[SA Chris]

My aunt and uncle live in Surrey, and have a "pet" fox. Any time they have a barbie in evenings it comes and sits at edge of garden and begs for scraps. Never gets any, but other people in the area must feed it when it does, or else it wouldn't try.

[jonjon]

found a kestrel sat in the middle of the road by Toads Mouth bridge at Burbage, a bit concussed and query damaged wing, dropped it up to a ranger at Longshaw, dont know who was most scared in the car the bird or the dog

[Johnny Brown]

The dog, obviously. Did you tell them about your big cat sighting?

[jonjon]

Of course i did, but to be fair they didn't seem very trusting for someone called the national trust.

[SA Chris]

Where did you spot one? Seen 3 up here so far.

[jonjon]

Baslow... you'll not see Johnny Brown up there at twilight without a spot for all his scoffing.

[Jim]

Any more turkey shot Wilson?

[john horscroft]

Is it possible I saw a Great Grey Shrike on Blackamoor?  Right size, white and grey with black flashs??  Or am I having a senior moment? 

[Johnny Brown]

I believe there was one resident up there a few years back, maybe its returned?

Edit: certainly one about: http://www.sbsg.org/sightings/recentsightings.asp

Good tick!

[john horscroft]

I believe there was one resident up there a few years back, maybe its returned?

Edit: certainly one about: http://www.sbsg.org/sightings/recentsightings.asp

Good tick!

Blimey Adam, I'm quite excited.  Am I turning into a twitcher?! 

[Johnny Brown]

No. You'd only be a twitcher if you went up there specifically to see it. From Surrey.

Don't blame you for being excited though, I'd be made up! Might even have a look tomorrow... whereabouts?

The overhead wires should also be checked for Great Grey Shrike, as the area was previously a traditional site for this species, although the most recent record was in spring 2004. 

More info here

[john horscroft]

We were biking down from the Stony Ridge car park Adam.  Just as Cowsick opens up on the left, I spotted it in a tree on the right.  Couldn't get too close but it flew ahead of me for 100 metres.  Very attractive bird!

[lagerstarfish]

  Very attractive bird!

There's a whole separate thread on that...  apparently

[slackline]

Great shots from Brolly...


I'm still loving short eared owls! by Brolly99, on Flickr


I love short eared owls! by Brolly99, on Flickr


Pondering wild seal near Robin Hoods Bay by Brolly99, on Flickr

[Brolly]

Cheers Slack---line, I was coming on here to post one of the owl shots, but you had beaten me to it!

The owl shots are from Worlaby Carrs (if anyone wants any further details PM me).  My first visit there about a month ago in 3 hours we saw a lot of kestrels, a lot of buzzards, 3 sparrow hawks, 2 peregrines, about 4 marsh harrier, 2 hen harriers, 3 short eared owls a fox and a kingfisher.  Since then I've seen deer, hares, stoats and barn owls too.  It really is an amazing place unfortunately the stewardship on it has expired and it's rumored that it will be going under the plough next year, which will be a massive loss.....

The owl shots above are the best I've had yet but I'll keep trying!

Happy snapping, Ol

[SA Chris]

Second owl shot is superb. Might do woth a bit of a crop, but toherwisw world class IMO.

Saw the largest skein of geese I have seen in a long time the other evening. Quick conservative headcount put them above 250 in number. Too far away to identify though. Love watching them fly in formation.

[SA Chris]

Anyone watching Birds Britannia on BBC4 btw? Really enjoying it.

[tlr]

Great bird pictures Brolly, birds in flight are bloody difficult.

Something a bit different; some pictures taken whilst snorkelling in the Maldives. An amazing place for fish, its basically like swimming through the worlds biggest aquarium. I haven't counted up the number of species that we saw, but these are just a small selection of the ones that I photographed, let alone those that we glimpsed.

Pictures were taken with a Canon S90 in waterproof housing. The names of all the fish should be in the properties.

The Heron was pretty funny, it had caught the Moorish Idol but then couldn't swallow it as it was too wide, however it wasn't about to let it go and we must have watched it trying to swallow the fish whole for half an hour or more before we wandered off.

[slackline]

  Nice pics, came our really well.

Props for hanging around to get a snap of the Black Tip Shark, and great turtle shot

Snorkling is amazingly good fun, saw tons of funky coral & fish off islands in Thailand and saw turtles off Kenya.  Most worrying thing I ever saw was a Lionfish that was lurking around where we'd left our reef shoes in Kenya, was about 2m away, I didn't inspect any closer at all!

[tlr]

We saw Black Tips and White Tips every time we went in the water pretty much. One or two didn't bother us too much, but when we swam into a goup of a dozen bigger ones it was a bit spooky and we didn't hang around too long.

Supposedly they never attack humans.....

Its the Titan Triggerfish that we were warned about, it can get very aggressive when defending a nest, and they have bloody sharp teeth.

[grumpycrumpy]

Not very exotic , but I saw a Tree Creeper in Padley Gorge this morning , which was nice ..... 

[jonjon]

100 plus Waxwings feeding in High Storrs (sheffield) this morning

[gardinrm]

Not very exotic , but I saw a Tree Creeper in Padley Gorge this morning , which was nice ..... 

In a similar way, I saw a Jay today down near the Roaches which was lovely. Been quite a while since I've seen one. Also saw a nuthatch on a bird feeder.

[chriss]

Had a good day birding last weekend with an RSPB mate along the Norfolk coast. Got 71 on the sheet & even twitched an American Golden Plover, a life tick so I'm told.

[north_country_boy]

Out on site in Scotland two weeks ago, accompanying Ecologists on a site visit, we stumbled across a dead beaver......certainly a first.