All things Nature

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

This is a new thread to chat about all things nature.

Birds, bees, other flora and fauna. Noctilucent clouds, the Aurora Borealis. The sky is (literally) the limit.

Welcome!

Hi! Marking my place on this discussion :)
Yesterday I spotted in my (suburban NW Eng) garden: a Red Admiral and a chunky-looking dragonfly. Think it was a broad-bodied chaser, according to a quick google. Was thrilled as there has been an enormous drop in the number of flying pollinators that visit my garden, compared to 5-8yrs ago, and I was only seeing Large/Small Whites.
Despite the iffy weather today I have had several poppies open up in my borders - all different types, though I’m hoping for some of the Shirleys to fight their way out!

Thanks @RainbowZebraWarrior.

I was hoping to get my trail cameras out today but it’s topping it down and I’m not sure I want to trek through ferns in this.

Thank you for taking the bull by the horns! Looking forward to seeing all the contributions.
to start off, I have kept a nature journal for ages, I am an artist somit's full of drawings and pa8ntings mostly of my local area and garden. Might show some later. But here 's a list of what I have seen in my garden and the local woods (I'm not very clued up on insects!). I'm in NE Scotland, and five miles from the coast, surrounded by farmland.
what have you seen in your gardens?

I'll start.

I've had a few Springwatch moments in the past week or two. Somewhat 'predatory' I'm afraid. I suppose it's all part of the nature cycle.

Anyway, out of my front window a couple of weeks ago, I saw a crow sitting on my bird bath heartily tucking in to a pigeon. I'm not sure if the pigeon was already deceased, or if the crow predated it. Not seen that before. My Dad, however, informs me that it's quite common. He was raised on a farm and is a beekeeper who spends all of his time in the outdoors.

Last week I was spying on my nature cam in the back garden as I was awake early and I caught a newt running down the middle of the garden. A blackbird came and plucked it up in what seemed like a split second.

Anyway. It's a fantastic time of year for nature. Anyone else enjoying Springwatch? I really wish it was on all year round!

My current obsessions are my new binoculars, the Merlin app. And in absence of any Aurora at this time of year, hunting for Noctilucent clouds.

Just found my old DLSR and it's finally given up the ghost after 20 years so I'm in the market for a new one. If anyone has any recommendations, do shout up.

Ooh, you were all so quick!!

It's so windy here @CatOnAHotRadiator I had all sorts of outdoor and garden plans, but fingers crossed for tomorrow.

That looks amazing @FizzingAda I really fancy doing some nature drawing. DD has many sketch books so I'm going to tap her for one this evening.

@evtheria not had a lot of butterflies here yet (NE coast of England) but I've had a few owls, a woodpecker or two and a cuckoo. And aforementioned newt and carnivorous crow!

I have a lot of greenfly! I really should have thought about doing some companion planting. (Is that what it's called?)

For anyone just finding this thread, it came about due to this discussion:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5337132-do-we-have-a-wildlifenatureconservation-topic?reply=144737325

If anyone else would like to start any nature specific threads, please do as it would help our cause for an overall nature and wildlife board 😊

Does anyone know if you were to go back to an old recording in the Merlin app, would it ‘do’ another identification? I’m not at all a bird-watcher but like using this app, and there’s one clip I’ve got from about midnight of a bird far down my road. Think it was all
the noisy clattering of half-asleep me trying not to drop my phone out of the window that stopped it doing its work!

Oh you’re in the NE too @RainbowZebraWarrior. I’m not coastal, over in County Durham. My plants are always a few weeks behind my MIL’s in the Midlands 🤣

Im thinking of starting to put some of my trail cam footage on YouTube if anyone would like a nosey occasionally.

<waves from Whitley Bay>

I'd definitely be interested in any of your YouTube nature footage. I've got a ring camera at the front and a funny little camera at the back that actually sits inside the conservatory and I can change the angles on my phone. I've been recommended a NatureSpy one though by my grocery delivery driver.

I used to live in Whitley Bay! Lovely part of the world. 😍

I have a Naturespy Helarctos trail cam. Their customer service was excellent.

Place marking for now.

Tbh I am hopeless at identifying bugs, beetles and birds but it doesn't stop me from watching and enjoying them .

I thunk so @evtheria I've been using Merlin for about 18 months and have loads of recordings, many of which are duplicate birds IYSWIM.

I also meant to say that I'd love to see some of your drawings and paintings 😍

Checking in!

I'm busy with the blackbird project. Well I say 'busy' it's only 15 minutes per day, but remembering it is one of my major achievements this week 😄

Had a fresh brood of baby blue tits in my native hedge this morning. They were still being fed by parents, but were finding plenty of their own food among the leaves too.

I’ve not signed up to the blackbird project but today saw a youngster on the lawn, I’ve had a pair of adults regularly turning up for ground feeding in the morning.

HI all - another ex-Whitley Bay resident here - I lived there from 1963-70 (ages 4 -10). Monkseaton Drive, to be precise :)

I'm now living in the very rural west of Ireland - watching our local birds and insects is a bit of a hobby - I have bird feeders stuck to the window next to me, plus other feeding trays close by. Right now there's a juvenile chaffinch and its father on the feeder - and I also get bluetits, coaltits, great tits, house sparrows, goldfinches, collared doves, pigeons, loads of rooks, magpies, jackdaws and the occasional seagull (we're half a mile from the Atlantic coast).

