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Sheffields Flora and Fauna


Guest Trefcon

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What's the easy way to distinguish a Heron and a Buzzard?

The bird in your pictures certainly looks very Heron - like.

There is a similar bird which has its home on one of the ponds in Graves Park (the one with the island where the geese nest) which has been there for several years and which I had assumed was a Heron.

Pictures of the Heron in Graves Park

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I thought I was seeing things.

About 15 minutes ago a young blackbird flew low over the garden and dropped a baby bird which it was carrying.

The baby was very young, just a few stubs of feathers. I don't know what it was but it was about 4" long.

I picked it up and it was still warm although quite dead. I just chucked it into the bushes but I suppose I should have taken a photo first.

What's that all about ?

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I thought I was seeing things.

About 15 minutes ago a young blackbird flew low over the garden and dropped a baby bird which it was carrying.

The baby was very young, just a few stubs of feathers. I don't know what it was but it was about 4" long.

I picked it up and it was still warm although quite dead. I just chucked it into the bushes but I suppose I should have taken a photo first.

What's that all about ?

Never heard of that sort of behavior from a Blackbird before vox,

however a quick search came up with this .. Wild About Britain - Strange Blackbird behaviour

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Never heard of that sort of behavior from a Blackbird before vox,

however a quick search came up with this .. Wild About Britain - Strange Blackbird behaviour

Good find Steve

Their conclusion (clearing the nest) seems pretty reasonable to me.

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Guest Trefcon

Caught this peanut thief about 10 mins ago, he's also chewed through the wire on the feeder, wheres mi' gun !

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Caught this peanut thief about 10 mins ago, he's also chewed through the wire on the feeder, wheres mi' gun !

Not another Tree Rat,

I wonder what they taste like?

he he

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Never heard of that sort of behavior from a Blackbird before vox,

however a quick search came up with this .. Wild About Britain - Strange Blackbird behaviour

We seem to have loads of blackbirds near where I live.

We put plastic lids off aerosols on top of the milk bottles to stop them pecking off the milk top

to drink the milk but they flip them off and still get in.

I've had to buy a plastic container for my milkman to put my cartons of eggs in as the last two times

he left me eggs on the doorstep they pecked the cartons to pieces then broke into the eggs.

They had a real good party, egg yolk everywhere.

And before Dave says it, this was no yolk. ;-)

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We seem to have loads of blackbirds near where I live.

We put plastic lids off aerosols on top of the milk bottles to stop them pecking off the milk top

to drink the milk but they flip them off and still get in.

I've had to buy a plastic container for my milkman to put my cartons of eggs in as the last two times

he left me eggs on the doorstep they pecked the cartons to pieces then broke into the eggs.

They had a real good party, egg yolk everywhere.

And before Dave says it, this was no yolk. ;-)

WOW

you still have a milk man

We buy ours from Tesco's

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WOW

you still have a milk man

We buy ours from Tesco's

That's why our milkman had to pack in a few years ago.

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We seem to have loads of blackbirds near where I live.

We put plastic lids off aerosols on top of the milk bottles to stop them pecking off the milk top

to drink the milk but they flip them off and still get in.

I've had to buy a plastic container for my milkman to put my cartons of eggs in as the last two times

he left me eggs on the doorstep they pecked the cartons to pieces then broke into the eggs.

They had a real good party, egg yolk everywhere.

And before Dave says it, this was no yolk. ;-)

No, you're right ukelele lady, wild birds pecking at milk bottle tops really is no laughing matter.

I have a friend at work whose entire family, him, his wife and his son, all ended up in hospital with a very serious case of food poisoning.

As in all cases of this kind it was investigated by the health authorities.

It turned out that his milk bottle tops had been pecked on the doorstep by magpies which had carried the infection from elsewhere on their beaks.

The only real solution to this problem is to do as Stuart says and don't leave milk bottles lying around on your doorstep.

Buying milk in sealed plastic containers from, for example, Tesco, is a much safer option.

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Caught this peanut thief about 10 mins ago, he's also chewed through the wire on the feeder, wheres mi' gun !

We quite enjoy having squirells in our garden and watching them perform on the bird feeders.

OK, they nick a bit of stuff but they haven't, as in Trefcon's case, damaged the feeders.

Wife's biggest grumble is that they then dig her plants up to bury the stuff they nicked from the birds!!

Now there was a bloke in the news last week who had trapped a squirrel in a cage trap but then drown it by putting the cage in a butt of water. He got in quite a bit of bother for it for excessive cruelty.

Must admit that it's not what I would have done.

Also, on "the green" near us the squirrels are so tame that they will hapilly come right up to you and can almost be "hand fed", - although I am reluctant to try it as a bite from one of them would no doubt mean a trip down the hospital and a load of anti hepatitus vaccines.

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A bit of Flora

Anybody any idea of the name of this plant

Yes I do,

without Googling or looking in a book.

Oil let someone else have a go.

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Yes I do,

without Googling or looking in a book.

Oil let someone else have a go.

Bet you don't know where it is though

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Yes I do,

without Googling or looking in a book.

Oil let someone else have a go.

