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Nature on your farm.

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    #992
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,448 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    forgottenhills wrote: »
    As a matter of interest what farmers on here have actually seen the following reclusive animals on their farms or close by?
    • stoats
    • pine martens
    • badgers (live ones)
    • otters
    • lizards
    • pygmy shrew

    Growing up on a farm I only saw a lizard once, a stoat once, otters once or twice but never saw a live badger or a pine marten either dead or alive. I saw a couple of dead shrews as well (mistakenly referred to as field mice).

    I've seen all of them in my 43 years but lizards are the rarest. I know where the rest are.


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    #993
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,171 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Plenty stoats and badgers, but only saw a red squirrel only once locally and he was dead.

    This art in the Guardian on the abundant life in a hedgerow may interest some:
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/02/reservoirs-of-life-hedgerows-help-uk-net-zero-2050-aoe


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    #994
    Zoo4m8
    Registered Users Posts: 1,003 ✭✭✭Zoo4m8


    blue5000 wrote: »
    Heard her barking, I think it's the vixens that do the barking during the mating season. Open to correction though if anybody else knows more as I could be wrong.

    It’s the dog that barks, the vixen has that blood curdling screech.. many years ago when checking sheep lambing in the fields at night they often put the heart sideways in me 😳!


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    #995
    Base price
    Registered Users Posts: 11,180 ✭✭✭✭Base price


    I occasionally see pine martins hunting in the wbc. There is a family of stoats nearby and see badgers crossing the road at night, the odd shrew but haven't seen an otter in a long time at the lake. I've never seen a lizard in these parts.


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    #996
    Rosahane
    Registered Users Posts: 1,399 ✭✭✭Rosahane


    Zoo4m8 wrote: »
    It’s the dog that barks, the vixen has that blood curdling screech.. many years ago when checking sheep lambing in the fields at night they often put the heart sideways in me ��!

    Many years ago out flyfishing about 12:30 on a lovely summers night. Vixen screeched and raised the hackles as it does and then something large cold and wet touched the back of my neck.

    I jumped about six feet in the air and let out a screech that probably frightened everything within a mile.

    When the panic subsided I realised that one of the bullocks in the field that I'd forgotten were there was the culprit :eek:


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    #997
    forgottenhills
    Registered Users Posts: 441 ✭✭forgottenhills


    Zoo4m8 wrote: »
    It’s the dog that barks, the vixen has that blood curdling screech.. many years ago when checking sheep lambing in the fields at night they often put the heart sideways in me 😳!

    Foxes have a huge range of weird screams and barks. They are the obvious candidate for the banshee myth.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPFTEuT3d4I


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    #998
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    A stoat is a strange looking creature when you up close to one. Head the size of a horse chestnut. To think the can take down a rabbit. Was cutting back a large blackthorn hedge and there was a rabbit squealing and it stopped after a while and the stoat came up a branch and looked at me for a minute and scarppered.


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    #999
    Stationmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 832 ✭✭✭Stationmaster


    NcdJd wrote: »
    A stoat is a strange looking creature when you up close to one. Head the size of a horse chestnut. To think the can take down a rabbit. Was cutting back a large blackthorn hedge and there was a rabbit squealing and it stopped after a while and the stoat came up a branch and looked at me for a minute and scarppered.

    Are they that small? They'd be a good smaller than a pine marten so?


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    #1000
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Stationmaster wrote: »
    Are they that small? They'd be a good smaller than a pine marten so?

    It looked very small to me Stationmaster. It was one of the reasons I can still remember it, wasn't expecting it to be so small and skinny. Unless it was a juvenile.


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    #1001
    Stationmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 832 ✭✭✭Stationmaster


    NcdJd wrote: »
    It looked very small to me Stationmaster. It was one of the reasons I can still remember it, wasn't expecting it to be so small and skinny. Unless it was a juvenile.

    It's mad that I've never seen one. We have an abundance of wild animals around us here (I forgot to mention hares too in my previous post - what an amazing looking animal) but I've never seen a stoat or even heard of one around.


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    #1002
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Stationmaster wrote: »
    It's mad that I've never seen one. We have an abundance of wild animals around us here (I forgot to mention hares too in my previous post - what an amazing looking animal) but I've never seen a stoat or even heard of one around.

    It was the one and only time I've seen one here. All the hares are gone from around here. Only place I see hares now is up at Dublin Airport. If this covid thing ever goes away and things return to normal, if your heading off for your holidays keep an eye out for them grazing on the grass as your heading for the terminals. They are so used to the public you can stand 30 foot away from them and they wouldn't take any heed if ya. When they were around our area they be gone as soon as you enter the field. Lovely creatures.


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    #1003
    Stationmaster
    Registered Users Posts: 832 ✭✭✭Stationmaster


    Yea, the hares are a great looking animal. Very lucky that we have so many here in east clare. Usually spotted around dawn and/or dusk.

    Just looked it up - the pine marten is about 3 times bigger than a stoat I reckon - every day is a school day!


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    #1004
    forgottenhills
    Registered Users Posts: 441 ✭✭forgottenhills


    Stationmaster wrote: »
    Yea, the hares are a great looking animal. Very lucky that we have so many here in east clare. Usually spotted around dawn and/or dusk.

    Just looked it up - the pine marten is about 3 times bigger than a stoat I reckon - every day is a school day!

    Yea, stoats are quite small and slim and hide in hedges and walls so that's why they are not spotted too often. Where I grew up the old timers always referred to them as weasels.