Merlin tells me we're surrounded by wrens, blackbirds, and willow warblers, too - but I've only spotted a wren once, going into one of our nest boxes :) Our dilapidated shed has barn swallows in it, and there's an audible cuckoo somewhere, and a pheasant - but again, I've not seen them!

I think Merlin's a brilliant app - I'm beginning to recognise some of the bird calls from it. I like sitting in our field and watching insects too - we have a lot of shield bugs, bluebottles and greenbottles (that's what I call them, anyway) as well as various caterpillars, more slugs than I would wish for (I'm trying to grow things!), snails, voles, mice foxes, mink etc. etc.

Thanks for starting this thread - nice to see some other nature lovers out there :)

Thank you for starting this thread. Nature brings me so much happiness.

Over the last few weeks I've enjoyed seeing the common blue damsel flies , beautiful poppies popping up and house martins around the estate.

I have left my front bush (of the garden variety) get out of control, as well as the weeds wildflowers, and was relieved when my neighbour who I assumed was judging my slatternly ways instead excitedly flagged me down to tell me that there are birds nesting in the bush and they had been enjoying watching them! 😁Most of my neighbours keep very perfectly manicured lawns, so I feel a bit embarrassed of the state of my front garden in comparison, but there's no way I'm spraying weed killer or cutting anything down in nesting season.

Generally I've noticed grass verges filled with huge daisies(?) this year, more so than before. I hope people stop complaining to the local councils to cut the verges.

I had a beautiful walk yesterday and fields were yellow with buttercups and fox gloves are starting to appear too! So exciting.

If they’re really huge then they’re probably oxeye daisies. Loads on the motorway banks at the moment..

Ah thanks, yes they're gorgeous to see!

@icelolly12 my neighbours jet wash their patio and cut the lawn every single week. They’ve even put up one of those plastic birds of prey to keep all those pesky birds away and I’ve heard them complain to their friends about the noise coming from my garden. The “noise” being birdsong!

Fortunately their friends pointed out that it’s really odd to get annoyed by a few birds singing. The neighbours almost had me convinced I was being anti-social, with my two bird feeders 😂

On my bird feeders today, I had a gathering of 4 juvenile blue tits and one haggard looking adult. I wonder if all the fledglings were his/hers. I’ve seen the adult in my garden before. I’m not too worried about it - it’s got plenty of energy, but it’s lost a few feathers and looks a lot duller than usual (it’s definitely an adult, not a youngster). I guess raising four chicks to adulthood would do that to you!

I have two owls playing silly beggars with me. A long eared owl, which I've seen twice recently in my driveway and a barn owl. I heard the barn owl briefly at 8.30pm last night as I was watering the garden. Couldn't see him anywhere and eventually locked up and went to bed. 10 minutes after I'd turned the lights out at about 10.24pm, the two of them started having some sort of hoot-off. I couldn't be bothered to get back up again and go outside looking for them, even though I love to see them. I'm guessing there must be some sort of stand-off regarding a shared hunting ground. Plenty to go round, I'd say as my garden is quite wild - an act of rebellion against my many neighbours love of concrete and fake grass - and also we have open farmland at the end of the street.

Hello @Inextremis I know Monkseaton Drive very well. I've lived in this neck of the woods most of my life, but have a secret plan to move to the Shetland Isles or the Hebrides when DD grows up and leaves home which will likely be never

@icelolly12 we've got a front lawn than "lowers the tone" too

I currently have around 20-30 starlings visiting my feeders. They nest under next door's roof tiles every year and from where I sit at the kitchen table I watch them busily collecting nesting materials and get quite excited anticipating the arrival of the fledgelings. I find them so entertaining with their squawking and squabbling - the noise they make is incredible!
They're greedy little buggers too - a couple of years ago the flock numbered around 40 and i was getting through 80 suet balls a week

I also have a magpie that visits every day, several jackdaws, the occasional rook or two and a rather sorry looking crow that appears to have a bald patch on its back. Too much to be moulting so wondered if it's been mobbed by others? It's been visiting for around 10 days now but looks a little healthier than it did on day one when I was quite worried about it.

Lots of sparrows in the back hedge plus bluetits, great tits, blackbirds and goldfinches.

We get quite a few cockchafer beetles here too (we call them mizmadors in these parts) which like to fall down the chimney and terrify the dog

I think I'd better shush now before I start on about all the local mammals

I’m bookmarking my place here. Keen bird feeders and watchers in our household and a little bit obsessive about spotting butterflies. We are up to 16 species seen so far this year, which is well up on last year with the dreadful spring. We have been doing more gardening this year (retirement) and plan a wild bit at the bottom where it is a bit shaded and doesn’t get as much sun. So we plan to remove the grass and plant wild flower seeds, and create a bug hotel too.

Hello fellow nature observers, this is a very soothing thread. I also have a front lawn that lowers the tone, currently fully of oxeye daisies, poppies and various waving feathery grasses. Also lots of ragwort which attracts the caterpillar of the cinnabar moth (very pretty red and black)

My resident blackbird pair appear to be going for a second brood as I've just quietly watched the female collecting nest material. She was closely observed by her mate who sat on his usual perch high up in my (dead) eucalyptus tree.

My front garden is a tip sight to behold and full of native cornflowers and red valerian.

Hurrah! We have a new Nature, Wildlife and Conservation topic ❤️