That is a really poor joke, Steve. :)

It is oenothera biennis, usually known as evening primrose. I love this plant because I can get it to grow (can't get it to stop, if truth be told) and I have loads of it in my garden.

No idea where the one pictured is, though. It could be just about anywhere, given it grows like a weed. First time I ever saw it was in southern France many years ago, and I was rather surprised to see some a few weeks later on some waste ground in Wincobank :o

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That is a really poor joke, Steve. :)

It is oenothera biennis, usually known as evening primrose. I love this plant because I can get it to grow (can't get it to stop, if truth be told) and I have loads of it in my garden.

No idea where the one pictured is, though. It could be just about anywhere, given it grows like a weed. First time I ever saw it was in southern France many years ago, and I was rather surprised to see some a few weeks later on some waste ground in Wincobank :o

Thanks, fancy not knowing this

location could be anywhere then if they are classed as weeds

Actual location is Centenary Riverside Nature Reserve in Rotherham

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Thanks, fancy not knowing this

location could be anywhere then if they are classed as weeds

Actual location is Centenary Riverside Nature Reserve in Rotherham

...and I thought it was a triffid growing in your back garden. lol

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This very tatty looking butterfly is not only common in the UK

but also across Europe, Asia and Japan.

What is it?

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This very tatty looking butterfly is not only common in the UK

but also across Europe, Asia and Japan.

What is it?

,

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lol

Yes it is MA,

it's the under-wing mark that gives it away.

photo taken in Heeley Millenium Park

I can unequivocally say that my previous post in this topic was the shortest I have ever made.

First time I saw a comma I thought it was a very tatty tortoiseshell until I got very close to it. When my interest in butterflies started the reference books told me that the comma was only to be found in south-west England. Within a few years I was seeing them in my garden in Warrington as well as at my parents' in Sheffield. I have even seen them up here in Carlisle in recent years.

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I was wondering why the birds around our way seem to have deserted our well stocked bird table and dissapeared on their migration early this year.

I have just found out why.

Woken up by a thud against the bedroom window and a lot of fluttering.

Garden and drive covered in feathers, on more than one occasion recently

Out walking with the dog I found 2 dead collared doves which used to perch in the tree outside our house

Today I saw a hawk flying off with a dead bird it had killed.

Looks like we have got a hawk in the area and it is killing or frightening off all the other birds which we used to see in the garden and on the bird feeders.

Don't really know what I can do about it, - any ideas?

Looks like our old problem is back

Since returning from holiday our bird table has been deserted, the squirrels and cats have gone and there have been some strange goings on.

A couple of times we have heard birds shreik with pain then go silent, the dog has gone to investigate but found nothing. In fact the dog herself, with more accute hearing has often responded to something happening out in the garden but not immediately apparent to us.

It happened again this morning, but this time on leaving the house the reason became apparent.

Deposited on the garden wall was the headless body of a collared dove from the tree in the street.

WARNING!!! DISTURBING IMAGES

As it was on the wall just outside the front door my wife found it upsetting and I never did find its head!

I now suspect that we have our "bird of prey" back which decimated our bird population last year.

What sort of bird is doing this?

A collared dove is quite a sizeable bird even if it is a relatively tame and unaggressive bird. It must be a big bird to take it on and kill it so quickly and effectively. There is no obvious sighting of a big bird in the local area.

Any ideas?

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Looks like our old problem is back

Since returning from holiday our bird table has been deserted, the squirrels and cats have gone and there have been some strange goings on.

A couple of times we have heard birds shreik with pain then go silent, the dog has gone to investigate but found nothing. In fact the dog herself, with more accute hearing has often responded to something happening out in the garden but not immediately apparent to us.

It happened again this morning, but this time on leaving the house the reason became apparent.

Deposited on the garden wall was the headless body of a collared dove from the tree in the street.

WARNING!!! DISTURBING IMAGES

As it was on the wall just outside the front door my wife found it upsetting and I never did find its head!

I now suspect that we have our "bird of prey" back which decimated our bird population last year.

What sort of bird is doing this?

A collared dove is quite a sizeable bird even if it is a relatively tame and unaggressive bird. It must be a big bird to take it on and kill it so quickly and effectively. There is no obvious sighting of a big bird in the local area.

Any ideas?

The last time I saw anything like that

it was a cat that had killed a pigeon and removed the head,

I'm not saying that it was a cat that killed the dove,

could be numerous reasons for the birds death.

Birds of prey usually go into the breast area first.

Comming to think of it,

I saw a Cormorant fly past my back window today,

so if you find any dead trout or coarse fish laying about,

you will now know how they got there .. lol

Though Cormorants normally gulp fish down whole.

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The last time I saw anything like that

it was a cat that had killed a pigeon and removed the head,

I'm not saying that it was a cat that killed the dove,

could be numerous reasons for the birds death.

Birds of prey usually go into the breast area first.

Comming to think of it,

I saw a Cormorant fly past my back window today,

so if you find any dead trout or coarse fish laying about,

you will now know how they got there .. lol

Though Cormorants normally gulp fish down whole.

I don't think it is a cat doing it as our local cats seem to have made themselves scarce as well.

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