frogatthefarriers wrote: ↑Tue May 13, 2025 8:15 pm I was sitting in my comfy chair last week when this lady appeared from somewhere...



... a girt big queen hornet. I don't know where she'd been hiding - possibly in the air vent in the French window. Didn't half make me jump, but like other wasps, all she wanted to do was get through to the outside and not attack me. For size reference, check out the bottom bracket on the door handle - two inches? She'd got some cobwebs stuck to her legs that I managed to pull off before letting her out to do hornet things. She sounded like a Dornier bomber. Turn the sound up if you're going to watch the clip.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d8IQ4p ... sp=sharing

We've lived in this house for nearly fifty years and never seen hornets until last year. I wonder what's changed?

That's one massive hornet Frog. Scary stuff. When I was about 14, one massive buzzing bee turned up in the kitchen. Now I'm slightly afraid of bees, especially all the various non-honey types. But when my dad told me to grab something and get it out, like dads do, I didn't want to let him down...

It wasn't out of respect, but bone-dry fear. Not because my dad was scary but I guess (I now know) we both had some sort of ADHD and he was fearless. 73 now poor lad and you can see the awe/presence slowly going out of him.

Anyway, before coming back to the bee-story, I only learnt later in life that I had a piss-coming-put fear of heights. But he'd have me up a ladder plenty of times and the bee story probably explains it. That I was more fearful (irrational of course, but he was 6ft+ and built like a cross between a rugby and basketball player) of my dad than the bee (or wasp for that matter).

So I wrapped a big wad of kitchen roll and I nabbed her/him. But this bee wasn't happy and the sting came through my 'Goodfellas-wad' of kitchen roll. Learnt a valuable lesson that day, to just talk them out the door instead.

Coming back to Goodfellas, when the man said about the local kids carrying his mums shopping all the way home, out of respect. It obviously wasn't respect, but fear. Fine line isn't it Frog, fear and respect and before going all philosophical on the topic. Well done at holding your ground with the hornet.

Oh well, best get to bed!

Some lovely baby swans.


On the canal in Exeter, and then, the smallest bird I've ever managed to snap.


Apparently there were hummingbirds further down the field. But I never bothered going to search as I was at work!
Anyone know what bird this is!?

Thats a wren Shaf. Fairly common in certain areas, and one of those birds larger in life than it is in reality. It is (with the goldcrest) Britain's smallest bird.

slarge wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 6:32 am Thats a wren Shaf. Fairly common in certain areas, and one of those birds larger in life than it is in reality. It is (with the goldcrest) Britain's smallest bird.

And somewhat surprisingly the UK's most populous wild bird.
I have a pair nesting in my bird box right now.

While walling at my brother's I was accompanied by a slow worm - it was a bit soporific in the heat so had to be careful when moving stones.

Also at my brother's: a couple of buzzards sitting on the wall near the gate to the farm. These looked like juveniles.

slarge wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 6:32 am Thats a wren Shaf. Fairly common in certain areas, and one of those birds larger in life than it is in reality. It is (with the goldcrest) Britain's smallest bird.

Thanks Steven, even though I feel I should have known that (thinking back). These little birds never ever stay still long enough for me to take a pic!

Frogs singing at a lake in Sweden:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKbhdqgK9Y3/

Spotted a newcomer to the 'hood this morning.

Big ride in the northern Cheviots today. Sadly no golden eagles straying over the border, but plenty of all the usual summer characters: curlews, skylarks and lapwings on the moors, swifts and swallows lower down. Make the most of it.

Also saw an adder, which slithered off the path just in front of me. It disappeared into a tussock and was completely invisible, at which point I realised I should spend less time looking for eagles and more time looking at the path in front of me.

Oh, and wild goats. Fortunately downwind of me.

thenorthwind wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 9:37 pm Big ride in the northern Cheviots today. Sadly no golden eagles straying over the border, but plenty of all the usual summer characters: curlews, skylarks and lapwings on the moors, swifts and swallows lower down. Make the most of it.

Also saw an adder, which slithered off the path just in front of me. It disappeared into a tussock and was completely invisible, at which point I realised I should spend less time looking for eagles and more time looking at the path in front of me.

Oh, and wild goats. Fortunately downwind of me.

https://irecord.org.uk/
Recording Adder sightings is really valuable given how rare they are. I love Adders!

Loads of feathered beasts on an overnight at Greg's Hut - curlew, lapwing, short-eared owl, golden plover and redstart.
One of the chaps I was up there with was very excited to find moon wort (v rare, especially if it's the variety he thinks, which has 1 other confirmed sighting in UK)

Saw a peregrine carrying a pigeon back to its nest on the local telephone exchange building (tallest building in town centre). Just walking to the skatepark with my son!

faustus wrote: ↑Sat Jun 14, 2025 4:40 pm Saw a peregrine carrying a pigeon back to its nest on the local telephone exchange building (tallest building in town centre). Just walking to the skatepark with my son!

