The Lemon Fool

We're on holiday in a cottage on Anglesey and this morning we were greeting by two red squirrels playing chase on the lawn and up a nearby beech tree - how fantastic is that! I knew that they had tried to eradicate the greys in order to give the reds a fighting chance and although, like many I don't like the idea of killing the greys I must admit it was a thrill to see the reds. To cap an already good day we took the dog for a walk around the nature reserve at Llangefni and saw two kingfishers. OH was delighted, he's never seen kingfishers before, we also saw a heron perched in a tree but we have plenty of those at home so although nice to see not as exciting.

R6

Rhyd6 wrote:We're on holiday in a cottage on Anglesey and this morning we were greeting by two red squirrels playing chase on the lawn and up a nearby beech tree - how fantastic is that! I knew that they had tried to eradicate the greys in order to give the reds a fighting chance and although, like many I don't like the idea of killing the greys I must admit it was a thrill to see the reds. To cap an already good day we took the dog for a walk around the nature reserve at Llangefni and saw two kingfishers. OH was delighted, he's never seen kingfishers before, we also saw a heron perched in a tree but we have plenty of those at home so although nice to see not as exciting.

R6

I have a red squirrel in my garden from time to time and I think I saw a pinemartin when I was out walking the other day. Where I live there seem to be no grey squirrels at all, but plenty of red ones. They are good to see and whether it is just the colour I do not know but they certainly look much more attractive.

I do not think I have ever been to Anglesey. Sounds good.

Dod

Kingfishers are two a penny here on the Kennet and avon in Wiltshire. Wonderful to see the way they fly along in front of the boat, land for a bit then take off again. Usually for about half a mile then loop back over you and return to the start of their beat. Such bright turquoise and brown it seems as though they are electrically illuminated from inside....

Mike4 wrote:Kingfishers are two a penny here on the Kennet and avon in Wiltshire. Wonderful to see the way they fly along in front of the boat, land for a bit then take off again. Usually for about half a mile then loop back over you and return to the start of their beat. Such bright turquoise and brown it seems as though they are electrically illuminated from inside....

Mention of the Kennet reminds me that I had a good friend who lived in Devizes and we used to walk along the Kennet Canal (is that right?) We have kingfishers along the local river here where I live but I do not often walk there.

Dod

Red squirrels are still common up here but the greys are encroaching more and more each year and I get the impression that south of Dundee the grey is more common now.

My camera trap has caught a neighbourhood cat with what looks like a baby grey squirrel in its mouth. Perhaps they do have a predator after all.

TJH

Dod101 wrote:..

Mention of the Kennet reminds me that I had a good friend who lived in Devizes and we used to walk along the Kennet Canal (is that right?) We have kingfishers along the local river here where I live but I do not often walk there.

Dod

It is the Kennet and Avon canal which is a sort of canal/river. It has locks but the end sections are rivers. Or something !
I live just north of it (in W Berkshire) and often walk along it towards Woolhampton, but have yet to see a Kingfisher. I did spot a few down by he Thames in Eton when I lived over that way.

tjh290633 wrote:My camera trap has caught a neighbourhood cat with what looks like a baby grey squirrel in its mouth. Perhaps they do have a predator after all.

TJH

Sadly cats hunt red squirrels too.

My camera trap has caught a neighbourhood cat with what looks like a baby grey squirrel in its mouth. Perhaps they do have a predator after all.

I read somewhere that where Pine Martens are expanding their range, the Reds do better. Apparently although the Martens eat Red Squirrels, they actually prefer the Greys, which may be easier to catch and make a bigger meal!

AleisterCrowley wrote:It is the Kennet and Avon canal which is a sort of canal/river. It has locks but the end sections are rivers. Or something !

Indeed. In the west, the K&A ends at Bath, where it joins the river Avon for the final ten miles or so. Similarly at the Thames end in the east. The stars of the show at Devizes are the Caen Hill flight, a stack of 29 locks which have about 15 reservoir pools on one side to keep the locks topped up (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Caen+ ... 272608,15z). Always a good place for spotting water wildlife.

I live just north of it (in W Berkshire) and often walk along it towards Woolhampton, but have yet to see a Kingfisher. I did spot a few down by he Thames in Eton when I lived over that way.

Masses of kingfishers over here in West Wilts/Somerset. No red squirrels, though - the flipping greys have completely taken over and are trashing our gardens with their digging. The last time we saw reds was in southern France, where they tend to be almost black. I really miss them.

Never mind, we have wild boar proliferating in the Forest of Dean. No road sense at all, unfortunately, and they don't always get on with dogs. But quite a sight when you do come across them.

BJ

madhatter wrote:

My camera trap has caught a neighbourhood cat with what looks like a baby grey squirrel in its mouth. Perhaps they do have a predator after all.

