »

Ah yes, I remember that
Kids have some great names for things. It was a long time before I discovered that "frogspawn" dessert was actually called tapioca.

Being heard calling it that was a hanging offence in school dinners

magicbastarder · 08-08-2018 9:30pm

In dungarvan on holidays. Two new ones on us - we found what seems to have been a barrel jellyfish on the beach and were surprised by the texture. It was like half a football of silicon sealant. Really tough. Also got a video of a murmuration of midges - genuinely looked like starlings - but can't post it from my phone.

magicbastarder · 10-08-2018 10:04pm

this was the jellyfish - first time i'd seen one like this, the texture was a little like set silicon sealant.

vistafinder · 11-08-2018 12:07pm

I am looking for a bit of help identifying a bird call I was hearing up to a couple of months ago.

If you reverse the two note wolf whistle someone does when they see someone nice walking down the street.:)

whitt wooo reversed to wooo whitt

It was very a distinctive soft sound that I have not heard before. Or maybe just not taken notice of before.

New Home · 11-08-2018 12:18pm

It could have been a blackbird, sometimes they make that call, but it depends on how shrill the sound was (e.g., blackbirds remind me of flutes, or even recorders). If it was higher and sharper, like a high-pitched bike bell, I'd say it was a different bird.

vistafinder · 11-08-2018 1:15pm

Thanks

Yep it was very flute like. Beautiful sound.

I was wondering was it a blackbird alright it was so similar to a flute.

Good to know. A little simple pleasure while outdoors.

New Home · 11-08-2018 1:19pm

vistafinder wrote: »

Thanks

Yep it was very flute like. Beautiful sound.

I was wondering was it a blackbird alright it was so similar to a flute.

Good to know. A little simple pleasure while outdoors.

Absolutely.

fryup · 16-08-2018 9:31pm

are those swifts i see flying around the place? where are they going/coming from?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 16-08-2018 9:35pm

fryup wrote: »

are those swifts i see flying around the place? where are they going/coming from?

Hard to know without seeing what you're seeing.

Swifts begin migrating from late July and are usually gone by September. They migrate to sub Saharan Africa.

fryup · 16-08-2018 10:00pm

i always get mixed up between swifts and swallows

these guys are constantly flying around zooming in low at times, i thinks its swifts

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 16-08-2018 10:01pm

fryup wrote: »

i always get mixed between swifts and swallows

these guys are constantly flying around zooming in low at times, i thinks its swifts

More likely to be swallows.

New Home · 16-08-2018 10:08pm

Swallows chatter endlessly, swifts tend to screech in a pleasant way, but they make a long sound. Swifts are bigger, swallows are smaller.

Unless you were looking at housemartins...

fryup · 16-08-2018 10:24pm

^^^^^

now i'm really confused

New Home · 16-08-2018 10:42pm

Swifts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd3NlfbA7yQ

Swallows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umrg_K_CEtM

Housemartins look a lot like swallows, but they seem plumper, don't have a red "bib" and the feathers on their lower backs are white. I'm not sure I know what their call is, but this is what they look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmzbGXmvOQ

Capercaillie · 17-08-2018 8:39am

Good new website promoting farmers who farm in wildlife friendly way: www.farmingfornature.ie

bolgbui41 · 17-08-2018 2:34pm

fryup wrote: »

are those swifts i see flying around the place? where are they going/coming from?

I've noticed quite a few swallows swooping aournd over the last few days, especially in the evenings - presumed they were getting ready to migrate.

We'd a tonne of catepillars on the nasturtiumsfor the last couple of weeks but they seem to have totally disappered since it started raining properly on Wednesday. Does anyone know what might have happened to them, or where they'd have gone? I know nothing about insects.

