Oh hell yeah! Congrats!
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I hate it. Was taking my dog for a walk one day when we lived in the sticks (some would say we still do!) and I saw a flock of crows attacking a Marsh Harrier. It looked in a right state, with many of its main wing and tail feathers missing.
It kept trying to get out of reach, on tree branches sitting really close to the trunk, but they would always eventually find a way in to attack it again. It flew over me just a few feet above my head and was watching me and I could just imagine it crying out for help.
Doesn’t help any that I hate crows! I’ve seen a few more such incidents since, though not quite as close-up.
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I live in the sticks, I mean imagine rural middle of nowhere and then times it by ten.
I see this a lot, usually with Buzzards and crows, Red Kites and crows and Buzzards and Kites (pic below just this evening)
When I say I like to see it… I like to see nature doing its thing, without human intervention. Nature quite often isn’t nice, it’s merciless and not a fluffy cartoon.
I’d much prefer to see this than flocks of pigeons or seagulls.
Doesn’t help any that I hate crows!
I’m 100% with you. When we let the lambs out, I’m always watching to see whether there’s any of the ba stages eyeing up a straggler. They go for the eyes first.
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Round our way the Red Kite population has exploded. They are absolutely everywhere and extremely large and hungry birds. I love watching them soaring above.
But they are also super agile and very very manoeuvrable. So when a couple of crows gang up on them its the best dogfighting I’ve ever seen. Phantom vs Mig17. Its absolutely brutal and fascinating to watch
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Down with crows!
I hate those guys. I know they’re supposed to be so intelligent, and use tools, and blah blah blah but they can suck it as far as I’m concerned.
I like watching Red Kites. Where my Mother used to live (Stamford/Rutland) there are loads of them. they don’t seem to mind humans and they are often flying a few feet over the roofs and on the ground in the cemetery.
they haven’t quite spread north enough to be in this area - though I do sometimes see one or two when near Louth and the woods in that area.
I was curious about them, so looked up the gen on the internet and it seems they were hunted to non-existence in the UK in the last century.
Then, in the 70’s a number were brought to the UK from Portugal to get them restarted and that resulted in the large number we see today. They were by then a protected species, of course.
Apparently, now the situation is reversed and we are exporting them to Portugal because their population is dwindling there!
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Fun fact. All Australian native species are “protected”… even the crows.
There are significant fines (and possible jail time) for trapping, harming or killing Australian wildlife without a permit.
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Xx
I loved flying motorgliders from Enstone. The slow speeds meant the red kites could pretty much ignore you on take off and final. I once soared along side one, my head looking at it and the beak of the bird twisted towards me as we circled in the thermal. He did it much better than I did
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stone the crows!
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Were you there at sandhill with the cadets day when that stupid pigeon flew under my prop and smacked into my underside fuselage on final aboit 100ft whilst being chased by the red kite.
I had the extremely autistic kid with me who was easily panicked and he didnt even notice the thump
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You like it? It’s an old farm from the late 19th/early 20th century which doubled as a school and home to the churches sexton. The farm has been neglected for the last 30 years. This is the driveway with the old pigsty on the left. It’s gonna need a new roof soon(ish) otherwise it’ll collapse and there’s no way to get permission to rebuild which would be a problem because the old horse stable that has been converted to a pretty nice home shares part of the structure.
The church which is located on the south side of the farm buildings is all that’s left standing of the keep of a medieval castle and the whole place is classed as a historic site. You are allowed to keep the buildings and even build sheds etc but you are not allowed to dig into the ground. I imagine getting time team to do a dig would be pretty interesting.
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Looks like you have some dirt on your lens and/or sensor. Of you’re unsure about cleaning the sensor most camera stores offer it as a service (at least here in Germany)
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Lol - yep, I saw that just after posting, trouser fluff. It was taken on my iPhone.
I’ll get some photos hopefully with my proper zoom lens next time.
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Not guilty. You were clearly the lessor threat in its eyes.
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Indeed.
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Petwood House (missing Scoop!) having a good browse of all the awesome stuff there from 617sqn.
nice fountain, too…
Could swear I’ve seen a photo of this somewhere here already…
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Anything about their Exploits in Northern Norway…?
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A lot
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