Wildlife on your doorstep.

[TheDweezil]

I love wildlife. I consider myself as a conservationist. I used to be a falconer. Unfortunately as the years rolled by there was less places to fly a bird.

What wildlife do you get in your area ?

Here's a few of my local wildlife pics...

Fox on my Hawthorn hedgeYoung Common BuzzardSparrowhawk On PidgeonKestrelGoldfinchSparrowhawk with Pidgeon (1)Sparrowhawk with Pidgeon (2)Sparrowhawk with Pidgeon (3)Sparrowhawk with Pidgeon (4)Sparrowhawk with Pidgeon (5)Long Eared OwlHarris Hawk

[TallTrees]

Very pleased to say fabulous weather here  @TheHornedOne 

girls got early start, just after lunch I saw 2 tubes sealed in the lower house, so happy with that. I  took some photos they don't like me in front getting in way so quick snap shots but you can see the plugs and the girls flying in and out

 

 

 

[TheHornedOne]

It is a very long time since I visited Kew Gardens @TallTrees; back in the early seventies.

I cannot remember that much about it now, although I do recall visiting the Waterlily House.  I think there are some photographs around here somewhere - I'll have a look.

The entire site is a truly magical place!  Have you visited.

~R.

PS ~ Not much of a bee activity day again today!

[TallTrees]

Yes thank you @TheHornedOne 

Have been watching Kew. 

Noted bees very enjoyable. 

Today bees buzzing and very happy as dry and sunny.  Few days ahead should be good. 

Waiting for first completed tube. 

[TheHornedOne]

Kew Gardens: A Year In Bloom / Channel 5 / 27 May 2021 ~ 8:00pm-9.00pm

Excellent piece on Bees @TallTrees ~ can you do Television : Channel 5 : Demand 5

~R.

[TallTrees]

Fabulous today sunny and warm bees out...they are on the cotoneaster and so are lots of other bees too.  

 Mason Bee

 Bumblebee

[TheHornedOne]

The Garden this morning @TallTrees, at 10°C .........................

© RS May 2021

............. including one particularly inquisitive Robin!

~R.

[TallTrees]

Thank you for posting the bees with the Fanta bottle    @TheHornedOne 

If I  hadn't seen a video of it I don't think I would have believed it, remarkable..😀

[TallTrees]

@TheHornedOne   07.30am

Red Masons not active yet sun has not got round to shine on their  boxes yet  we have got sun this morning.   The boxes face directly South so sun still mainly in East South East. 

Fox came in for her bikkies she likes them.  I can't  move the flag it is part of small patio. When I  see her I'm too slow with camera!  She comes in from North and sometimes South side ..don't like to worry her really, she does come in at 8 to 8.30pm

She is about 40ft/ 50ft away from the house though. I can she her face  between the flower pots chewing and enjoying.. I  will try though to get a photo got to be lucky.

Good for you leaving some long grass. 

[TheHornedOne]

The weather here yesterday also showed a marked improvement @TallTrees.  It was much the same as yourself here Monday though, seriously unsettled, including hail coming down like park railings; although, as you say, the birds just keep singing through it all.

There was no overnight rain - Monday / Tuesday -  so I swept the grass early morning and went for a cut around midday.  However, I have left a larger area than normal untouched, so, a bit of a compromise with respect to 'no mow May', leaving it uncut more particularly, below the feeders.

A photograph of your Fox would be great; maybe you could move the flag, would that be possible, just a little a day, maybe, so that you can get the shot!

~R.

PS ~ How is the Red Mason activity today?

[TheHornedOne]

Check this out @TallTrees .........

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9616351/Two-honeybees-work-lift-bottle-Fanta.html

~R.

[TallTrees]

Red Mason Bees 

Today May 25th a much better day. Morning through to 5pm dry with sun. Bees are working on their tubes. Not fast because quite  cool but they are OK. Then raining ....but at least a reasonable time for them.

Still no mow May and laughing because under the bird feeder chaffinches are now nearly hidden in the long grass.....they like it though. 

[TallTrees]

Can't believe how bad the weather has been. @TheHornedOne 

Today Monday 24th May had two major downpours of hail stones came down like stair rods.

