Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all,
Vanilla are planning an update to the site on April 24th (next Wednesday). It is a major PHP8 update which is expected to boost performance across the site. The site will be down from 7pm and it is expected to take about an hour to complete. We appreciate your patience during the update.
Thanks all.

What have you noticed in your garden during the lockdown?

245678

Comments

  • #32
    loveisdivine
    Registered Users Posts: 2,463 ✭✭✭loveisdivine


    Yep that looks like them. I must never have really noticed them before because I'd usually be at work.

    That article says a life cycle of a week, so maybe there will be a few less next week. Flying things always make me feel itchy!


  • #33
    Fleetwoodmac
    Registered Users Posts: 263 ✭✭Fleetwoodmac


    punisher5112 wrote: »
    No birds at all is what I see..... We have food out in feeders and not touched.... Birds were in plenty before all this....

    That's odd isn't it... what type of birds used to use the feeder...
    Any chance that there could be a sparrowhawk or a cat around..
    Saw a sparrowhawk or kestrel ( get them confused) swoop down and take a pigeon mid flight the other day

    Birds in our garden taking all the old dog hair/ beard clippings/ wool we've left out for nest building.


  • #34
    Goldfinch8
    Registered Users Posts: 529 ✭✭✭Goldfinch8


    A good hatch of those St.Marks flies in Mayo this week also. I have always known them as Hawthorn flies which I think is another maybe locally known name for them. The birds have certainly cottoned on to them around the hedgerows here.


  • #35
    Alun
    Registered Users Posts: 21,418 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Fleetwoodmac wrote: »
    Birds in our garden taking all the old dog hair/ beard clippings/ wool we've left out for nest building.
    Must be somebody near us doing the same. I've a nestbox with a camera in it, and have noticed the blue tit bringing in a lot more hair than usual into the nest.

    Incidentally, they don't seem at all bothered by the newly created magpie nest in our next door neighbours garden, or the magpies perching in the tree the nestbox is attached to.


  • #36
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,068 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    Fleetwoodmac wrote: »
    Saw a sparrowhawk or kestrel ( get them confused) swoop down and take a pigeon mid flight the other day

    Kestrel wouldn't/couldn't take a Pigeon. Sparrowhawk could, as could a Peregrine!


  • Advertisement
  • #37
    OpenYourEyes
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 3,068 Mod ✭✭✭✭OpenYourEyes


    punisher5112 wrote: »
    No birds at all is what I see..... We have food out in feeders and not touched.... Birds were in plenty before all this....

    Nesting season, so there's always a big fall-off in bird numbers in the garden! Best to just have a small amount of food in feeders if it's not being touched - otherwise it'll go off/get mouldy etc!


  • #38
    punisher5112
    Registered Users Posts: 24,647 ✭✭✭✭punisher5112


    Fleetwoodmac wrote: »
    That's odd isn't it... what type of birds used to use the feeder...
    Any chance that there could be a sparrowhawk or a cat around..
    Saw a sparrowhawk or kestrel ( get them confused) swoop down and take a pigeon mid flight the other day

    Birds in our garden taking all the old dog hair/ beard clippings/ wool we've left out for nest building.



    Mainly brown and black colour, no idea what breed and a few smaller ones too....

    One would come in and fight the others so he was the only one on.the feeder and they would pick at the bits falling on the ground from him....

    Few cats in neighbouring houses but weren't ever bothered with the birds from what I seen...


  • #39
    cd07
    Registered Users Posts: 466 ✭✭cd07


    I've seen I the past week a sparrow hawk, 12 buzzards soaring together, a red kite and a peregrine! Not bad for north co.dublin!


  • #40
    whyulittle
    Registered Users Posts: 3,878 ✭✭✭whyulittle


    Watched a pair of Ravens do their best to see off a pair of Buzaards over the garden this afternoon, while I was eh, busy working at my desk. While I was watching them with my bins, almost certain a Peregrine buzzed past higher up as well. Have had a Sparrowhawk circling about a couple of times over the past week too.


  • #41
    SnowyMuckish
    Registered Users Posts: 858 ✭✭✭SnowyMuckish


    whyulittle wrote: »
    Watched a pair of Ravens do their best to see off a pair of Buzaards over the garden this afternoon, while I was eh, busy working at my desk. While I was watching them with my bins, almost certain a Peregrine buzzed past higher up as well. Have had a Sparrowhawk circling about a couple of times over the past week too.

    That sounds amazing. I’m in awe of birds of prey but always feel for the underdog. We never have them around here but maybe I’m not watching close enough!


  • Advertisement
  • #42
    SnowyMuckish
    Registered Users Posts: 858 ✭✭✭SnowyMuckish


    :pac: The dogs were barking last night. When I went out to investigate (can’t have them keeping the neighborhood awake lol) I heard a sound like a woman screaming, never knew that this was a fox’s bark. We usually have a lot of pheasants about but they must have discovered this as the pheasants are quieter this year, poor things, hope some nests survive.

    When my husband and I first moved in together we used to argue about the sound of the pheasants. There used to be so many around our house and I used to think that the male had such a mechanical call that I was convinced that it was the neighbour’s oil burner coming on. It’s the most unusual noise, it took a few years and some knowledgeable neighbours to tell me that I was wrong about the oil burner. For anyone who’s never heard it, it starts as a normal bird squawk, followed by what I can only describe as some sort of machine starting up, it’s soo unusual!! :pac:


  • #43
    De Danann
    Registered Users Posts: 136 ✭✭De Danann


    I have seen the fattest bumblebees ever roaming around my garden the last week. They look like they've had a full Sunday dinner, their wings look too small to carry them!

