Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Michael J Campbell on March 01, 2013, 12:02:08 PM
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European Robin. Erithacus rubecula
This fellow/girl was sitting on my upturned wheelbarrow watching me working in the garden this morning.
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Lovely shots, Michael ... the robins must be taking modelling courses ... this one posed at Harlow Carr Gardens today.
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'My' Otter again
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They look like two different animals Mark - the upper one has a broken lower right canine and heavy wear on the equivalent lower left tooth. The otter in the lower picture has no wear on these teeth (nor does it have the white whiskers), probably a young animal.
Sorry about getting technical! ;D ;D
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They look like two different animals Mark - the upper one has a broken lower right canine and heavy wear on the equivalent lower left tooth. The otter in the lower picture has no wear on these teeth (nor does it have the white whiskers), probably a young animal.
Sorry about getting technical! ;D ;D
Takes a dentist to notice this stuff! Well spotted, Peter!
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I noticed that. Its a very tame, too tame, mother and cub. If a male is a dog it a female a bitch? Yesterday my lens at 150mm was too long to focus
Here are photo that shows how close one was. This is the uncropped photo, lower one, reduced to 700 pixels wide. Close enough to hear it chewing and close enough to hear it smelling me. No hide used and no fish as bait.
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They look like two different animals Mark - the upper one has a broken lower right canine and heavy wear on the equivalent lower left tooth. The otter in the lower picture has no wear on these teeth (nor does it have the white whiskers), probably a young animal.
Sorry about getting technical! ;D ;D
Possibly a market out there for internet consultations? ;D
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You couldn't afford me - after Thursday night I become absolutely priceless until Monday morning! ;) ;D ;)
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;D ;D ;D
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Some nice animals with no visible teeth - An article in our local newspaper mentioned two
storks standing in a field beside a well frequented road since more than a week They are
not shy at all and are surely the most photographed objects in our region!
The egret in the background also seems to enjoy the public ovations since some days.
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Mark & Rudi,
you can feel lucky to have otters and storcks in front of your camera lenses.
I would be happy to see any here.
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You couldn't afford me - after Thursday night I become absolutely priceless until Monday morning! ;) ;D ;)
We used the term 'miraculous', but usually after a Friday night.
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Yesterday I went on a field trip to Shakespear Open Sanctuary which is located in Shakespear Regional Park at the tip of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula and is named after the Shakespear family which bought the land in the 1880s from local Maori. The sanctuary is now behind a 1.7 km pest/predator-proof fence (completed March 2011) and since they got rid of the cats, rats and other vermin the lizard population has boomed. This day was organised by the NZ Herpetological Society and over twenty enthusiasts were taken to examine gecko hides attached to trees round the perimeter of the forest and pitfall traps set for ground dwelling skinks. We clocked up six of the eight species present in the reserve: pacific gecko (Hoplodactylus pacificus); rainbow skink (Lampropholis delicata); copper skink (Cyclodina aenea); ornate skink (C. ornata); moko skink (Oligosoma moco - one of only four mainland colonies) and shore skink (O. smithii). The first pictures show the extent of the park and gecko habitat. Only one green gecko (Naultinus elegans) has been seen in the park recently. Pacific geckos are fairly common, but occur in huge numbers on the offshore islands. The peninsula is close to Tiri Tiri Matangi island, which is a bird sanctuary. They hope to reintroduce kiwis to the park this year. The other species we didn't see was the striped skink (O. striatum).
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After examining 30 odd gecko hides, where we found two pacific geckos and a dozen or so tree wetas, we headed off in the ute and two mules (four wheel drive golf carts by any other name) to a moko skink hot spot which had been divided off with another pest-proof fence. Skinks are trapped in buckets sunk into the ground as pitfall traps. They are covered with a corrugated roof tile and have food and a wet sponge as well as straw and some rocks in the bottom. Alas, the commonest skink is the Australian rainbow skink, which lays eggs and can reproduce and four times the rate of the native skinks.
