Nature Watch

[Richard]

It would be interesting to hear of locally active creatures anyone has noticed in their area (home/garden/neighbourhood) lately.

I have ants everywhere in the garden - they don't seem to cause any harm, except by biting my legs !!

The wasps are active at this time of year, but no nests near me !!

Grasshoppers seem to have disappeared

Seagulls have packed up squawking and left the roof with their offspring !!

[Caz]

Have tiny garden in Kenilworth Road and have regular fox visitors. Love to see them even if not everyone does! Grasshoppers have gone here as well. Jenny Wrens have been singing to me all year

[Richard]

Still seeing butterflies and a few grasshoppers have shown a leg !! now it's summer again.

A myriad of different spider species play around over the garden patch

Magpies peck holes in my grass incase the fox or badger or local cats forget to do so_ _ _

Owls have been sounding off at night recently !!
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[Richard]

I'm a little surprised that the orange berries on my pyracantha are still totally untouched by birds.
I know they say birds will only eat them when there is nothing else but I know for a fact that pidgeons are such greedy little so-and-so's that they will normally strip the branches (at least they did so at my last home nearer London = Crouch End).

It's so mild now in Hastings that my snowdrops appeared in November and I still have "Love-in-the-Mist" and geraniums in flower as well as roses and some Alpines shooting up masses of tiny white flowers on a long stalk.

[hanpet]

The foxes down the beach all year round are lovely to watch, they hang around down by the angling club,saw one just last week at 5 in the afternoon.

[Richard]

I'd love to see foxes on the beach but I am hearing their rasping 'bark' after nightfall quite frequently now.




Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

[Derek Jempson]

How about the cormorants at Harmer's Pond in Alexandra Park? Photo is a bit blurry owing to the long zoom used.

[img://www.hastingsforum.co.uk/forums/sf_attachments/2014.01.10_0025.jpg]

[Richard]

Great photo Derek !!

I wonder what the rarest birds in Hastings are?



Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

[Richard]

seen five Jays today grabbing acorns off the trees, wood pigeons seem to be pecking in the same tree but not sure if they can manage acorns or 'shoots' ?

during the summer quite small (solitary?) bees were digging holes in my front garden and I think they hibernate about 12 inces below the surface, I don't know what species they are yet.

[Geoff]

Saw a squirrel in my garden yesterday for the first time since i've been here. Seemed quite tame and not phased at all by me. Luckily the cat didn't spot him

While we're on the subject of creepy crawlys Richard, I've always wondered about flying ants that come out when a storm is about to happen. Where are they the rest of the year?