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ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 24-07-2018 08:54AM

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 08:06AM

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 03:23PM

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 09:30PM

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 01:15PM

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 01:19PM

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 09:31PM

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

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 16-08-2018 09:35PM

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 08:39AM

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

bolgbui41 · 17-08-2018 02:34PM

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 02:39PM

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

fryup · 18-08-2018 09:39PM

mayfly in august ?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 18-08-2018 09:59PM

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 08:27AM

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 02:52PM

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 04:01PM

"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 01:49PM

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

Zoo4m8 · 25-09-2018 08:43PM

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

New Home · 25-09-2018 10:00PM

Wow!!

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