Our neighbor alerted us to the black bear that has been hanging around the past few weeks. It destroyed their bird feeders. They got some pictures of the activity on a trail cam.
We’ve been bringing feeders in each evening. Saturday night we were out until just after dark and I guess we scared the bear off when we drove up to the house. Feeders were damaged. The dogs were very upset when we let them out. Simi wanted to follow the bear’s scent, he knew exactly where it went.
This here is a wolf spider. I think they’re trying to keep me out of the barn for some reason, and I’m inclined to let them!
Not saw, but heard.
Two nights ago, in the middle of the night, I faintly heard a dog yipping in the distance for a good while. It was odd given how cold it was and how long it lasted.
Last night, when we came home, there was the distinct howling of coyotes fairly close by. (There’s some open land, currently being bulldozed for more houses, a couple blocks from us.)
Looking back I think the noise from the previous night was a coyote.
The is the first time I’ve heard coyotes here.
South Surrey, to the south of London.
If you draw a line between (just north of) Lingfield and (just south of) Brockham, some 20 km apart, it very nearly goes through Horley - which is, indeed, about half way. The significance of this is that the Lingfield and Brockham locations are where I have regularly seen cattle egrets, and today I saw one just on the edge of Horley. Aha - this is starting to make sense to me.
This was right adjacent to the River Mole and, just like the other two locations, on wet, low lying cattle pasture. There’s a a fair bit of that sort of terrain around Horley, much of it not road accessible - in fact, last winter I thought I just glimpsed some cattle egrets from a train passing through Horley, but at dusk, at speed, just for a moment - so I couldn’t be sure. .But this was an , absolutely positive ID.
I think I need to do some more exploring. It’s an uncommon but up-and-coming bird in the UK. I think population estimates, even from reliable sources, must be wildly wrong (100 in the UK? Nah.)
j
A few days ago, I came home in the middle of the day and was thrilled to see a red fox running around in our pasture! It jumped into the next pasture, took a lap around the equines (they were not interested), then it jumped another fence and was gone. All of a sudden, I wondered where my chickens were and went to check. Sure enough, the fox had chewed somebody’s head off and left the rest of her lying there. I tossed it into the woods (our usual method of chicken disposal) and it’s still there. Jeez, I wish it wasn’t going to waste, but I suppose something will find it.
Man, what a geek of a fox.
I missed a photo opportunity. Rescued a female Anna’s hummingbird from my semi-open, glassed-in lobby. Carefully trapped her with my two hands from where she was buzzing against a window like a giant iridescent bumblebee and carried her out to an open area to release. After I took my top hand off she sat splayed out in my palm for 30 seconds or so looking up at me before taking off and zipping away. Unfortunately I didn’t have the foresight to whip out my phone, it would have been a great picture. But at least she lived to sip from flowers another day.
Awww! She’ll never forget you. 
A couple of days ago I saw a pair of unusual looking ducks among the mallards and Canada geese at a small pond. I think they were hooded merganser, a new species for me. Sorry for the poor photo.
Today there are feathers strewn over our neighbor’s drive and front lawn, together with the remains of a pigeon corpse. I have no doubt that this is the work of a sparrow hawk - the female is larger than the male, and a pigeon is about as big a bird as it can take down. We’ve caught one in the act before:
That was a little over a year ago - so it looks like it wasn’t a one-off, and (I’d like to think) we have sparrow hawk(s) operating locally.
j
Absolutely a hooded merganser, that head shape/color is pretty unmistakable 
. Congrats on the find!
Thanks!
First thing yesterday morning, we saw this barred owl in our yard, and husband was able to get a nice picture. I hope this is a good omen for the new year.
Nice shot! This is definitely a good sign.
Wow! Fabulous.
j
What a superb owl!
No, that’s Feb. 9th.
We took a drive in the country today and saw a flock of a couple of dozen white pelicans feeding in a shrunken forebay adjacent to a larger reservoir. These birds are usually out in the larger reservoir, widely scattered about. But the small forebay must have concentrated down its population of small fry and the pelicans were taking full advantage. All were feeding busily, diving their heads down and coming up with small fishes. As soon as we get our January/February/March deluges, the forebay will fill up, so the pelicans will lose their advantage.
Earlier today, I gave a nature talk at the local natural history museum. The topic was the winter adaptations of local plants.
We have a pretty little quaking aspen grove by the stream, and I mentioned how its bark actually contains chlorophyll and can photosynthesize through the winter, even with the leaves gone.
To my surprise, one trunk was actually visibly light green (presumably from the chlorophyll… or so I hope)! I just learned that tidbid for myself last night while researching the talk, and it was cool to be able to both see that for myself and show it to visitors. Maybe it changed through the seasons or I just never noticed it before… but either way, I love nature’s little surprises like that, even for flora that I’d seen dozens of times before.
That was a really interesting article - thanks for sharing the link!