Jump to content

Local wildlife


Andy135

Recommended Posts

Driving home after dropping the boy off at Cubs this evening it seemed as though the woods were alive with wildlife. In the space of less than 200 yards I saw:

A muntjac doe

A very large buck rabbit

Several squirrels

A couple each of cock and hen pheasants

And this chap. How he made it through the season and survived this long without a terminal visit from Mr Fox is beyond me!

Cj6C7t1.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, JonC said:

Have you seen many red kites on your estate? I’ve seen a lot of them lately when I’m in your area. We don’t get them locally but get plenty of buzzards. 

West Berks is stuffed with them - we usually see one or two every day. In fact, I've just spotted one out of my office window as I was typing this reply.

Never seen a buzzard round here though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i moved to weymouth 2 yrs ago from High wycombe - just up the road from where the red kites were re-introduced in Stokenchurch - the skies over south bucks are full of them - more so on a sunday when everyone puts their sunday roast carcass out for them! lovely to see but my god there's thousands there now!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, mike farrants said:

i moved to weymouth 2 yrs ago from High wycombe - just up the road from where the red kites were re-introduced in Stokenchurch - the skies over south bucks are full of them - more so on a sunday when everyone puts their sunday roast carcass out for them! lovely to see but my god there's thousands there now!

So that's why house prices in HW went through the roof and Weymouth went through the floor. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Saintly Fish said:

So that's why house prices in HW went through the roof and Weymouth went through the floor. 

I'm glad you laughed, I was just pondering🤔 should I add a smiley to show Mike I don't really hate him!!?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

I'm glad you laughed, I was just pondering🤔 should I add a smiley to show Mike I don't really hate him!!?

What do you mean you don't really hate him??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

What do you mean you don't really hate him??

I think that Mike likes to be hated, he visualises himself as an End of Level boss.

After you have hardoukened all the pissants that stack pencils and straighten catalogs then you get to fight @mike farrants

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My springer pegged one of half a dozen white hens that the keeper put down and the guns would be fined £25 for shooting them. He was a bit hacked off but knew he couldn't get angry with me. 

Apparently the old keepers used to have them so that they knew when someone had been poaching and would keep an eye out for signs of white feathers near people's houses. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Andy135 said:

West Berks is stuffed with them - we usually see one or two every day. In fact, I've just spotted one out of my office window as I was typing this reply.

Never seen a buzzard round here though.

We have some red kites this way, nothing like out your way tho, we have a lot of buzzards too..... BUT I nearly crashed the truck on the way to work a few weeks ago, was like WTAF is that, it's massive.... Turns out it was a sea eagle!! They were reintroduced a short while back at Heacham on the Ken Hill marsh (where the film some of springwatch and you should see the feckin mess they make with all their trucks... )

Very impressive bird

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Malc said:

My springer pegged one of half a dozen white hens that the keeper put down and the guns would be fined £25 for shooting them. He was a bit hacked off but knew he couldn't get angry with me. 

Apparently the old keepers used to have them so that they knew when someone had been poaching and would keep an eye out for signs of white feathers near people's houses. 

I've heard of some shoots where you're fined if you shoot one, and fined if one gets up but you don't shoot at it. 🤣

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Andy135 said:

I've heard of some shoots where you're fined if you shoot one, and fined if one gets up but you don't shoot at it. 🤣

I was part of a syndicate shoot a few yrs ago and that was pretty much the rule there too

We had a couple of guinea fowl that were £40 IIRC

Not really hard to miss either, they were like a fat basket ball flying over you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, jonnyswamp said:

I was part of a syndicate shoot a few yrs ago and that was pretty much the rule there too

We had a couple of guinea fowl that were £40 IIRC

Not really hard to miss either, they were like a fat basket ball flying over you

The only time I was put under a guinea fowl it refused to leave the tree it had perched in. No matter how hard the beaters tried, it just wouldn't budge 🤣

Needless to say it lived another day. Which is probably just as well as if I'd shot it I'd have felt obliged to take it home. After the shoot one of the beaters confided that they'd tried to eat one earlier in the season but no matter how they cooked it they couldn't get it tender. Tough as shoe leather apparently 😬

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, jonnyswamp said:

I was part of a syndicate shoot a few yrs ago and that was pretty much the rule there too

We had a couple of guinea fowl that were £40 IIRC

Not really hard to miss either, they were like a fat basket ball flying over you

 

32 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

The only time I was put under a guinea fowl it refused to leave the tree it had perched in. No matter how hard the beaters tried, it just wouldn't budge 🤣

Needless to say it lived another day. Which is probably just as well as if I'd shot it I'd have felt obliged to take it home. After the shoot one of the beaters confided that they'd tried to eat one earlier in the season but no matter how they cooked it they couldn't get it tender. Tough as shoe leather apparently 😬

Yup, same here and I'll raise you a few pea fowl. My fast n furious spaniel caught the tail feathers of one and was airborne for a half second before the feathers pulled out. 

Guinea are lovely to eat, but given a year or many dodging the best pegging dogs going even mincing the flesh may not work, we tried cooking gently at a low temperature for 2 hours... tastes like sisal rope!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Much like mine when I was culling, young roe that were too small for the game dealer were mine as well as the liver and kidneys. I think more people would eat offal if they tried deer liver etc unless it's a stag during the rut 🤢

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, Andy135 said:

West Berks is stuffed with them - we usually see one or two every day. In fact, I've just spotted one out of my office window as I was typing this reply.

Never seen a buzzard round here though.

Just seen a kite wheeling above the house.

fA1sEkc.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...