What's buzzing or flying near you 2022 ?

Is that a Comma @pete ?

 

I thought it was, but I'm not good at IDing butterflies

 

We went for a walk around Keyhaven marshes near Lymington and after zooming in on what looked like a large Buzzard, was in fact one of the Isle of Whight White Tailed Eagles. From a reintroduction programme started 3 years ago. They have wandered all over the UK and Europe but return to where they were fledged and hopefully in a year or two when mature, might breed.
Distant but the huge beak makes it unmistakeable.

 

@strongylodon ,I know this is not a good picture, but can you ID this bird.
It looked pretty big to me and I took it at the IOW, someone said it was a raven, but it was more than twice the size of a crow.

 

Not buzzing of flying yet...
Any idea what might come out of it?

Sitting on an amelanchier by the way

 

@pete, not 100% sure but it could be one of the Eagles but it would be 4/5 times the size of a crow . Not easy to id from those pics.

 

@Black Dog, looks like a Hebrew Character Moth caterpillar.

 

Well, as I say the pictures are not good, it was high in a tree at Ventnor botanical gardens and making quite a racket, but it was big.
Thanks for trying.

 

Thanks

 

Pigeons! The "Flying rats" of the air!

We live in a block of flats which has 4 balconies on each of its 6 floors. The ground floor balconies jut out about 6" or so from the balconies above us. This is obviously the drip line from above. This has never been a particular problem until this last winter as we don;t generally get enough rain to make it a nuisance.

But, & this is where I start to "moan" about pigeons! These rats of the air sit on the balcony railing about 4 floors above us & let their dropping fall into our balcony! Now there have always been a few dropping but this winter it has been very difficult to get out onto the balcony, especially if it is wet, as their dropping foul the floor & make it quite slippery as well as unhealthy!

I thought they perched on the guttering at the very top of the building as that would correspond to our drip line, but a few days ago I saw that wasn't the place but the railings on the balcony about 4 or 5 above us.

As I've wanted to go out on the balcony more this month, with the drier & sunnier weather, I've been forced to use a stiff brush to try to clean the dropping away before I could do anything out there.

Their dropping have also forced me to renounce a row of pots along there as the plants get covered in droppings. I, myself, have also felt the effects of these birds! Not very pleasant I can assure you!

Last year they attempted to nest on some shelving I have fixed to an end wall of the balcony & I had to constantly shoo them away. Eventually they seemed to get the idea as they gave up after a few weeks, But this year they seem to be getting the same idea again. I've already had to shoo them away on several occasions this month alone!

A few days ago I even found a dead pigeon under the table in a corner of the balcony! It can only have been there a few days as I have been going underneath it to get compost out. I hadn't seen it before & it's the first time in 20 years we have found anything dead (other than plants of flowers!) on it!

On top of this I also have my wife telling me off for shooing the d* things away!

Ahh, the life of a balcony gardener!

 

Not exactly flying. More paddling. The first visitor to our new birdbath.

 

@wiseowl I think we are more likely to see these Red Legs more than we ever see our 'common' Grey Partridge although they are far more colourful.

A very close view of a Greenshank at Brownsea Island today.