Wildlife

[LAT]

Don't believe you!!

[Bunnylump]

Oh trust me, after the day I've had today, I do.

On the subject of wildlife (sort of) my son was just telling me that some of his friends are studying a tape worm, which lays eggs in snail slime, this is then eaten by ants, who eat the eggs, which have a peculiar effect on the ants and make them want to climb to the top of blades of grass at dawn. They can then be eaten by cows, eventually passed back out of the cows in the form of poo, and the they reinfect the snails! How weird is THAT?

[Bunnylump]

We had foxes mating in our back garden last night!! Crikey, they don't half make a racket! I've never heard anything like it!

[Scurra]

Well they were probably complaining about you standing around watching them.

[Bunnylump]

Oh, I don't think they were paying any attention to me!!

[MBH]

We had foxes mating in our back garden last night!! Crikey, they don't half make a racket! I've never heard anything like it!

The one that surprised us a number of years ago was hedgehogs What a noise..... and the grass was long as well, so next day we found the tracks going round and round where they'd been 'playing'.

[Wulfruna]

Don't foxes eat rabbits? Better take care when going outside....

[kathlyn]

Filled the bird feeders earlier and just looked out and saw 7 Long Tailed Tits stuffing themselves. Also there is a Jay who has become a regular visitor to the food during this cold weather.


Edit
My husband just asked me if the bird down the garden was a pigeon, so I got up to look and it's the Jay he's come back and brought his mate with him.

[Bunnylump]

Lovely!

A quick reminder to everyone - please feed the birds while there's all this snow and ice around. Apparently small birds like robins are expecially vulnerable.

[LAT]

We have a small pond in our garden and my husband rang me at work to say he'd looked out to see two ducks swimming in it! We've never seen that before although a heron is a regular visitor.

[Bunnylump]

We had family round today for puzzle rabbit birthday cake (the mould worked perfectly, Scurra and Gill, thank you!). Apparently one of my mad Brother in Law's friends has been having a bit of a crisis. He was walking his two Jack Russell dogs off the lead, and they ran under a hole in the fence and down a badger sett. This was yesterday, and one still hasn't come back out. The Middlesex and Herts Wildlife Trust (who own the land) and the badger conservation people have all been involved. Apparently it is common for dogs to go down badger setts and then get stuck, OR to be attacked by the badgers. It is against the law to dig the sett out, so they just have to wait and see if the dogs lose enough weight to be able to squeeze back out. Apparently one got out this morning, but the other still hasn't appeared. The badger man said that if the badgers have attacked the dog they will drag it back out because they don't like decaying animals in their setts. Bit grim, isn't it??

[LAT]

Oh, that's horrible! Hope the dog appears again soon.

[Bunnylump]

Our "lawn" has virtually no grass in it (because I am carp at gardening). However, it looks lovely just now. It is covered in wood violets and celandines. Although we now have a big hole, right in the middle of it all, where a fox has started digging himself a hole. It's quite funny though - I kept wondering why we had lots of chewed up balls and toys in our garden, I couldn't see how a dog could be getting in. Then we realised it was the fox cubs doing it!

[MBH]

He was walking his two Jack Russell dogs off the lead, and they ran under a hole in the fence and down a badger sett. This was yesterday, and one still hasn't come back out.

Sad - and annoying. We have a friend with two Jacks and has had the same problem.

My personal opinion - as lovely as it is to see dogs running free, they should never be off the leash unless you have a trained, 90% solid 'Recall' command. Recall only works if you as the human has something more interesting than whatever the dog is after (and since the dog has both it's own brain and instincts I'd never expect 100% control).

Poor Maisie is destined for an awful long time on a double leash (collar and harness), and little Jennie was a joy to watch on the beach but never was left off lead after she was chased down and 'played with' by a husky running free.

Fingers crossed the missing pooch comes out OK.

[clvrlad]

too true
the only time our greyhounds/whippets ran off they were chasing rabbits

they did make a good stews though my day used to to take them to the same fields and send them after the rabbits

censored the good taste

[Bunnylump]

Hey, Clvrlad, you're a tin dog. Couldn't you go down the badger sett to have a look for it?? (I could be behind you, armed with bricks and cement).

[gill216]

I've been watching the blue tits and chaffinches stealing fibres from my potato pods over the last couple of days. Nest building without a doubt.

Due to the rain, I've had my tumble dryer going today. I put the fluff from the filter out into the garden and they were very impressed. Nice soft bedding for the babies. It disappeared within minutes.

[Bunnylump]

I always put the cat fur I comb out of my pusscat outside at this time of year, and when we all get our hair cut that goes out too.

[giraffe]

My ex hairdresser always took hair home for the birds!

[gill216]

This rain is beyond belief. I have a poor drowned squirrel in the water barrel that used to be a potato pod. It must have fallen off the fence and couldn't get back out