It has hardly stopped raining. When the sun comes out the bees are working at filling the tubes. No completed tubes yet. Will be slower because of rain.

I  do hope that the weather breaks and they get sun.

They sit in their tubes waiting for some better weather. I go out to see them from time to time. 

The birds all seem quite up beat though singing and feeding. 

Fox in every evening wet or dry she looks good. A handful of dry dog food for her at the bottom of garden. I can never get a photo she has her little spot on a flag behind some bushes can just she her.

Still no mow May..quite relaxing 😌

Hope all well in your garden. 

[TallTrees]

Thank you for the article so interesting @TheHornedOne 

  I often say when the bees start waking up the boys are off to the pub. They feed up after their long sleep. The girls come out of their cocoons about one week or maybe two after them.

[Gliwmaeden2]

@Garton2019, I will try reporting back to community management again!

When I found that the idiom I was trying to use was unacceptable, it took me quite a while to work out what was supposed to be the problem with it! I think I reported the issue and they did nothing about it. I might mention it again if the OCEs and CSs have another online meeting for airing things. Might be more effective then.

Many users may be more innocent than the software allows for and the problem with this zealous vigilance is that, once a word is "called out", it has lost its innocence for that user probably for ever. It becomes very frustrating when it's actually probably the best idiomatic way of saying something. 

These software settings could end up diminishing the vibrancy of the English language as digitisation takes over our lives. We are becoming the slaves of "computer says no" automatic settings. 

Sad, as innocent words and idioms get hounded out of use!

[Garton2019]

A little FWIW from fairly deep memory.

I'm reasonably certain when this feature was first introduced that the "severity" of the "naughty word filter" was customer (i.e. TalkTalk) selectable. You could set the "nuancing level" dependent on the target audience.

Back then @StephenF seem to decide that because the forums were intended to be "a community with user chat capabilities", where people of any age could view and contribute, the strictest level of filtering was appropriate. I don't think this "community" side of the forums ever really took off.

Maybe a friendly passing Community Star (hint, hint @Gliwmaeden2 ) could raise this issue with Stephen to see if the filtering level is selectable and still appropriate - the forum audience does seem to be on the more mature side and potentially different to the original target.

[Gliwmaeden2]

Yes, @TheHornedOne, the algorithms are appalling. I'll not even attempt to repost one turn of phrase that is perfectly acceptable to use in real life but cannot be posted here. The software is very clumsy and crude, not our words themselves in the appropriate idioms or contexts. 

"Computer says no because computer is not nuanced enough to know the difference" and I suppose the programmers inputting this have to err on the side of caution to genuinely avoid the remotest possibility of causing offence.

[TheHornedOne]

Will the lengths that TalkTalk go to screw things up never cease to amaze me!

The following species top the list of garden birds, as defined but RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, but I am not permitted to give their full names .......

Blue *@#][!![]'#[@#]!*, Coal *@#][!![]'#[@#]!*, Great *@#][!![]'#[@#]!*, Long-tailed *@#][!![]'#[@#]!*

Such pathetic, puritanical programming ........ TalkTalk at their best!

~R.

[TheHornedOne]

I found this article intriguing @TallTrees, have you viewed it .........................

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9604203/Nature-Male-honeybees-mass-certain-areas-lik...

~R.

[TheHornedOne]

Oak and Scots Pine are both good trees @TallTrees , and are both indigenous species. The tallest tree I ever worked on was a Noble Fir, and that was certainly a long way off the ground. They can grow to be seriously tall - 85m+.  Have Montana doing well here also.

Good news on the Long-tailed Ttits.  Long-taileds have been visitors here for several years now.  A pair of adults turn up early on, and visit most days, and then later in the season, bring their juveniles with them.  Not unusual to have six individuals zipping around me as I am tending the feeders of a morning. Magic!

Would I be correct in assuming that your Red Mason will be staying at home again today TallTrees - how well are they able to handle high winds - although perhaps you have not been suffering the 40+ MPH winds for the last 12 hours as I have!

~R.

[TallTrees]

23 Scots pines and 1 oak.. I  think😁  @TheHornedOne 

Grow ivy up scots pines with Montana clematis.

Photo is where Longtailtits nested this year thrilled with that.

 All went well.