A little over 20 years ago we were living in Fife and I would regularly visit a house in the hills above Tayport where there were lots of red squirrels and no greys. This was bought about by the somewhat unusual American owner of the house who would feed the reds and shoot the greys. The tails of the greys were strung up in the conservatory.
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As far as I know, it is still legal to shoot grey squirrels. I’m not sure you still get paid if you prove it with tails. I have heard of some people saying, “culling is wrong. It doesn’t work!” Well, not culling certainly leads, in time, to greys taking over! I presume greys are doing fine in North America, their homeland. I don’t know what we can do for our native rare reds short of culling the grey pox carriers,
I must admit feeling a bit lost when reading about red and grey squirrels. We have both here, I think, but far more red squirrels than grey ones. At least among the ones who police the ground below the bird feeders!
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Mushrooms today, as if it were autumn.
Goblet mushrooms.
Not sure what these are, & @ramblingjohn is there a particular name for this type of gill pattern?
Winter solstice today & on the 23rd the first lambs are expected hereabouts. Cyffrous dros ben!! Very exciting!
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Holly leaves & ? fungus. They will rot eventually. Dail celyn a ffwng. Byddan yn pydru yn y pen draw.
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The black spots on the holly leaves is the fungus Holly Speckle - Trochila ilicina (drew gen i, dw i ddim yn gwybod enw yn yr cymraeg - sorry, don’t know the name in Welsh).
Tricky problem, Grey squirrels were introduced to this country some time ago and have done very well, but seem to carry a disease which the Reds cannot tolerate, The majority of this country now has no Red squirrels. It appears the American cray fish have had similar impact on the British ones.
Cheers J.P.
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I hadn’t realised US had red squirrels! We just knew the grey ones were brought from there by people who didn’t know the dangers of shifting animals out of context. I suspect your reds, like ours, prefer the seeds in pine cones and eat similar seeds (e.g. sunflower) dropped under bird feeders, whereas grey like hazel nuts and, I guess, any nuts!
Oh, @Sionned, pawb…does anyone think it possible that US red squirrels have a resistance to squirrel pox virus and that research might lead to a cure or protection for our reds? Are both reds the same species? I know greys are a different animal which just looks similar!
Shame there seems no hope for our crayfish!
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I checked. The US red is a different species. Ours have longer ear tips and, I dare say, other differences less obvious!
Bird flu at Llanelli Wetland Centre!
Heaven help the other wildfowl! Precautions only protect farmed poultry.
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As it’s Christmas I’m disinclined to use this organism’s real & not that pleasant name so an anagram …
‘Smile’!!
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And I did! Nadolig Llawen, Pippa!
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Mae’r drw gen i pawb, dw i wedi holl methu dod o hyd reindeer heddiw - sorry everyone. i have completely failed to find a reindeer today. (so no festive photo).
But on another thread i notice there is a question about the pengwyn which the National geographic (luckily) had an image of.
pengwyn lliw anaferol - unusual colour penguin. (darn bach o hwyl - little bit of fun).
Cheers J.P. and nadolig llawn ichi gyd.
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Neis iawn - pengwyn cappuccino!
Nadolig llawen JP ac i bawb
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Ylwch beth mae Storm Barbara wedi dod i glawr - look what Storm Barbara has brought to light.
The remains of a giant puffball.
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Heddiw, oedd yr twywydd dda - today the weather was good.
Hwyaden wyllt gwrywaidd - Male mallard.
Blodyn gwrywaidd (cenawon) collen wedi ymddangos - Male flowers (catkins) Hazel have appeared.
(some plants flower early in the year as they do not need insects to pollinate them, that is they are wind pollinated).
Cheers J.P.
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But I still would love to know it’s nasty actual name! smeli? slime? miles???
Meanwhile, just for you…
Bore 'ma - Wiwer…
and then, along came a little rival for the food supply
but Wiwer wasn’t going anywhere!
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Heddiw, ymhen, oedd yr robin goch yn wrth ochr fi. - today, at last, the robin was beside me.
Robin goch - Robin.
Cheers J.P.
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It is slime unfortunately. Great wiwer pics!
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I admit, I didn’t realise slime moulds could be as lovely as that!!
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