Nature on your farm.

Base price

NcdJd wrote: »

Colourful looking thing.

I think it's the caterpillar of a grey dagger moth.

Base price

I notice the majority of swallows have gone from the yard sheds/garage since yesterday. Apparently the adults leave first to head away on their holidays to sub Saharan Africa leaving this years fledglings to follow.

Rows Grower

Base price wrote: »

I notice the majority of swallows have gone from the yard sheds/garage since yesterday. Apparently the adults leave first to head away on their holidays to sub Saharan Africa leaving this years fledglings to follow.

They were like fighter pilots around our house last week, it really was a sight to behold.

Gave the footpaths a good powerhose the other day and all that has stained it since are the chickens who arrive at the patio doors at the same time every morning like workers on strike.

_Brian

Spotted a Bat this evening when I was checking stock.

https://youtu.be/QLjXc0G7PfY

Birdnuts

_Brian wrote: »

Spotted a Bat this evening when I was checking stock.

https://youtu.be/QLjXc0G7PfY

Noticed loads of bats feasting on big numbers of Daddy Long legs who appear to be indulging in some sort of mass mating activity out the back of my parents place this evening!!

Fluppen

This little creature was hanging around inside today, not one of the usual visitors.

Dinzee Conlee

_Brian wrote: »

Spotted a Bat this evening when I was checking stock.

https://youtu.be/QLjXc0G7PfY

Fupping bats - have em in the garage, wish they’d move out...
You’d see 30 or more of em coming out at dusk and doing their thing...

I don’t want to throw em out, but wish they’d just leave too

Mossie1975

Bats here too. I don’t mind them.

NcdJd

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Fupping bats - have em in the garage, wish they’d move out...
You’d see 30 or more of em coming out at dusk and doing their thing...

I don’t want to throw em out, but wish they’d just leave too

Great lads for guarding the bat mobile ha..

Dinzee Conlee

Mossie1975 wrote: »

Bats here too. I don’t mind them.

They are between the slates and the felt in the garage, and the day they come through the felt we’ll be in trouble - they’ll have to go then...

Don’t really like em, smell in the garage is rough enough with em...

Capercaillie

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

They are between the slates and the felt in the garage, and the day they come through the felt we’ll be in trouble - they’ll have to go then...

Don’t really like em, smell in the garage is rough enough with em...

Illegal to remove them by yourself. You need to contact NPWS if you want to destroy their roost.

_Brian

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

They are between the slates and the felt in the garage, and the day they come through the felt we’ll be in trouble - they’ll have to go then...

Don’t really like em, smell in the garage is rough enough with em...

Wonder if you provided a few bat boxes on the external wall where they access would they prefer them and move out of the roof ?

_Brian

We have lots about at night but don’t usually see them about before dark.

Dinzee Conlee

Capercaillie wrote: »

Illegal to remove them by yourself. You need to contact NPWS if you want to destroy their roost.

Yeah, I know that.

_Brian wrote: »

Wonder if you provided a few bar boxes on the external wall where they access would they prefer them and move out of the roof ?

Based on what I have seen and heard in GLAS - it would suggest they prefer to find their own places, and not live in artificial box environments...
Its still something worth trying maybe, but you'd wonder if the bats arent so easily fooled

_Brian

Partly bat related but I noticed that evening and night insect numbers are massive here.
Had bathroom light on all evening and by midnight the outside of the window was mad alive with moths and flying things of all sizes, really glad the window was closed.
Same sort of insect levels as I remember in the 1970’s.

I know the talk is of overall decline but out of the way less intensively farmed areas like here are still teeming if you look for them.

Lady Haywire

I've bats somewhere in my roof too. No idea where and they don't bother me as I love watching them flit about & squeaking.
About 6 weeks ago I noticed one had managed to get into the kitchen & hang off a curtain rain & died :eek:
Only two days after that the b*tch of a cat took one in the window (very annoyed screeching going over my head woke me up as she jumped in the window over the bed) and she let the bloody thing go in the kitchen. VERY much alive so all I could do at 3am was open the door & wait for it to stop circling the kitchen & see the opening. :pac:

Sacrolyte

Are you the same lady haywire that was on pat kenny this morning?
If so well done.

Lady Haywire

Sacrolyte wrote: »

Are you the same lady haywire that was on pat kenny this morning?
If so well done.

Um. I plead the fifth...?:pac:

_Brian

Lady Haywire wrote: »

I've bats somewhere in my roof too. No idea where and they don't bother me as I love watching them flit about & squeaking.
About 6 weeks ago I noticed one had managed to get into the kitchen & hang off a curtain rain & died :eek:
Only two days after that the b*tch of a cat took one in the window (very annoyed screeching going over my head woke me up as she jumped in the window over the bed) and she let the bloody thing go in the kitchen. VERY much alive so all I could do at 3am was open the door & wait for it to stop circling the kitchen & see the opening. :pac:

Have a friend in bat conservation Ireland.

