A hen harrier.

 

A couple of old kestrel pics.

 

So, this past weekend was partly spent doing some yard work, and that included picking up these...



These are mostly husks from hickory nuts that come from a shag bark hickory tree that is right outside one wall of my shop. Every late summer and fall. I hear a pretty constant banging on the roof from the squirrels knocking these down onto the roof.

Here what they look like:



Full one in the husk on the left, and the nut in the hard shell on the right. They can be eaten, but we don't. The squirrels and chipmunks love them though. We raked up a 5 gallon bucket full of the debris, and there's more to come.

 

Good you pick them up based on this guys car... If cars ran on hickory nuts maybe Squirrels could fill are cars up in the UK...
Squirrel hides nuts in car - YouTube

 

We had our Sunday consitutional via a Fenland Drain.... Nice bit of Sunshine but then it all got a but Jurassic by UK standards... so I headed home before a T-rex showed up. I am not that good at recognising plant life / Fungi... but I am pleased it looks like we will have a bumper Pancake harvest for the winter :0)

 

In Tanzania this bird is referred to as a cuckoo bird

 

A red kite from today.

 

Lovely!

Only seen once every few years where I live, but when I go somewhere on a Motorway (Autoroute, Autobahn, Freeway) they are fairly common, looking for the road-kill from the cars & trucks. Must be rather smart not to get killed themselves

 

Brings new meaning to "There's a moose loose aboot this hoose"!

 

Thanks.

they are not uncommon here, i have some times seen them catching mice and such when the farmers are harvestin.

 

They are pretty versatile.

Short-eared Owl season coming up here, some years we get 20 over-wintering, some years 2 depending on the abundance of the mouse & vole population. Don't think they go for tractor-kill.... But for someone without the many Euro-1000s lenses they let humans get within 10-15 meters when they are perched on posts and regard 2 meter vertical clearance enough when flying. Shame they come out close to sunset when there isn't enough light for lenses I can afford.

 

Some years ago i was at a place (an abandoned airfield) where there were 3 or 4 short eared owls flying around catching mice, somehow they could find them under the snow. This was in the daytime.

 

Our trusting resident Robin



We have had this plant in our garden for many years, so long that to be honest we have forgotten what it is
Possibly a Yucca Adam's Needle ?
First time it has ever produced a flower or whatever it may be.

 

Couple of big locals


Just another day in my neck of the woods


A daily couple of visitors


Christmas Island red crabs

 

This afternoon's walk ...

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) female



Small White (Pieris rapae)



Both are pretty common.

 

I thought it was getting late for Dragonflies (UK) but it looks like some push on into December from the interweb

 

I dug back a few years today ... I took these in Goa. Comparing with your pictures I see I am suffering skills, camera and lens gaps... but still nice memories. I do better when they are on the ground :0)
.

 

Some more old photos from the UK and Goa.... I do a bit better when the birds have landed ... which defeats the object a bit :0)
.

 

A few images taken and posted a year ago after a visit to an Owl Sanctuary, t.b.h. I couldn't believe a year had passed