New Home · 17-08-2018 2:39pm

They could've turned into butterflies (or started the process, anyway) or could have been eaten.

fryup · 18-08-2018 9:39pm

mayfly in august ?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 18-08-2018 9:59pm

It's Ephemera vulgata which emerge until late August. Mayflies are Ephemera danica

fryup wrote: »

mayfly in august ?

fryup · 18-08-2018 10:40pm

well you learn something new everyday,

identical to a mayfly..do they have a nickname? augustfly ?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 19-08-2018 8:27am

fryup wrote: »

well you learn something new everyday,

identical to a mayfly..do they have a nickname? augustfly ?

Not identical. Banding and colouring slightly different. As for common names, it has none and Mayfly refers to a group of flies rather than a single species.

magicbastarder · 16-09-2018 2:52pm

saw a sexton beetle for the first time today, while lifting a dead crow in my in-laws back garden. impressive wee beasties.

recedite · 16-09-2018 4:01pm

"Fortune favours the brave" as they say.
I wonder if the beetle actually thought he could bury the crow?

Roadtoad · 16-09-2018 11:03pm

Six buzzards over the Curragh this afternoon, having the lols on the thermals. One family?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 22-09-2018 1:49pm

Had my first Grey Wagtail in the garden today. Brings the garden species list to 58

Zoo4m8 · 25-09-2018 8:43pm

A Comma, North Wicklow.. a first for me..

New Home · 25-09-2018 10:00pm

Wow!!

The Pheasant2 · 30-09-2018 12:15pm

Was walking through my local park last night and came upon a massive beech that had been taken down in the storm.

It was 1.5m at the base and about 30m in length...I know it's hard to be precise with these things without cutting it open but would anyone have a rough estimate as to how old a beech of that size would likely be?

New Home · 30-09-2018 12:32pm

According to this, it's the diameter in inches at chest height multiplied by 6 (approximately).

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/guess-age-beech-tree-93377.html

The Pheasant2 · 30-09-2018 12:41pm

New Home wrote: »

According to this, it's the diameter in inches at chest height multiplied by 6 (approximately).

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/guess-age-beech-tree-93377.html

I think this applies for American beech whereas this would've been a European beech...I assume it'd be grand for a rough guess though

New Home · 30-09-2018 12:48pm

Obviously the width of the rings would be hugely affected by rainfall, heat, type of soil, etc. If it's in a park that was part of a big house (e.g. Malahide ot St. Anne's), you could guess the age of the trees by finding out when the parks were put in place - for instance, the history of a house might say that the house was build/bought by Lord Such and Such in 17 - - and the park was planted 35 years later; now, not all the plans there would be that old, but you could compare "your" tree to the ones around it. You could also contact the county council (if it's not a private park) and ask them, they'd have slightly more precise data for you.

magicbastarder · 03-10-2018 3:03am

anyone here familiar with birdwatching in the south of spain?
just home, but on our drive back to malaga airport we spotted about 50-60 eagles (we assumed this at first) soaring in a congregation, but from a quick read up, it's possibly more likely they were vultures?
this would have been about 30km east of ronda.

Capercaillie · 03-10-2018 6:44am

magicbastarder wrote: »

anyone here familiar with birdwatching in the south of spain?
just home, but on our drive back to malaga airport we spotted about 50-60 eagles (we assumed this at first) soaring in a congregation, but from a quick read up, it's possibly more likely they were vultures?
this would have been about 30km east of ronda.

Likely to be griffon vultures. Huge wingspan and very noticable short wedge tail in flight. They soar the thermals in a circular pattern barely beating their wings.

magicbastarder · 03-10-2018 10:23am

cheers - i just counted the birds in the first photo i took (was with a 35mm lens from probably half a kilometre away, so no good for visual identification), and there are 110 birds in the frame.

was quite some sight, even from that distance.

Capercaillie · 03-10-2018 10:30am

magicbastarder wrote: »

cheers - i just counted the birds in the first photo i took (was with a 35mm lens from probably half a kilometre away, so no good for visual identification), and there are 110 birds in the frame.

was quite some sight, even from that distance.

Post it up, they can be identified from silhouette.

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