The Hide (chat thread)

Has there been any Painted Lady's seen around the country this year? Not a single one seen around here.

fryup wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^^

haven't seen one yet in my garden anyway, but loads of small tortoiseshells

Ya loads of Small tortoiseshells here too. Was delighted to find plenty of chrysalis hanging from some nettle patches near the hedge rows this year.

A stoat ran across the road, while I was driving home today.

2 buzzards on esb poles too.

Well that didn't take long! Its funded and currently at almost €300,000!

Bird Buddy: A Smart Bird Feeder, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mybirdbuddy/bird-buddy-a-smart-bird-feeder?ref=android_project_share

It won't be available until September next year at the earliest though.

It's priced between €129 - €179 depending on how soon you get in, pricey but I guess it's like the Ring Doorbell of bird feeders!

Here's s video or the prototype working:

Got home from work yesterday to find a Bluetit flapping against the inside of my shed window. It probably squeezed in through a knot hole. I let it out and it flew off ok. And of course, where did it decide to leave a poo while inside? Right in the middle of the freshly sanded tabletop that I was about to start french polishing.

Honestly, stupid birds! We have a bird feeder with fat balls that mostly bluetits peck at. There are a few wagtails but they really can't cope with hanging onto the feeder, so they wander around the paving picking up the bits that fall, which is a good few, so they do alright.

Just at the moment though there is one belligerent wagtail that has shooed off the others as it has taken over the paving. It also rather stupidly has taken to flying up and bullying the birds from the feeder, so no bits are falling. Its got itself into an ever decreasing supply as it waddles around on the paving looking for crumbs that are no longer there. Hopefully it will get bored and go elsewhere and the other birds can get a chance.

Just spotted a large frog under 1/2" of ice in my garden pond. I've knocked a big hole in the ice in case it needs air, but surely it should be hibernating? I've had a number of these adult frogs living in my pond all summer and Autumn but I didn't expect to see one in early Jan in the current cold snap.

I was just watching Winter Watch tonight, so interesting...

I loved the segment at the end, the ‘mindfulness moment’, such a peaceful few minutes of reflection in our busy lives!

It brings me right back to my childhood. Days spent idly roaming overgrown wild fields that were divided by stone walls during the Penal Laws (not that I knew that back then!) and dangling my carefree feet into the the local estuary, hoping to catch sight of a ‘madadh uisce’ or otter. I was lucky only once and it was magical!

I often remember just sitting there on the rocks and closing my eyes and listening, just sitting there, still, and listening.....

Those moments and experiences ground you, shape you and stay with you for your whole life. I think we have lost those precious moments in our world today. Between work, devices, social media and the busyness of life...

There are some days that I long to sit back on those rocks, dangle my feet in the cold autumn current, close my eyes and just listen....

Just spotted frogs mating in our garden pond. Pond was only established spring 2019. We had put some rescued frogspawn into it last year but these big adult frogs have come from elsewhere. Dreading the arrival of our first heron ( although it will be a great record for the garden bird survey😉)

magicbastarder wrote: »

what's the pond lined with?
i'm dreading a heron coming to our pond. not for the fate of the frogs, but for the fate of the liner.

I know. Thin synthetic liner v. herons beak. I know which one my money's on!

I’m looking at preformed hard plastic ponds at the moment, they seem a good investment? leek proof I’m hoping but huge variations in price depending on the website you pick!

That’s true a lot more flexibility with shape and size with the liner, but I get the impression that there’s a lot of work to creating and maintaining it, especially with the possibility of holes. I’m looking at a small simple enough shape so I’m hoping it’ll be a case of drop it in hopefully without too much hassle

We put a pond in during summer 2019, during last year two frogs moved in, started to see some larvae, it was coming along nicely. A few weeks ago some cattle got in and when chasing them out of the garden one of them slipped into the side of the pond ripping the liner in a couple of places :mad: Water now is about 2 to 3 inches deep.

Looks like well have to rip everything out and get a new liner. Was half thinking of putting the new liner directly over the existing one but debating whether to put sand over the old liner first!