Wildlife December 2009

[mark smyth]

Another N Irish Red Kite has been poisoned

[mark smyth]

shhhh!

[Paul T]

How cool!  How big is the bat?

[mark smyth]

it fits across the palm 4inches 10cm

[mark smyth]

This bat is Leisler's bat, Nyctalis leisleri, one of the rarest in Europe. The hibernation site is one of 300 trees due to be cut down in the name of health and safety. Some trees are over 200 years old and because they lean they have to come down

reply 322 http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2080.msg62496#msg62496

[Paul T]

Sad, very sad. (Um, this referred to some bats living in trees that were slated to be cut down...... the stuff seems to have just disappeared?)

[Diane Clement]

Sad, very sad. (Um, this referred to some bats living in trees that were slated to be cut down...... the stuff seems to have just disappeared?)

It's in the December thread
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4624.msg124459#msg124459

[Paul T]

Ah, must have been split off while I was posting my comment. They were there, then suddenly they weren't.  Thanks.


 Edit by Maggi: Sorry, cut you off in your prime!
 

[Anthony Darby]

This bat is Leisler's bat, Nyctalis leisleri, one of the rarest in Europe. The hibernation site is one of 300 trees due to be cut down in the name of health and safety. Some trees are over 200 years old and because they lean they have to come down

reply 322 http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=2080.msg62496#msg62496

In the name of common sense wouldn't be more sensible to fence off the trees, or is beyond these automaton jobs worth types abilities, or is it not possible?

[mark smyth]

300 trees, a mix of ash, sycamore, lime, alder and beech, are coming down to be replaced by tree whips that will be a mix of oak, holly, hazel and lime. The largest tree has to come down because of vandalism- fires set in the butress roots. Some lean, some have two leaders. The trees have been there since the 1700s or 1800s and now someone sitting in an office has decided they have to come down

[mark smyth]

two goldfinches killed in the garden in two days. One hit the window and one caught by a fluffball - say no more

[mark smyth]

what's small furry and lives 7 feet up a tree?

[mark smyth]

a rare Irish tree shrew - Sorex minutus hibernicus

[Maggi Young]

Eerie coincidence here.... remember the "face" of the beastie we found in Ian's Bulb Log pic of a crocus flower going mouldy? The Bulb Log was this one...
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2009Nov251259157769BULB_LOG__47.pdf

This is the blow-up from the picture....
 


 well look at the face of Mark's shrew from the last post........ the beastie is his blond brother  



 Wonder how many rare bulbs the brown version can destroy in a week? Cute though, I give him that!

[Anthony Darby]

Excellent shot Mark. Doesn't this little beastie have poisonous teeth? I once found a cat playing with one. I approached expecting the cat to grab it and run, but it did the latter without doing the former! I prodded said shrew with my toe and it promptly ran up the inside of my trouser leg! Thoughts of its ability to eat its own weight at one go went through my head as I walked gingerly home with the little darling making itself comfortable where it ought not to be! Needless to say it was release unharmed and unfed later. I certainly wouldn't risk giving it to a snake. I chap in the USA once caught a shrew and gave it to a small rattler. The next day the cage contained only the shrew, frantically racing round looking for more snakes to eat!