OneGuyFromBarlick

Our oldest cat Millie the hunter killer will go out on the roof at any opportunity. The escape Velux is right above my workbench in the attic and if I have it open on a nice day she will be out. She explores the entire terraced row front and back as if looking for a way down, (easiest would be the bathroom roof extension then down to the flat kitchen roof) this is the intended egress route for us anyway. She complains bitterly if you try to grab her and bring her in, she's 16 years old now but has no fear.

I remember kicking myself one day for not having a camera with me when I saw a cat perched on top of a chimney on one of the cottages at the end of Park Avenue opposite the Dog. Thinking about climbing animals, have a look at THIS National Geographic report about Ibex climbing the face of a dam. Looks impossible.... The attraction is salt exuding from the stonework.

Stuck my head out of the back door this morning and heard a cuckoo calling. It's so long since I heard one it took me a moment to remember what it was.

I would love to hear it again, so many good memories of growing up in Kelbrook.

So rare round here these days. I can't remember when I last heard one. Best heard on one of those summer days when sounds seem to come and go on the balmy breeze!

Up early today Stanley !
Last time I heard a cuckoo was at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire quite a lot of years ago - used to hear them every summer when growing up in Kelbrook.

Always up early Moh. The world is my oyster at this time of the morning.....

Had a lovely surprise while waiting for my bus this morning, it was bright, crisp and cold, and 3 metres away there was a bunch of noisy parrots having great fun stripping a tree of it's berries. Every colour of the rainbow and so close.

I don't know whether it is the same with you but when we get a feeding frenzy on ripe berries a consequence is some incredibly staining bird poo that can be a bugger on light coloured paint!

Having a house with rendered walls painted in Cornish Cream we're all too familiar with that problem - especially when elderberries are abundant!

I once lived in a house that used to end up with a sticky red driveway, yuck. In another house the parrots would feed on palm tree husks/seeds (?), oh my goodness what a mess they used to make. But it was good for the trees and they loved it.

Wonderful how we all have poo stories........

We noticed a Greater Spotted Woodpecker tapping away on a willow tree in our garden and later discovered it had made a hole, inserted something into it and then pecked into that. The object appears to be a gall rather than a nut and the bird probably wanted to get at the insect grub that would be living in the centre of it. For scale, the hole in the tree is about the size of the top joint of my thumb.

Lovely! All that work for one insect grub! Nice pic.

I came across this fine specimen in the garden this evening. Apparently he is an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar.

And he's loving your veg Wendy (probably not any more... Haha)

Imagine finding half of that in your plate of salad......

Cathy wrote: ↑25 Aug 2017, 23:54 And he's loving your veg Wendy (probably not any more... Haha)

He is no threat to the veggie garden Cathy, just Willowherb and Fuchsia. He was on a small stalk of Willowherb stuck up out of my strawberry bed, so he was probably looking for shelter under the strawberries to pupate. I put him back where I found him after taking the photo and he has disappeared this morning. Can't say I have ever seen an elephant hawk moth, this is what they look like.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=eleph ... 2SaJr3HCmM:

Had a lovely surprise when I went for a walk today. I think they have come from a long way off, probably hundreds of miles. They were a bit grubby.

If they landed in Barlick every twitcher in the UK would descend on us Cathy!

Very exotic Cathy - enjoy them while they're there!

Susan was on her way home from Whitby yesterday and tripped over this on the way. They always look so sad......

Five minutes ago, A full grown fox wandering across the lawn. Looked in first class condition with a big bushy tail. It didn't hang round long enough to take a picture probably heading up to Wendy's place. It must be six years since we have seen one.

We haven't seen a fox in all the years we have been here Plaques, though you can sometimes smell them on walks round the field. We did lose a duck in mysterious circumstances once, but there were no tell tale feathers left around! I think he took off with some wild ducks...

My relative who lives in the middle of a large suburban housing estate and has a small garden tells me that they used to see a badger quite often in the garden. Most of the gardens are surrounded by 6ft timber panel fencing so the badger may have been following the many footpaths through the estate.