Wow one of those 'once in a lifetime'moments for many.

I'm quite lucky as we see them often as they nest there most years. Just the other day we saw one chasing away a red kite. Watching it carry prey was very special though..

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sat Jun 14, 2025 6:04 pm Wow one of those 'once in a lifetime'moments for many.

Definitely the case for the pigeon.

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Sat Jun 14, 2025 8:36 pm

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sat Jun 14, 2025 6:04 pm Wow one of those 'once in a lifetime'moments for many.

Definitely the case for the pigeon.

So true. I'm not gonna tell the ones that frequent my garden (when I remember to put out the seeds).

A bit of an odd couple. Both close by the A590 (it's the road that goes from J36 on the M6 across the southern edge of the Lakes to Barrow in Furness).

At Levens there's a pair of swans nesting about 5 metres from the dual carriageway. When I first saw them I thought they were just doing a test nest but they've been there a while sitting on presumably eggs.

About a mile further on just past Gilpin Bridge where the dual carriageway ends there are sheep grazing in the fields on the left of the road, nothing special about that but they've a friend in the form of a roe deer hind that's basically been with them almost constantly for about three years now. Not sure what it does when the farmer rounds up the sheep but it always seems to come back.

fatbikephil wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 9:58 pm

thenorthwind wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 9:37 pm Big ride in the northern Cheviots today. Sadly no golden eagles straying over the border, but plenty of all the usual summer characters: curlews, skylarks and lapwings on the moors, swifts and swallows lower down. Make the most of it.

Also saw an adder, which slithered off the path just in front of me. It disappeared into a tussock and was completely invisible, at which point I realised I should spend less time looking for eagles and more time looking at the path in front of me.

Oh, and wild goats. Fortunately downwind of me.

https://irecord.org.uk/
Recording Adder sightings is really valuable given how rare they are. I love Adders!

Noted Phil. They're pretty common up in the Cheviots - not the first time I've almost got too close to one!

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Sat Jun 14, 2025 8:36 pm

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sat Jun 14, 2025 6:04 pm Wow one of those 'once in a lifetime'moments for many.

Definitely the case for the pigeon.

whitestone wrote: ↑Sat Jun 14, 2025 9:14 pm A bit of an odd couple. Both close by the A590 (it's the road that goes from J36 on the M6 across the southern edge of the Lakes to Barrow in Furness).

At Levens there's a pair of swans nesting about 5 metres from the dual carriageway. When I first saw them I thought they were just doing a test nest but they've been there a while sitting on presumably eggs.

About a mile further on just past Gilpin Bridge where the dual carriageway ends there are sheep grazing in the fields on the left of the road, nothing special about that but they've a friend in the form of a roe deer hind that's basically been with them almost constantly for about three years now. Not sure what it does when the farmer rounds up the sheep but it always seems to come back.

Today I saw mini dragons.

Yesterday, I cycled to “my” lime tree to pick the flowers that I use to combat runny-nose colds. I was dismayed to find that someone had beaten me to it and stripped all the reachable flowers. None left for me. I’ve used this tree for years and liked it because it’s far from the road and away from car pollution.

Today I rode to a second-choice tree in a park in Wrexham and picked these:-



They look a bit ropey, but better than nothing - at least until I find some better ones next rest days…

But, I’ve never seen these before when I’ve been picking lime flowers…



Tiny dragons on the flowers. Well, ladybird larvae, but they’d be dragons if you were an aphid.




This last one is, I guess, a pupa. Anyway, I chucked the flowers into a carrier bag and brought them home to dry for storage. At home I found a couple of dragon stowaways that had got into my bag. A Ha! - natural pest control - I released them on my broad beans to feast on blackfly. They won’t starve, I’m sure

Saw a young Adder at Llandegla today, I think that's the first one I've spotted in the wild.

A hummingbird hawk-moth in the garden, followed later in the day by a fairly close encounter with a badger outside the shed/cabin. Both 'firsts' for me in those areas

Johnallan wrote: ↑Sun Jun 22, 2025 7:14 pm A hummingbird hawk-moth in the garden

That reminds me, I saw this big bugger out in the hills Friday evening:


The ecologist friend I was with got very excited, but couldn't identify it. Google Lens suggests Driner moth.

On my jaunt round the Cairngorms this weekend I saw one Eagle in Strath Avon, and another in the Gaik. Plus a heron and an osprey over the Spey, various deer, bunnies, hares and lots of other birdies. No red squirrels though, which is odd.

Bearlegged wrote: ↑Sun Jun 22, 2025 6:27 pm Saw a young Adder at Llandegla today, I think that's the first one I've spotted in the wild.

Snap!

Although it was a few months back, llandegla was my first (and only) time of seeing an adder in the wild