I read somewhere that where Pine Martens are expanding their range, the Reds do better. Apparently although the Martens eat Red Squirrels, they actually prefer the Greys, which may be easier to catch and make a bigger meal!

Yes the reds being lighter can get to further extremities in the trees than the greys, so escaping the pine martens.

I was pleased to see a red squirrel in the tree at the end of our garden of our new house in north stirlingshire.

Scott

bungeejumper wrote:

AleisterCrowley wrote:It is the Kennet and Avon canal which is a sort of canal/river. It has locks but the end sections are rivers. Or something !

Indeed. In the west, the K&A ends at Bath, where it joins the river Avon for the final ten miles or so. Similarly at the Thames end in the east. The stars of the show at Devizes are the Caen Hill flight, a stack of 29 locks which have about 15 reservoir pools on one side to keep the locks topped up (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Caen+ ... 272608,15z). Always a good place for spotting water wildlife.

I live just north of it (in W Berkshire) and often walk along it towards Woolhampton, but have yet to see a Kingfisher. I did spot a few down by he Thames in Eton when I lived over that way.

Masses of kingfishers over here in West Wilts/Somerset. No red squirrels, though - the flipping greys have completely taken over and are trashing our gardens with their digging. The last time we saw reds was in southern France, where they tend to be almost black. I really miss them.

Never mind, we have wild boar proliferating in the Forest of Dean. No road sense at all, unfortunately, and they don't always get on with dogs. But quite a sight when you do come across them.

BJ

A bit off topic but you have brought it all back to me. They had a special name for these pools I think but I was quite fascinated by them and the canal itself.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:

bungeejumper wrote:

AleisterCrowley wrote:It is the Kennet and Avon canal which is a sort of canal/river. It has locks but the end sections are rivers. Or something !

Indeed. In the west, the K&A ends at Bath, where it joins the river Avon for the final ten miles or so. Similarly at the Thames end in the east.

The stars of the show at Devizes are the Caen Hill flight, a stack of 29 locks which have about 15 reservoir pools on one side to keep the locks topped up (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Caen+ ... 272608,15z).

Always a good place for spotting water wildlife.

A bit off topic but you have brought it all back to me. They had a special name for these pools I think but I was quite fascinated by them and the canal itself.

Don't forget that Google 3D Street View now shows many of these types of walks, so the Devizes Flight can be seen in real life by clicking the link below and hovering and left-clicking on the pathway ahead, where the mouse pointer should change into a 'forward arrow' icon to enable a visual walk up the canal path, with views of the 15 pools on the right hand side as you progress, and 360-degree views at each stage if you swing the mouse around to take a look at the pools -

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.3523831,-2.0184764,3a,75y,289.64h,80.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-ZzOYymmz3b6ZKJDfrb0nQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It's certainly a stunning piece of engineering, and a fantastic example of how interesting and educational these thread side-tracks can be sometimes.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Many thanks indeed for all that IAAG. I know so very little. These are fascinating projections and have now brought back a number of walks we took many years ago with an old friend of mine who lived just outside Devizes. He is sadly no longer with us and I doubt that I will be back to the area, but it was most attractive.

A superb feat of engineering, built around the very early 1800s, apparently.

Thanks to Rhyd for starting off this thread!

Dod

I don't think I've ever seen a red squirrel in the wild (I grew up in Shropshire, now residing in West Berkshire)
I did see a few in the red squirrel sanctuary at Escot Park (Devon) a couple of years ago - they have a massive enclosure (basically a net covered copse)
https://devon.wildwoodtrust.org/

bungeejumper wrote:
Never mind, we have wild boar proliferating in the Forest of Dean. No road sense at all, unfortunately, and they don't always get on with dogs. But quite a sight when you do come across them.

BJ

We Foresters are used to the traffic hazard posed by free roaming sheep. Wild boar probably learnt the lack of traffic awareness from them. If there was one thing you could be certain of, it was that once a sheep started crossing the road it would never stop. Furthermore every sheep nearby was likely to follow it.

Regarding squirrels, back in the postwar period my uncle used to get a shilling a tail for grey squirrel tails, plus free catridges, I believe. Of course, during the war the Forest was one big ammunition dump, using disused railway tunnels and small corrugated iron shelters along the roads. Piles of 4,000 lb bombs were a common sight.

TJH

My best recollection of red squirrels was the first year I went to FOSDEM (in Brussels). Beginning of February, and the snow was lying on the ground, in the trees, etc. As I passed the Abbeye de la Cambre, there in the grounds and on the outer wall, red squirrels playing.

I still have no idea if they thrive naturally there or get a helping hand from human efforts.