Animals

the squirrels in my back yard have gone nuts this morning, both literally and metaphorically, been chomping on the peanuts and chasing each other round the garden with real aggression, gangs of 4 chasing 1, fur flying, the usual runs crowded with squirrels sprinting at full pace, never heard them so vocal with grunts and weird calls, and shrieks as they get their bits bitten, they're all permanently grunting

not sure whats up, did see a fox this morning on the shed but i'm sure it's well gone by now, there is always food for them so that is not an issue, maybe the sun has got to them

All peaceful here.

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is squirrel in picture 1 gnawing on, what looks like, the bone of another squirrel ?
peaceful you say, maybe too peaceful ?

Ticked off a long held desire to see a live grass snake today (found a dead one when I was a kid). We were visiting Groombridge Place on the Kent/East Sussex border and I was walking back to the car park, stopped to look in a stream from a bridge to see if they was any sign of life, spotted a fish (possibly a trout) then saw a grass snake swim out from underneath the bridge I was on, and disappear into the undergrowth on the river bank.

Didn't realise how long they are, this specimen was easily a metre long.

allotment visit

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Found a slow worm on my patio yesterday. First one I've had in this garden.

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A seal and dolphins from Northumberland last month

Amazing to see dolphins!

It was amazing, 7.30 in the morning right off the beach

Some good news - seals thriving in the Thames
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/06/river-of-life-zoos-yearly-count-finds-seals-thriving-on-thames-aoe

Made a little buddy

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Is this a field vole? Was getting it out of harms way

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More seal action, this time in Pembrokeshire

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Two nice stories about animal capabilities:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/25/singing-lemurs-have-a-distinctly-human-sense-of-rhythm-study-finds
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/29/honeybees-use-social-distancing-when-mites-threaten-hives-study

Bouncy vampire deer this morning

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I like bovines and enjoy reading about this sort of project, and although it's so obviously far short of what's needed for rewilding, it's a start.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/11/gentle-giants-rangers-prepare-return-wild-bison-uk

Sea tulip - a giant stalked sea squirt in New Zealand. Found this photo when looking back through pictures of a 2010 trup. Had to share.

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spotted a seal at the junction of thames and lee this morning while at trinity buoy wharf. 20m away from the shore
by the time i grabbed my camera it had dived and didn't resurface

It couldn't be certain you know the difference seals and goats.

2010 trup

;)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/31/polar-bears-move-into-abandoned-arctic-weather-station-photo-essay

Maybe this pioneering work will eventually enable us to understand @hippy:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/24/hippo-talk-study-purpose-call-and-response

"Coffee!"
"Beer!"
"Kebab!"
"Cake!"

#solved

This seems like an interesting animal story for a number of reasons not involving hippy. It must take quite some ingenuity to temporarily capture a crocodile like this man did. The article doesn't say what difficulties the tyre would have caused the crocodile, but the compassion here is evident and may point to the way the locals live near these animals, perhaps not seeing them as a particular danger, or why would they have gone to these lengths to help one? Enlighten me if you know something about this.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/08/indonesia-crocodile-freed-from-tyre-after-five-years