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We did find a copper skink, but I didn't get a picture. We headed back to the ranger station after checking a dozen or so pitfall traps. Before our barbecue lunch the park ranger checked out the plant nursery for ornate skinks. We found three and caught two. We also found a large male tree weta. The last pic shows Brian, the park volunteer who had set up all the pitfall traps before hand and led our day.
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After lunch we went to look at the pitfall traps set at the back of the far end of beach for shore skinks. These were first spotted two years ago when all the rats etc. had been eradicated. The population has increased rapidly. The youngster was newly born. We found several of the huge seashore earwigs (Anisolabis littorea), which are about twice as big as the biggest earwigs I've ever seen in Scotland! :o
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There's a Walrus on A Scottish beach
http://northronbirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://northronbirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/)
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There's a Walrus on A Scottish beach
http://northronbirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://northronbirdobs.blogspot.co.uk/)
Good grief, Mark, can't a person nip down to the beach for a quiet swim without arousing all this fuss? ::) ;) ;D
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First saw this chap (if it's the same one) around the end of 2009. He spent a lot of time in the ponies' field for the next few months and had at least one lady friend. Only saw him occasionally for the last two years but he has been her more often in the last few weeks. I caught him going to bed tonight. The light was poor and I was using the zoom on a small hand held camera so the quality is not good. I hope some day he will stand still long enough in the sunshine to get a picture of his beautiful iridescent blue and green plumage. To call him black is not really accurate.
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These dark pheasants are lovely. I remember seeing some at Camperdown Park in Dundee.
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Spotted this female stick insect (Clitarchus hookeri) on a kanuka bush about 100 metres from the house. They are not common and quite often there's a male in attendance.
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Sand Martin yesterday and a few Wheatears today in southern England/Wales. Spring creeping up on us. Lovely. This can only mmean one thing - snow next week lol.
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Good grief, Mark, can't a person nip down to the beach for a quiet swim without arousing all this fuss? ::) ;) ;D
Love that Maggi ;D
Angie :)
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This turned up on my Facebook feed. "No, this isn't photoshopped. This is a cardinal "gynandromorph” - an animal that exhibits both female and male sexual characteristics. As different sexes are differently coloured, each half of the bird is a different shade" is what accompanied it. I have only come across bilateral gynandromorphs in butterflies and even used the term in an essay in my higher English exam many moons ago.
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Vivienne felt this http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/auckland-rattled-earthquakes-5371015 (http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/auckland-rattled-earthquakes-5371015)
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Been here with AS ("acromyrmex") collecting leaf cutting ants. http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/habitat/918662-new-zoo-displays-commercial-project-24.html (http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/habitat/918662-new-zoo-displays-commercial-project-24.html) I hope the programme comes out world wide in Discovery Channel.
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I'm hoping my yellow female Auckland green gecko (Naultinus elegans) will produce twins next month. The black tongue and blue mouth is quite evident in the third photo. I've added a fourth showing the mouth and tongue close up. I have joined a reptile forum, but it would appear I need to have a URL for any pictures I post. :-\
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She is very lovely, Anthony- looks in fine fettle. Are twins the usual number of young for these geckos?
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Yes. She may only have one as it's her first time?
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Does anyone have any tips for discouraging badgers in your garden. I have had one trashing my garden all winter and no doubt because of this week's cold weather he is back digging large holes in the border looking for tulips. I come down in the morning to find bits of plant all over the place. It now looks like he has found his way to the patio where I have pots of tulips which I thought might be safe. :(
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I think badgers are too determined to be easily discouraged. I'd take the line of least resistance and feed them something they liked better than your bulbs...... :)
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We have decided on the path of least resistence having tried to block the hole just before the New year and then having a scary encounter, for me and the badger, on New Years Eve!!
People have said put peanuts, bananas etc out for badgers but I wondered if that would just encourage them into the garden more rather than discourage it from eating my tulips.
Have decided that all the tulips that are left will be dug up after flowering and removed in the hope of protecting the other plants from the tulip craved badger. Then I will restrict my tulips to pots which I can protect in the garage over winter
The cold isnt helping as a fox has just trotted past the living room window in the middle of the day, they must be struggling to find food
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Keeping small determined dogs around can have a beneficial effect. 8)