What’s this plant

[Amari]

We get a lot of hedgehogs in our garden, which is surprising considering its urban location.

My miss insists on using 100s of nasty slug pellets. She does not like the ones that wash away in the rain so uses the nasty ones. I always worry about the hedgehogs eating poisoned slugs.

Maybe you have lots of hedgies because they have plenty of food = the slug pellets!

 

[Swarm]

We still get them in the garden occasionally, sadly the Hedgehogs I see these days are mainly dead on the road.

 

[Firefly]

Maybe, but thinking back I did have some cornflower seeds so more likely than scabious... I think!

I'll be quite surprised if these turn out to be cornflower. The newer leaves in particular don't look right. Not does the leaf colour. I hope you'll keep us updated. Your bees will be hoping for Scabious

 

[elainemary]

Stan put up a barn owl box and since we have had 7 chicks raised over 3 years. The winter of 2020/21 was so wet for so long the owls couldn’t feed and I suspect one of the pair perished. One owl returned to the box last spring, hung around calling for a few days then disappeared.
I miss them. We used to sit outside in the garden on a summers eve watching them fly through the garden.
Ever hopeful for this year but nothing so far.
Tawnies are busy calling though and the box in the garden has been used the last five years.

Leave your bathroom window open - you’ve prob seen this I posted last summer. Love owls, see them regularly roosting in ruins up our valley

 

[Nannysbees]

Oh my goodness what an amazing photograph. How did you set him free? And I love neales yard

 

[The Poot]

This year we had hedgehogs coming for food right up to mid December. We were determined to get them up to weight for the Winter.
I have two hedgehog houses, one appears to be being used.
I found four or five killed on the roads around the village in the Summer.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Leave your bathroom window open - you’ve prob seen this I posted last summer. Love owls, see them regularly roosting in ruins up our valley

Amazing Elaine

 

[JamezF]

Leave your bathroom window open - you’ve prob seen this I posted last summer. Love owls, see them regularly roosting in ruins up our valley

My wife and I habitually sleep with the bedroom window open. Not long after we moved here we were decorating the room and had temporarily moved into a bedroom that had no curtains. We were woken up by noise in the room one night to find a Little Owl perched on the end of the bed! All a bit Harry Potter

James

 

[elainemary]

Oh my goodness what an amazing photograph. How did you set him free? And I love neales yard

Hubby went up for a shower, he called me and the owl was sat on the sink. I tried to take a photo through the crack in the door. The thing that struck me most, was how absolutely perfect he / she was. Gorgeous feathers and so clean and white. I think young! Tawnies are more susceptible to going for eyes apparently, but not barn owls, so i very carefully opened the door and it flew to the opened window and soared across the valley. A sight I will never forget!

 

[Nannysbees]

Hubby went up for a shower, he called me and the owl was sat on the sink. I tried to take a photo through the crack in the door. The thing that struck me most, was how absolutely perfect he / she was. Gorgeous feathers and so clean and white. I think young! Tawnies are more susceptible to going for eyes apparently, but not barn owls, so i very carefully opened the door and it flew to the opened window and soared across the valley. A sight I will never forget!

Very jealous what an amazing experience

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Very jealous what an amazing experience

It's amazing how these things happen unexpectedly when other people try for years to get the same kind of experience.
In my younger more supple days I used to love stalking trout or early morning seatrout in low water conditions, One day I crept up to this pool and knelt for a rest before fishing the pool, when a red kite landed barely an arms length away from me to take a drink, I froze and the kite carried on drinking until suddenly it sensed it was being watched, turned its head, stared at me for a second then unhurriedly took off and flew away.
Another time I was fishing the river Towy early morning, tucked up under a high bank with my rod poking out amongst the reeds watching the fish move when a Kingfisher came along, landed on my rod and continued to watch the minnows swimming the shallows, we both froze, neither of us seemed to want to make the first move!!
I've wasted a morning and abandoned my fishing on the lower Cothi watching young otters on the opposite high bank - they'd made themselves a 'slide' and spent the morning running up to the top of the bank and sliding down the polished earth screaming and chuckling like kids playing at the seaside.
On the headwaters of the river Cothi (whilst I was visiting Frongoch farm - now the centre of controvery over this corporate 'carbon capture' scam)I've had a red kite swooping for a piece of roadkill as I drove around the corner, land on my bonnet and stare at me through the windscreen in bewilderment.
I've even rescued a swift who misjudged a wavetop on the river whilst chasing flies, soaking wet, it nestled under my shirt for half an hour to dry, then crept up and snuggled under my chin before eventually sitting on my hand until I gave it a launch off to carry on its hunt.

 

[rolande]

Like reading Oliver Field's 'Honey Days' all over again!

 

[Erichalfbee]

These intimate moments with nature are something to absolutely cherish. Puts us in our place doesn’t it?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

These intimate moments with nature are something to absolutely cherish

yes, but meeting a rat head on whilst navigating a crawl space between the ship's hull and and a refrigeration hold is one I'd rather forget

 

[Erichalfbee]

yes, but meeting a rat head on whilst navigating a crawl space between the ship's hull and and a refrigeration hold is one I'd rather forget

Ah but how many of us ever find ourselves in such a place on a boat?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ah but how many of us ever find ourselves in such a place on a boat

Ship!
I was once searching another refrigeration hold on a Dole fruit ship in Swansea drydock, I was foolishly checking the 18" void under the refrigeration units, alone in a deserted hold when the back of my belt got caught on a piece of pipe protruding down from the units.
I was there for an hour before a colleague found me!

 

[Erichalfbee]

I said boat on purpose

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I said boat on purpose

Strangely enough we called all refrigerated fruit ships Banana Boats and all the Customs Cutters are always referred to as boats as well!
And since the official definition of a ship was a three masted vessel all square rigged, what now?

 

[Erichalfbee]

A submarine is a boat?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A submarine is a boat?

Yes. An underwater boat - hence U-boat