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Posts tagged with "magpie"

Stranger in the Meadow

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Late autumn sunrise :right:



Sometimes the wildlife photographer's lot is a frustrating one. After the constant seesaw of rain and sunshine all the work week, this morning dawned bright and clear :yes: But where are the foxes? :confused:

Sightings are rather uneven right now. Young male foxes from the year's litters are travelling away from their parents, seeking territories of their own, and run the risk of cars and unfriendly neighbourhoods. Even the established male foxes don't seem very bold; the Silver Dogfox has now returned, after an absence of a fortnight, but he is carrying an ear injury. And yesterday was Guy Fawkes Night, and the traditional aspects of the day seem to be increasingly giving way to nothing but fireworks :rolleyes: The impact of firework noise on foxes isn't easy to quantify, but they certainly terrify many pets and dogs, and I would hope that everyone who wants to use fireworks tries to buy the quietest ones possible. After all, it's the explosion and colour which are the attractions, not the noise :wink:

All in all, I thought I was going to have a completely fox-less morning, but on my way back down the lane, a lithe little form far in the distance caught my eye :smile:



The pony took no notice as the fox trotted by.

Other creatures are more active. Squirrels are rushing down the branches seeking nuts to cache, and small birds are chattering from the treetops...and the ground! This is a pied wagtail.



And magpies are always with us :whistle:

Name Game

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Whoever named black bears, slow worms, red wolves and prairie dogs should not be allowed to entitle anything, ever again :insane: but there are other, more interesting (if not necessarily any more accurate!) monikers :right:

(Some of these photos are from my archive because I couldn't hope to find all these species in a single weekend!)

Gatekeeper



Very much a butterfly of edges and hedgerows, it would have been frequently seen where gates bisected a hedgerow.

German Shepherd



A GSD is a GSD...or maybe not :eyes: Just prior to World World I, breeders started to worry that the political situation would harm the popularity of a breed with "German" in its name, so renamed it as the "Alsation wolf dog", after a district which has frequently changed hands between France and Germany. They do not, of course, have any recent wolf blood in their veins, and to my way of thinking don't even look like wolves :confused: but few people of that era would have seen a living wolf for comparison!

Magpie



"Mag" refers to Magot or Margaret, and "pie" apparently means chatterer. I suppose the inference is that the magpie was named by someone who knew a Margaret who talked too much :zip:

Dead Man's Fingers



I guess mycologists have a dark sense of humour rip This is another of our Ascomyceteae fungi, and very weird it is, too :alien: Caught in the wrong light it does indeed look like fingers sticking up out of the ground!

Yellowhammer



Nothing much to do with hammers :wink: The name is derived from the German "ammer", which refers to bunting.

Slow Worm



This one is particularly baffling because slow worms are actually lizards that can move reasonably fast - at least, they wriggle under rocks at great speed when I'm trying to photograph them. There seem to be a few theories on the loose as to why they've ended up with such an unhelpful name - one is that they are a "slayer of [earth]worms" and that this has corroded into "slow worm", and another is that worm is simply an old term for snake.

Ladybird



According to the BBC, these familiar creatures were associated with the Virgin Mary, who was often depicted in a scarlet cloak. They were known as "Beetles of Our Lady" during the Middle Ages.

Lynx



Had to end with a cat :cat: I have posted this photo before, but what it lacks in detail it provides in explaining the cat's name. No one who sees a lynx at night can forget the experience - its eyeshine is brilliant, mesmorising white. Evidently, this made an impression on the ancients, too; lynx is derived from the Greek world lyngz, which in turn comes from leuk, meaning light.

Pro on the 16th

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Morning on the golf course: clipped grass still wet with yesterday's rain, stylish cars rolling down the narrow track and emptying their well-dressed occupants near the club house, the crack of driving shots being practiced out on the flats.

And then this, the maestro of golf ball use, adorning the rough close to the 16th green, revelling in the sunshine, and apparently invisible to the troop of players hauling their clubs out onto the course.



She doesn't even need a caddie!



But he's waiting nearby, just in case :right:



And spectators wait in the stands :smile:


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I knew this whole valley so well as a child - the gnarled hollow tree to climb, the dock leaves to nurse stinging nettle wounds, the wild mushrooms to be picked in the autumn, the hedgerows swarmed by fieldfares and redwings. Almost all is gone now. There are times, perhaps, when converting a land to golf course may actually improve its conservation value - for example, in areas with intensive agriculture, a sympathetically managed golf course might provide a lifeline for sensitive species. But this course was built directly over one of England's last traditional wildflower meadows, and the contrast between it and the half of the valley which is protected as a park is stark.

Foxes bring a little colour and humour to what remains :smile: Our species may see these small white balls as objects for spinning through the air with a club. Foxes need no equipment bar their teeth and paws for their version of golf :bandit: We've had so many balls buried in our garden over the years.

It Must be Summer

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Because the deer have almost vanished! :eyes:



I think we might end up being reclassified as tallgrass prairie if things carry on this way, but, regardless, I was glad to see this doe today. She was taking her chances under the noonday sun, but rapidly retreated to the copse when she realised how many people were out on the lane.



She might well have a fawn or two nearby. Roe deer give birth in late May and rut very early in the season - July and August. If I see any bucks within the next couple of weeks, they should have a fine pair of antlers :smile:

The trail cam is out looking for badgers again this evening. This afternoon, it caught a magpie on the lawn. I think the quality of the daylight pictures is pretty good for this camera type.



The pictures come complete with barometric pressure, moon phase, and temperature reading. I may never need to look at the Met Office website again!



Finally, I was having a little bit of fun with gif files in Photoshop p:

Tools of the Trade?

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Yes, it's a can of discount dog food :whistle: But there is more to this than meets the eye. Whatever the vendor intends it to be, in the hands of the fox researcher it can assume a different, much more interesting purpose.



Any ideas what I might be thinking of studying with this? :wink:

I'll give you one clue:


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No more cub sightings; they seem to have disappeared back into the dense green fog of grass. But here are a few domestic animal photos to save this post from being too short!

Pony and donkey - meadow friends :smile:



Sleepy Leila



Foot in thoughtful pose