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    #1005
    Birdnuts
    Registered Users Posts: 9,660 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    NcdJd wrote: »
    A stoat is a strange looking creature when you up close to one. Head the size of a horse chestnut. To think the can take down a rabbit. Was cutting back a large blackthorn hedge and there was a rabbit squealing and it stopped after a while and the stoat came up a branch and looked at me for a minute and scarppered.


    Hard to believe Weasels are even smaller(I know we don't have them here) - I think the Irish stoat is smaller than the British one as its filling a niche that would have been filled if Weasels had got here before the landbridge with Britain disappeared 10k years ago.


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    #1006
    Lady Haywire
    Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭Lady Haywire


    Did anyone else hear of the old 'stoat funeral' píseog?


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    #1007
    PoorFarmer
    Registered Users Posts: 536 ✭✭✭PoorFarmer


    Plenty hares around here too. Am relatively lucky to have badgers in all 3 patches of ground. Badgers setts in all of them too. Have hen harriers for the last 2 years too. Red squirrels in a patch of oak and hazel woodland. Haven't seen a pine marten around yet. My OH has lizards in their home place in N Kerry but I've never seen them myself. Have only seen 1 stoat a good many years back crossing a road. No otters around as far as I know but the rivers are pretty small, more like streams


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    #1008
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Lady Haywire wrote: »
    Did anyone else hear of the old 'stoat funeral' píseog?

    Go on :)


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    #1009
    Lady Haywire
    Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭Lady Haywire


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Go on :)

    Eeeeh as far as I can remember it's that when an old stoat dies (king stoat??) the stoats hold a funeral procession as such. So that a long procession of stoats can be seen, one following the other.

    It's likely only tosh but I love those old tales.


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    #1010
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Lady Haywire wrote: »
    Eeeeh as far as I can remember it's that when an old stoat dies (king stoat??) the stoats hold a funeral procession as such. So that a long procession of stoats can be seen, one following the other.

    It's likely only tosh but I love those old tales.

    A train of stoats :D


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    #1011
    SmartinMartin
    Registered Users Posts: 2,937 ✭✭✭SmartinMartin


    Lady Haywire wrote: »
    Did anyone else hear of the old 'stoat funeral' píseog?

    Never knock a piseog. I had to move my house 20m because of one.


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    #1012
    Le shovelle
    Registered Users Posts: 74 ✭✭Le shovelle


    Lady Haywire wrote: »
    Eeeeh as far as I can remember it's that when an old stoat dies (king stoat??) the stoats hold a funeral procession as such. So that a long procession of stoats can be seen, one following the other.

    It's likely only tosh but I love those old tales.

    Father in law told me that same story a few years back. I thought he was winding me up


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    #1013
    blue5000
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,631 Mod ✭✭✭✭blue5000


    Zoo4m8 wrote: »
    It’s the dog that barks, the vixen has that blood curdling screech.. many years ago when checking sheep lambing in the fields at night they often put the heart sideways in me 😳!
    That's what this one was doing, screeching, but not constantly. What does a barking fox sound like?

    If the seat's wet, sit on yer hat, a cool head is better than a wet ar5e.



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    #1014
    Lime Tree Farm
    Registered Users Posts: 2,669 ✭✭✭Lime Tree Farm


    blue5000 wrote: »
    That's what this one was doing, screeching, but not constantly. What does a barking fox sound like?

    I always thought it was the female vixen that shrieks when in heat, calling for a mate.


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    #1015
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,562 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    We've nearly 5 acres and surrounded by grazing.

    Plenty of pheasants, rabbits and an occasional fox( though not seen it in the back garden in a long time)
    Wife saw a stoat last year.

    Do chickens count? :)


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    #1016
    Alanm2020
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭Alanm2020


    A pair of Swans decided to make themselves at home along the river at the bottom of my fields since around November or so. Unreal amount of shrew about this time of year especially at night. Have spotted a few fox Cubs along one of the ditches but never can get the chance to capture them on camera as it's mostly at night and spot them with a torch. Also notice a heron along the river. Plenty of pheasants about but strangely no real sign of any rabbits usually there's a few about. Plenty of wild mushrooms and stuff growing anyone able to identify this type in the pic I attached.


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    #1017
    PoorFarmer
    Registered Users Posts: 536 ✭✭✭PoorFarmer


    On my 10 minute commute this morning I spotted both a badger and a hare


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    #1018
    Base price
    Registered Users Posts: 11,180 ✭✭✭✭Base price


    PoorFarmer wrote: »
    On my 10 minute commute this morning I spotted both a badger and a hare
    I've noticed a few hares on the move in the last week on the farm. It's coming into their breeding season.


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    #1019
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Badger tracks.


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    #1020
    Base price
    Registered Users Posts: 11,180 ✭✭✭✭Base price


    NcdJd wrote: »
    Badger tracks.
    They have very long claws as you can see in your pics. Hopefully your badgers are TB free as there ain't many livestock farms in your area.


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    #1021
    NcdJd
    Closed Accounts Posts: 994 ✭✭✭NcdJd


    Base price wrote: »
    They have very long claws as you can see in your pics. Hopefully your badgers are TB free as there ain't many livestock farms in your area.

    True Base, we've a good few around the area. I notice too that they to be digging alot of little holes near the edges of the fields. I thought they were rabbits but now I'm convinced it's the badgers rooting for food.

    My neighbour has livestock but never had any hassle touch wood.


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