O/T Nature...

[WOODLANDSWOLF]

Taken outside the house yesterday.

[WOODLANDSWOLF]

Taken outside the house yesterday.

Details below. - view external link

[Woking88]

Just sitting in the back garden, taking a break from work on the end of year accounts. A solitary red kite gliding backwards and forwards, getting lower and lower. Suddenly a blackbird started to attack it in mid-air. Much squawking and the kite went away. Within a minute the kite was back and nose-dived into a garden beyond our back fence hotly pursued by the blackbird which really went for the kite. The kite flew off with the blackbird making it quite clear that it wasn't wanted.

Amazing dive by the kite with the sunlight highlighting it's colouring and no attack by the kite on the blackbird, just evasive action.

Quite a drama on a quiet afternoon!

[Woking88]

A Happy Ending

In the afternoon of Wednesday 8th April, I found a racing pigeon in our garden. It was standing on the ground beside a shed and partially concealed behind some garden forks and spades. This was no ordinary ‘flying rat’ type of pigeon, but a very beautiful creature similar to the one in this picture;



Unfortunately, it had blood dripping from its’ white chest in the area where its’ right wing meets the body and we noticed a large smear of blood about five feet up the wall adjacent to the back door. Concerned for its’ well-being, my wife promptly took it to our vet who initially reasoned that it had either been attacked in flight by a hawk or maybe even shot. The pigeon was ringed and the vet contacted the owner, who lived in Kent. The owner could not collect the bird until the following Monday. The vet kept the bird and by the Saturday it was decided that it was recovered enough to give it the chance to fly.

Forty min

[Woking88]

This is a fantastic time of the year with so many varieties of daffodil. Some are dying off now whilst others are just coming into flower. I always associate Leucojum with this time of the year, but am surprised how many people have never heard of it. We have an abundance of these in the garden and whilst they look like daffodils as they are growing, the flower heads are like multiple snowdrops.

Does anyone on here share my love of this very beautiful flower?

Leucojum aestivum :-

[Woking88]

We had another very relaxing and enjoyable meander around Wisley Gardens today. Two stunning displays were the irises in the trials field and the pelargoniums (geraniums) in the glasshouse. In both cases, a mass of varieties and colour.





There is always a variety of birds to be seen. Along with chaffinches regularly in and out of a nesting box;


We saw several pied Wagtails:


And the remarkable tree creeper that seems to defy gravity as it walks up the tree as other birds walk along the ground. I had never seen one of these before and was fascinated watching it.


Maybe not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’, but for me , a very pleasant diversion from the everyday grind!

[Robus]

Nice thread. I don't recall ever seeing one of those luna moths, Woody.

[Woking88]

Some reports of bad flooding around the country, particularly in Worcester and the Severn Valley and the Thames Valley. I hope that none of you are affected. - view external link