nature & wildlife forum

THANK YOU FOR LOOKING IN TO THE INTERNATIONAL BELGIAN BEARDED BANTAMS FORUM, I CREATED THIS FORUM FOR ALL OUR INTERNATIONAL BELGIAM BEARDED BANTAMS CLUB MEMBERS & BREEDERS TO BE ABLE TO SHARE INFORMATION REGARDING OUR BEAUTIFUL BELGIAN BANTAMS.I HOPE THAT BY SHARING WITH OTHERS TROUGH THIS FORUMAND BASE ON THE BELGIAN BEARDED BANTAMS FROM THE COUNTRY OF ORIGEN "BELGIUM" WE BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND,H

This evening there was a mink on the lawn in broad daylight. The initial excitement of this sighting was soon overtaken by concern for the chickens who were only a few feet away.

I followed it in to the bushes where it sat quite boldly apparently not too bothered by my presence - at one point it even lay down and was cleaning itself! Unfortunately my camera was low on battery and I didn't manage to get a decent shot of it even though I had a clear view. After a while I chased it along the bottom of the wall and back again before it disappeared I think through a hole. It is probably an American Mink (Mustela vison) rather than the European Mink (Mustela lutreola). The latter has a white spot on the upper lip/nose but I don't know of any other differentiating features. This one had a white patch over the throat but was otherwise a wonderfully soft chocolate brown fur with a hint of reddish / chestnut. Not difficult to see why they have been farmed for their fur...

The old uknature site will shortly be closed down and all the content moved to the current nature diary / Nature & Wildlife (UK) blogs. This should hopefully enable me to keep the content more accurate and avoid some duplication. To see a larger image of the front page and read some of the history click on the read more link below.

Bird visitors to the cottage always seem to end up on the same windowsill. So far they include a juvenile blue tit (Parus caeruleus), swallow (Hirundo rustica) on its first day of flight and a young robin (Erithacus rubecula)...

Saving The Dolphins

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am sure you are aware that still in some parts of the world Dolphins and
Whales are still being hunted for food. As with most Western countries this
act has been outlawed in our waters, and many conservation projects are in
force at present to try and protect these wonderful creatures.

They need your help, there is an annual slaughter of many types of Dolphins

There was a rustling noise in some leaves yesterday and when I went to investigate I caught sight of the the last foot or so of a grass snake slithering behind the garden shed. It was slithering along the bottom of the wall again today but again I only saw the tail end of it. I'm not sure how it and the chickens will get on when they meet...

The spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) nest is rather inaccessible as it's a bit above eye level and jammed in against the wall behind a rose branch. I'm reluctant to spend too much time near the nest in case I scare off the parents. To get a nest shot I mounted the camera on top of the tripod and set it to a manual focus of 30cm with the flash stopped down by -0.7. Setting the timer mode I then pressed the shutter button and lifted the camera on the tripod to above the nest and about 30cm from it angled down...

All of a sudden all of the swallows took off early this morning. They were repeatedly flying out to the wire fence the other side of the road from their nest. One of the parents was keeping an eye on them and can be seen in the picture below sitting on the post. They were then all returning to the porch where they 'swarmed' around, sometimes hitting the glass of the front door, before returning to the nest...

The swallow chicks are definitely maturing amd seem more confident in and around the nest. This one has put its rear end out of the nest to poop on our front step!

I went out to lock the chickens away last night and almost trod on this toad on the back step. It is a common toad with the great latin name of Bufo bufo. The other evening I heard a bird knocking on a tree. Initially I thought it was a woodpecker but the tapping sound was too slow and quiet. Through the foliage I caught a glimpse of a small elongated bird running along the branch and it looked like a nuthatch. We have been excited to have a pair of spotted flycatchers in the garden and this past weekend one of our visitors found the nest on the back wall in the roses.