    And plenty of birds visiting also. Has anyone noticed birds seem to be much louder lately? I'm not sure if it's because of less noise pollution, because there's more birds present with less people about, or if I'm just noticing it more because I'm not busy!


  • #44
    Birdnuts
    Registered Users Posts: 9,627 ✭✭✭Birdnuts


    De Danann wrote: »
    I have seen the fattest bumblebees ever roaming around my garden the last week. They look like they've had a full Sunday dinner, their wings look too small to carry them!

    And plenty of birds visiting also. Has anyone noticed birds seem to be much louder lately? I'm not sure if it's because of less noise pollution, because there's more birds present with less people about, or if I'm just noticing it more because I'm not busy!

    The only Bumblebees out during the month of April are the big Queens - none of the workers etc. survive the winter


  • #45
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,234 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    I'm pretty certain we've seen worker bees in the last week or two.


  • #46
    dogmatix
    Registered Users Posts: 1,404 ✭✭✭dogmatix


    Today at 6am I went for a walk in the woods behind my house - and heard a woodpecker for the first time, plus a cuckoo. Now i'm looking at my window at a dirty rat nosing around the bird feeders.


  • #47
    Keplar240B
    Registered Users Posts: 883 ✭✭✭Keplar240B


    In the garden
    More bird song
    Gold finches (seen them before once or twice a year see them all the time now)
    Saw a fox out front (although i have seen them before)

    Around the neighbourhood noticed large flocks of pigeons starlings, saw a huge flock of jackdaws 20+ normally only see them in much smaller groups.


  • #48
    SnowyMuckish
    Registered Users Posts: 858 ✭✭✭SnowyMuckish


    Pheasants calling none stop for the last few days.


  • #49
    blackplum123
    Registered Users Posts: 266 ✭✭blackplum123


    Got photos of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat..


  • #50
    blackplum123
    Registered Users Posts: 266 ✭✭blackplum123


    Got photo of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat.. In Wicklow


  • #51
    Penfailed
    Registered Users Posts: 7,467 ✭✭✭Penfailed


    Bumble bees, loads of ants, half a dozen rabbits and an Emperor Moth with eggs!

    Gigs '24 - Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball (Gomez), The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smashing Pumpkins/Weezer, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Stendhal Festival, Forest Fest, Electric Picnic, Ride, PJ Harvey, Pixies, Therapy?, IDLES(x2)



  • Advertisement
  • #52
    SnowyMuckish
    Registered Users Posts: 858 ✭✭✭SnowyMuckish


    blackplum123 wrote: »
    Got photo of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat.. In Wicklow

    Beautiful!


  • #53
    deadlybuzzman
    Registered Users Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭deadlybuzzman


    Not quite in the garden but a couple of mins walk down the road in a 100 m stretch in 1 week I've heard a buzzard seen a fallow deer and then today seen a mink/maybe an otter... Hopefully!


  • #54
    mossie
    Registered Users Posts: 2,144 ✭✭✭mossie


    Have had a lot of rabbits in the lawn, 9 at one time on Weds morning. I'm rural so not too unusual but the most I've seen in 10 years in this house. Also counted 22 in the field at the back one evening but, as the grass is getting longer, I probably won't better this. Spent an hour yesterday watching a fox quartering the field, probably on the trail of some of those rabbits. Eventually gave up and left.


  • #55
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭[Deleted User]


    A beautiful red squirrel, and our resident male pheasant who prefers to walk and jump over walls as opposed to flying. They can actually run quite quickly, I guess it would take more effort to fly.


  • #56
    bilbot79
    Registered Users Posts: 1,980 ✭✭✭bilbot79


    I've noticed that a magpie comes at 5pm everyday to look for food. I've also noticed that blackbirds seem to always have one eating and the other on the wall keeping watch


  • #57
    bilbot79
    Registered Users Posts: 1,980 ✭✭✭bilbot79


    Sunnyspot wrote: »
    A beautiful red squirrel, and our resident male pheasant who prefers to walk and jump over walls as opposed to flying. They can actually run quite quickly, I guess it would take more effort to fly.

    Are you around Leitrim?


  • #58
    bilbot79
    Registered Users Posts: 1,980 ✭✭✭bilbot79


    blackplum123 wrote: »
    Got photos of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat..

    You should report that in Birding Ireland


  • #59
    greasepalm
    Registered Users Posts: 5,244 ✭✭✭greasepalm


    At the end of our garden we have a raised bed with double sleepers put in years ago and 1 small apple tree survived in among the crap that is growing there.Notice i have 2 holes in 2 sleepers and space underneath with topsoil on the path.Thinking foxes have moved in.I hear them shrieks in the back and front late at night.


  • #60
    John_Rambo
    Registered Users Posts: 9,499 ✭✭✭John_Rambo


    blackplum123 wrote: »
    Got photo of this woodpecker outside the kitchen window .this evening. They are very cautious ....gone in a heartbeat.. In Wicklow

    That's fantastic. A woodpecker!

    We've a very old, slow grey squirrel with half his tail missing stealing our bird feed. He's on his last legs, my little boy has taken a liking to him and leaves nuts out for him. I know he's a grey, but he's up against it with a huge fox population and a good few cats in the area. He doesn't even run away when we're a metre from him now! There'll be creative stories when he disappears!


  • Advertisement
  • #61
    fryup
    Registered Users Posts: 18,069 ✭✭✭✭fryup


    there's this pair of robins that go in & out of my elephants ear (plant) with insects in their beaks..so i presume their feeding chicks...but..on closer inspection there's no sign of a nest and there's no sound of any chicks when they fly in there:confused: any idea what's going on??

    robin.jpg


Advertisement