The UAFC

Rooster wrote:

Samstew wrote:

Rooster wrote:Pine martins making a return around here despite any actual pine trees and whether it is coincidence or not grey squirrels seem to have vanished

I watched a nature program on BBC2 the other weekend, some guy in a boat on the West coast, anyway, among different things covered, he mentioned the return of Pine Martins and the positive effect this had on the red squirrel population and the negative effect on the grey squirrel population.
Indigenous creatures, for once, benefitting at the expense of non indigenous



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Interesting as I checked it out and remembered we used to have pine martins and red squirrels years ago, like early 70's then the pine Martins and reds vanished and grey tree rats as I call them appeared. The pine martins are back and the greys have gone so here is hoping the wee reds appear again.
By the way a pine martin is an indigenous animal in Ireland , though they did get almost wiped out.

I've just looked up the program, it was Wild Ireland: The Edge of the World, with Colin Stafford-Johnson.
I don't know if it is still available on iplayer, but certainly worth a watch if it is


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Samstew wrote:

Rooster wrote:

Samstew wrote:

Rooster wrote:Pine martins making a return around here despite any actual pine trees and whether it is coincidence or not grey squirrels seem to have vanished

I watched a nature program on BBC2 the other weekend, some guy in a boat on the West coast, anyway, among different things covered, he mentioned the return of Pine Martins and the positive effect this had on the red squirrel population and the negative effect on the grey squirrel population.
Indigenous creatures, for once, benefitting at the expense of non indigenous



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting as I checked it out and remembered we used to have pine martins and red squirrels years ago, like early 70's then the pine Martins and reds vanished and grey tree rats as I call them appeared. The pine martins are back and the greys have gone so here is hoping the wee reds appear again.
By the way a pine martin is an indigenous animal in Ireland , though they did get almost wiped out.

I've just looked up the program, it was Wild Ireland: The Edge of the World, with Colin Stafford-Johnson.
I don't know if it is still available on iplayer, but certainly worth a watch if it is


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Links for both are posted on "What are you watching" thread, about 2 weeks for 1 and 3 for 2 left to go, forgot he mentioned pine martins in that programme

Samstew wrote:

Rooster wrote:Pine martins making a return around here despite any actual pine trees and whether it is coincidence or not grey squirrels seem to have vanished

I watched a nature program on BBC2 the other weekend, some guy in a boat on the West coast, anyway, among different things covered, he mentioned the return of Pine Martins and the positive effect this had on the red squirrel population and the negative effect on the grey squirrel population.
Indigenous creatures, for once, benefitting at the expense of non indigenous



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Is Nucifera taking the credit?

Spanish Swallowtail butterfly

Nice Merv.

I'm just back from guarding old Derry's walls this weekend, in my sister in law's garden I saw a robin, greenfinches and a raven.... mind you I'm not overly fond of birds other than a well-roasted chicken or duck.

I’ve never knowingly eaten giraffe. Skinning and cleaning it would take ages.
Captured two fantastic fillet steaks from Corries yesterday. No cleaning required, apart from the hob after cooking.

BaggyTrousers wrote:

Rooster wrote:

Samstew wrote:

Rooster wrote:Pine martins making a return around here despite any actual pine trees and whether it is coincidence or not grey squirrels seem to have vanished

I watched a nature program on BBC2 the other weekend, some guy in a boat on the West coast, anyway, among different things covered, he mentioned the return of Pine Martins and the positive effect this had on the red squirrel population and the negative effect on the grey squirrel population.
Indigenous creatures, for once, benefitting at the expense of non indigenous



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting as I checked it out and remembered we used to have pine martins and red squirrels years ago, like early 70's then the pine Martins and reds vanished and grey tree rats as I call them appeared. The pine martins are back and the greys have gone so here is hoping the wee reds appear again.
By the way a pine martin is an indigenous animal in Ireland , though they did get almost wiped out.

Can't swear to this but I saw Tony Robinson on his coast to coast trip upt'nawth of England chatting to a warden who is looking after a resurgent population of red squirrels. If I recall correctly he said the pine martins, also resurgent, were slaughtering grey squirrels but they had a close link to red squirrels in their DNA and didn't prey on them.

I used to go to Scotland on my holidays and one of the great thrills was to witness grey squirrels.
Being from here I had only read about these mythical creatures and assumed they had been banned from Ireland by St Patrick along with snakes.
However beiing a life long member of the Tufty club,( (Giant red squirrel that taught Road safety to children in the 70s), my loyalist tendencies went with the red squirrel.
However I soon came to realise that the grey ones were, 'the nazis of the forest' as they were once described I think by Chris Peckham.
Great to see these Pine Martins liberating the reds in a General Paton like fashion.
On the behalf of Tufty club members everywhere I wish to nominate them for righteous animal status.

As I recall, Tufty always used to hang about with weasley ne'er do wells. They were forever getting knocked down by cars and buses. Then PC Badger would amble up and give them a thick ear. Them were the days.

It's was all probably laced with sexism and casual racism

Around 30 redwings paying their annual visit to the garden today

Rooster wrote:Around 30 redwings paying their annual visit to the garden today

How do you plan to cook them?

pwrmoore wrote:

Rooster wrote:Around 30 redwings paying their annual visit to the garden today

How do you plan to cook them?

Too bloody small to bother with, would be like blackbird pie

We had 10 magpies in our garden over the winter, bloody noisy group. They've broken up to mate presumably, only see 4 or 6 in the garden from time to time. Sometimes i wish i had a nice bolt action .22.....

If you're ever at a loose end in Dublin, just to the south side of landsdowne rd, there's a river walkway along the Dodder. Last time i was down, i saw 4 kingfishers in the space of 15 minutes. Great to watch with binoculars.

I saw a red squirrel leg it across the Tandragee Road the other day. Only the second one I have ever seen.

Wonder where the honeymoon is? Could Herbie give them a deal?