Land /Water Wildlife 2024

Hi Strongy.
We had a squirrel in our garden today ,a fascinating creature ,like you we have never had one in our garden before.
I took some pics.as we may never see him again.

 

@roders, ours keeps coming back and will empty the feeders if I let it so I might have to take action, changing feeders or getting a umbrella type baffle. While it is there the birds leave so I will have to discourage it.

 

If you see 1 you will have many more!!!
This year alone i've got rid of 36 the year before was 52 and the most i seen at 1 time was 5

 

Yeah - don't kid yourself @roders ....
The reason they've become such a dreadful pest in the UK is because they're several steps ahead when it comes to procreating. It's not just the huge problem of the disease they carry, they also damage tree saplings etc. due to their bark eating habits.

 

Whatever happened to the plan to use oral contraceptives to control grey squirrel populations?

 

I don't think that worked to any extent @DiggersJo. They're always ahead of any attemps to control them.
The pine marten experiment up here didn't work either, so the reds are under even more threat in their strongholds of Perthshire.

 

We went out in the fog and the rain for a picnic in the Cairngorms, windows cracked open a little to listen to the Red Deer stags roaring in the Glens.

 

They kept spitting them out..................................

 

You hear, and see, them regularly at this time of year in The Mamores [Kinlochleven] @burnie, and all the surrounding areas - Glencoe etc. I heard/saw several en route to Sgurr Eilde Mor [the most easterly outlier of the Mamores] some years back.
It's something you never forget once you've experienced it.

 

We often hear our muntjacs barking and I hung my phone out of the window one night and recorded them.

This is a 30 second recording of two of them. I have just posted up the mp4 as it is. It's completely dark as you can see.

 

A new kid on the block for us, he came in to scrump windfall apples.

 

Ben (dog), was sitting next to me when I played that,it was very faint, but even with the TV on it certainly took his attention.

 

This critter is so big, we call him Alexander the Great.

 

I have a feeling that this did not end well.

 

Alexander doesn't seem too bothered @hydrogardener.