Adrian Lloyd Jones: Return of the Beaver

This was a fascinating talk giving us a real insight into these wonderful creatures and an understanding of how nearly they were taken to extinction by man's hunting

With the aid of some props we really had an insight into how these creatures live and how close to the riverbank they are confined in their lifestyle

I had not realised how far the considerations of doing a managed release in Wales had moved forward so it was really interesting to hear about the work of the Welsh Beaver Project http://www.welshbeaverproject.org/home/

Adrian gave us the link for all the detailed documents that show the net benefits to wildlife, environment, and especially flood prevention http://www.welshbeaverproject.org/downloads/ and went through us the net benefits and the very few considerations that need to be taken into account and showed how easily these are dealt with

He also talked to us about the less reputable side of introductions (Beaver Bombing) which was something many of us were unaware of and a bit of research today turns up this upsetting article on National Geographic http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140804-beavers-science-environment-britain-extinct-animals/ From reading that I can see how much education is needed of people to understand that the Beaver Dams will reduce not cause flooding. It's also clear from the comments that you need to be careful dealing with reporters from any publication as there is a need to clarify the article so read down for all the facts (and some opinions)

At the end of the talk we did a straw poll on the opinion of the audience as to whether we are in support of the project and I am pleased to say we agreed 100% with the proposal and we would be really happy to see it go ahead

There is also a twitter feed @beaverafanc for updates on progress

Parasites of The Eurasian Otter

Ellie Sherrard-Smith gave us a fascinating insight into the parasites that effect Otters and what they can tell us about their lives and distribution patterns, Not one for the squeamish tonight with some views if lice being a bit closer than I like to be where they are concerned, but fascinating all the same

This was another presentation from the excellent work that is being done by the Cardiff Otter project team and

Unusual Bird Feeding Pictures

Isn't the Internet wonderful !

In terms of Wildlife photographers there are many excellent practitioners out there.  I have recently been entertained by 2 excellent photographers on the Olympus UK e-Group forum who have posted fascinating pictures of bird feeding behaviour

with many thanks to Peter and Peter I would like to ask if there is anyone who can comment on how usual or otherwise the following feeding behaviours are.

The first is from Peter Drury who is based in Portsmouth and posts wonderful wildlife pictures in his on-line gallery

The selection in question was entitled  Duck! There's a flying crab!  and can be seen in the e-group in detail where Peter explains how the Mallard picked the crab up and refused to give it away despite being mobbed by the Black Headed Gull.

As Peter says "The normal food of a Mallard is small aquatic invertebrates, seeds, roots, shoots and grain. A crab hardly falls into any of these categories.Comments welcome as always"

The second fascinating picture I have seen recently was from "PeterBirder" from Braintree in Essex who also posts excellent wildlife pictures in his on-line gallery

Peter posted a fascinating series of pictures showing a male Blackbird trying to feed a whole mouse to his offspring

Once again the full thread of pictures can be seen on the Olympus e-group

This Peter commented that "My take on all this is that the adult is inexperienced and possibly a "single dad" as we haven't seen the female or the third youngster that were around last week. I suspect that the mouse was killed by one of the local cats and "dad" saw this as an opportunity as worms are in short supply as "Andym" has suggested. I think that during the day one of the larger local birds, possibly the Sparrowhawk has taken the mouse".

Once again he would love to hear from anyone who has any experience of such behavior - please feel free to leave a comment here and we will pass it on to them

Their pictures and comments are re-posted here with their very kind permission permission and they retain full copyright over both

Sightings in the City

From Phill Blanning one of our very active members...

Hi Andy,

a couple of things for the Blog.

Last weekend I was walking past the Morganstown allotments heading home, and found myself walking alongside a young Hedgehog. Completely unfazed by my presence. I watched him snuffling about for a while making sure he didn't stray into the road. But he wandered off into the allotments.

I wonder if he'd been woken early from hibernation by disturbance in the allotments.

Secondly, the Peregrines are back at the City Hall. I was practically buzzed by, presumably a courting pair, on Monday as I walked past the Law Courts.

Cheers

Phill

So remmber to put your hard hats on in the city centre and mind out for heyghoge underfoot

Regards

Andy