She was telling me the major way bats get into rooms is by following insects towards a window.

Young inexperienced bats get so focused on insects that they don’t realise they are going through the window until hey are inside. There’s nothing in regular house rooms for bats, it’s not an attractive environment for them. Often the mother bat will follow the young in to try and save them.

Bats can’t fly off. They have to drop from their perch and then try and get flight. Cats and occasionally dogs get to learn where to sit to catch the dropping bats at the lowest points of their starting flight, that’s how they manage to occasionally catch them.

Lady Haywire

_Brian wrote: »

Have a friend in bat conservation Ireland.

She was telling me the major way bats get into rooms is by following insects towards a window.

Young inexperienced bats get so focused on insects that they don’t realise they are going through the window until hey are inside. There’s nothing in regular house rooms for bats, it’s not an attractive environment for them. Often the mother bat will follow the young in to try and save them.

Bats can’t fly off. They have to drop from their perch and then try and get flight. Cats and occasionally dogs get to learn where to sit to catch the dropping bats at the lowest points of their starting flight, that’s how they manage to occasionally catch them.

I'd say that yoke of a cat tried to drop him on the table so he got lucky & managed to fly up around the room. Was definitely an adult but have no idea how she got it unless it was a couple of cages I'd moved under the eaves of the house during the day Only thing I'd moved in a while around the house.
When we had a skip next to the house the cats used to catch them every second night. Put grease on the top of it to stop the cats going onto it & that stopped it so have a vague idea of where they are living. I really should look into them more, so many of us know so many types of birds & yet just say a bat is a bat!

_Brian

Lady Haywire wrote: »

I'd say that yoke of a cat tried to drop him on the table so he got lucky & managed to fly up around the room. Was definitely an adult but have no idea how she got it unless it was a couple of cages I'd moved under the eaves of the house during the day Only thing I'd moved in a while around the house.
When we had a skip next to the house the cats used to catch them every second night. Put grease on the top of it to stop the cats going onto it & that stopped it so have a vague idea of where they are living. I really should look into them more, so many of us know so many types of birds & yet just say a bat is a bat!

From previous tests here there are three bat types on our land I’m told, don’t remember names to be honest.

Lime Tree Farm

https://www.batconservationireland.org/irish-bats/species

Lime Tree Farm

Fluppen wrote: »

This little creature was hanging around inside today, not one of the usual visitors.

I flicked through several websites but couldn't find a match. Anyone able to identify it?

gozunda

_Brian wrote: »

Partly bat related but I noticed that evening and night insect numbers are massive here.
Had bathroom light on all evening and by midnight the outside of the window was mad alive with moths and flying things of all sizes, really glad the window was closed.
Same sort of insect levels as I remember in the 1970’s.

I know the talk is of overall decline but out of the way less intensively farmed areas like here are still teeming if you look for them.

Watch out for the feking mossies. The warm temperatures and plenty of standing water means that they are breeding overtime.

Have to keep the bedroom window closed at night or they would drive us demented.

Feckers ...

Dinzee Conlee

gozunda wrote: »

Watch out for the feking mossies. The warm temperatures and plenty of standing water means that they are breeding overtime.

Have to keep the bedroom window closed at night or they would drive us demented.

Feckers ...

Do we have mosquitoes in Ireland?

Have the bedroom windows open here all the time, and don’t have any issues...

Ha - maybe tis the bats are saving me from being ate

gozunda

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Do we have mosquitoes in Ireland?

Have the bedroom windows open here all the time, and don’t have any issues...

Ha - maybe tis the bats are saving me from being ate

Yup. Around 18 different species according to sources. You'll hear then at night by the sound of a high pitched whining noise

They can give a nasty bite.

https://www.energia.ie/business/blog/do-mosquitoes-actually-exist-in-ireland

Base price

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Do we have mosquitoes in Ireland?

Have the bedroom windows open here all the time, and don’t have any issues...

Ha - maybe tis the bats are saving me from being ate

I heard a programme on the radio last year and we have 20 (I think) species of mosquitoes in Ireland and only the females of some species bite. Bats, dragonflies and birds are their main predators.

Base price

gozunda wrote: »

Yup. Around 18 different species according to sources. You'll hear then at night by the sound of a high pitched whining noise

They can give a nasty bite.

https://www.energia.ie/business/blog/do-mosquitoes-actually-exist-in-ireland

That sound will have me out of the bed and with a towel in hand in a millisecond.

NcdJd

I was outside having an coffee and smoke last night and heard that noise close to my ear.. scarpered back inside. Least with horse flies you can see them and zap them.

gozunda

Base price wrote: »

That sound will have me out of the bed and with a towel in hand in a millisecond.

Careful now or it'll be #mosquitos matter :pac: