Eventful weekend - poop, tracks, dead stuff, live stuff and fungi.

[Bushwhacker]

Did the summer otter survey on saturday and covered 11 sites in total.
I took a fair few pics of various things and thought I'd stick them all under one heading and then log the relevant ones in the tracking threads later.

First off, lots of strong positives.
Fresh spraint and tracks found at 3 of the sites.

I posted up a pic of this rock last week. As you can see there's more fresh spraint since last time.

Signal crayfish claw that's been munched on.

I munched on this one.

Found this poor chap (Tawny) dead on a rock in the middle of a stream.
I stuck it in the boot of the car to bury at home.

Mr Toad.

Mr Frog.

Some otter tracks.

I was wading up one river next to a stone wall when two Grey Wagtails flew out right in my face, creating a right old rumpus. Scared the carp out of me for a second.
Here's the nest in the wall.

Can anyone ID these?

A grand day out in all and some healthy sign of the otters recovery.

 

[Barn Owl]

Cracking pics.

Re, owl.

lots of Barn Owl succumb to drowning in water troughs and become water logged very easily according to observations documented in the books.

I however have seen many hunting and sitting on fences in downpours in the hours of darkness.
(have driven a lot in darkness through work and doing the Dad taxi runs).

These may be immature and usually are but in relating my obs to those who work with same,they seem a little incredulous.
But I've never known them to be out on a wet night making their own obs.

Anyone else have experience of owls in the wet?

 

[Bushwhacker]

Cracking pics.

Re, owl.

lots of Barn Owl succumb to drowning in water troughs and become water logged very easily according to observations documented in the books.

I however have seen many hunting and sitting on fences in downpours in the hours of darkness.
(have driven a lot in darkness through work and doing the Dad taxi runs).

These may be immature and usually are but in relating my obs to those who work with same,they seem a little incredulous.
But I've never known them to be out on a wet night making their own obs.

Anyone else have experience of owls in the wet?

Interesting that.

 

[geordienemisis]

Nice pictures, I like the nest picture. When I was young I used too collect birds eggs before it became illegal. I had a good size collection and would travel all over the northeast in search of different types. I doing this I got too love the outdoors spending all my spare time in woods of one sort or another. I have often thought of going out nesting again but only too take pictures of the eggs but maybe this would spook some nesting birds. Collecting eggs was OK back in the 70's and 80's until I heard about people being fined and stuff. A lot of people will frown about this but where I came from it was sort of the run of the mill.

 

[Geoff Dann]

The fungi look like common inkcaps. This species was once used as a remedy for alcoholism (other names are "alcohol inkcap" and "tippler's bane"). They are edible, but if alcohol has been consumed in the previous few days or the following days then it causes a nasty reaction.

 

[Bushwhacker]

The fungi look like common inkcaps. This species was once used as a remedy for alcoholism (other names are "alcohol inkcap" and "tippler's bane"). They are edible, but if alcohol has been consumed in the previous few days or the following days then it causes a nasty reaction.

Cheers. I won't be wanting any of them with my cider!

 

[Geoff Dann]

Cheers. I won't be wanting any of them with my cider!

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinopsis_atramentaria

Toxicity

Consuming Coprinopsis atramentaria within a few hours of alcohol results in a "disulfiram syndrome".[12][13] This interaction has only been known since the early part of the twentieth century. Symptoms include facial reddening, nausea, vomiting, malaise agitation, palpitations and tingling in limbs, and arise five to ten minutes after consumption of alcohol.[14] If no more alcohol is consumed, they will generally subside over two or three hours. Symptom severity is proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed, becoming evident when blood alcohol concentration reaches 5 mg/dL, and prominent at concentrations of 50–100 mg/dL.[14] Although very unpleasant, the syndrome has not been associated with any fatalities.

Sent by God to punish alcoholics....