SPRINGWATCH 2026 begins tonight! 🦉

2

Comments

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing
    edited June 11

    And another thing…

    Not only have I had a rare stag beetle fly into my hair (Iolo Williams had never seen one), I have also seen a rare honey buzzard which Chris Packham is ecstatic about showing on last night's programme and tonight.

    I was in deepest Sussex with my daughter on my first and only e-bike ride enjoying ridiculous downhill speeds on empty roads - possibly making some excited noises and scaring it off - when we both saw the honey buzzard at close range before it flew away into the woods 😄

    I wasn't sure I'd correctly identified it with an online search but I am now sure after watching the nesting honey buzzards on Springwatch.

    I've also learned so much about the behaviour of my crow family through watching this programme 😊

  • Bluebell21
    Bluebell21 Community Member Posts: 4,842 Championing

    I liked the moths with the furry heads and the pine martins. Although not too happy with the pine martins when they were eating some of the baby birds on a previous programme.

    I would not like a stag beetle in my hair but they are quite impressive to look at.

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing
    edited June 11

    We know so much about clams and Whirligig beetles now! Fascinating stuff.

    I found this:

    A group of researchers working in Iceland in 2006 discovered a really old clam. They wanted to figure out just how old it could be, so they decided to open it up and count the growth rings along the clam's hinge ligament. They got their answer -- and it was shocking. They said the clam was 405 years old.

    They'd found the oldest living animal in the world (excluding primitive metazoans). Only, it wasn't living anymore, because opening it up had killed the clam.

    And little did they know, their measurement was wrong. Ming the clam was an entire century older than they first calculated. Ming the clam, world's oldest animal, was actually 507 years old.

  • Ross1975
    Ross1975 Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    I was really surprised when I found out that Packham has Asperger's.

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing
  • Ross1975
    Ross1975 Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing
  • Ross1975
    Ross1975 Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    Is Michaela Strachan still in Springwatch? I remember her from back in the day, all of my friends fancied her.

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing
    edited June 24

    All the wildlife we watched in Spring needs to be watched in this heatwave!

    Birds need FRESH, CLEAN WATER every day ❄️❄️❄️

    Small mammals also need fresh, clean water every day on the ground.

    Thank you 🦔

  • michael57
    michael57 Community Member Posts: 3,274 Championing

    And don't forget a small pool of water with soil in it for the butterflies as that's where thy get there minerals

  • Ross1975
    Ross1975 Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    Absolutely. It's vital to also remember that you need to scrub the dishes with a proper brush daily too, otherwise small bird baths just become deadly breeding grounds for Trichomonosis.

  • Ross1975
    Ross1975 Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    I always use rain water rather than tap water for the mud otherwise the chlorine can repel them. It's also best to add a tiny splash of stale beer or vinegar to the mix as this scent attracts butterflies but stops wasps and bees from swarming the puddle and attacking them.

  • michael57
    michael57 Community Member Posts: 3,274 Championing

    We have three ibc containers in the garage to harvest rain water if we do use tape water it goes through an hma filter bought for the fish tank all equals no chlorine

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing
    edited June 24

    Tap water left overnight does the job for plants..

    Birds and small mammals need FRESH, CLEAN WATER from the mains tap! ❄️❄️❄️

  • michael57
    michael57 Community Member Posts: 3,274 Championing

    Haha it does indeed I think dawnie might not like four containers of water in the dining room dechlorinating overnight tho

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing

    Nobody would put up with mine but nobody has to 😆

  • Ross1975
    Ross1975 Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing
    edited June 24

    Couldn't have said it better myself. While rainwater is necessary for the butterfly mud to avoid the anthropogenic xenobiotics found in tap water, fresh tap water is better for the bird and mammal dishes, there's no denying that.

  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing
  • WhatThe
    WhatThe Community Member, Scope Member Posts: 6,040 Championing

    Yesterday, I spotted a juvenile great spotted woodpecker on one of the crows' trees but I heard it first - short shrieks which I didn't recognise. It didn't stay long, a little hammering under a lovely old hole then the crows appeared.

    Great spotted woodpeckers were occasional visitors until rejuvenation and I thought I heard hammering a fortnight ago so this is really exciting! The trees were popular for squirrels but they've been reclaimed by my clever crow family who have shade and shelter 'whatever the weather' 😉

  • Ross1975
    Ross1975 Community Member Posts: 1,381 Championing

    I wish they would show lions in the show or something.

  • Bluebell21
    Bluebell21 Community Member Posts: 4,842 Championing

    Are all the crows the same size now or is the chick still smaller?

    Perhaps the woodpecker will come back another time. How exciting for you.