Hello to you all

Funny the phobias/fears we have. Mostly quite irrational, so I guess we learn it from other people in some way. A bat is just a winged mouse really, but then some people are terrified of them. (We can't afford that luxury as we usually have to round up the ones the cats bring in for their parties.)

I don't like most spiders (not unusual I know) but I like the little jumping spiders we see in this country as they aren't as creepy as most. (Some pictures I've seen of other types of jumping spider, probably foreign, look pretty horrible - probably wouldn't get near them :eek: ).
 
Spiders get ushered out unless they are uncooperative/inaccessible, and then if they make the mistake of still being there when I get back with the long-reach hoover nozzle...

How does a cat catch a bat???
 
MikeSh said:
Funny the phobias/fears we have. .... A bat is just a winged mouse really, but then some people are terrified of them.
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Strange how people don't like rats but aren't so bothered by the larger rat with a bushy tail - a (grey) squirrel.
 
By an odd coincidence I saw a rat this morning - only the second time in the three years we've lived here.

RobH1 said:
Our cat waited until the bats flew low under the bottom tree branches then leapt up and swatted them tennis serve style ( with his paw). Success about one every two nights.
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Years ago I saw a fish eating duck snatch a passing bird out of the air and eat it.
 
MikeSh said:
Years ago I saw a fish eating duck snatch a passing bird out of the air and eat it.
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I'm confused. A fish was eating a duck (with orange sauce?), then presumably jumped into mid-air and caught a bird? Or are we talking cannibalism? The duck was eating fish (with chips?) , then decided to pluck another bird out of the air. :confused:
 
Black Hole said:
I don't think a squirrel is likely to gnaw your foot off.
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Depends how hungry it is. I once saw a squirrel consume the contents of a bird-feeding doo-dah in one sitting (should be one stretch as it was upside down at full stretch). Whilst visiting hospital a few months ago a collection of squirrels turned up in a nearby tree at 16:15 each day to gorge themselves on the buds.
 
This thread reminds me of The Big Bang Theory when Penny moved in next door, you can make your own minds up as to which of you lot is Shelden.
 
EEPhil said:
The duck was eating fish (with chips?) , then decided to pluck another bird out of the air.
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Pretty close, but they would have been very soggy chips.
The term duck is used loosely here - it was a duckish bird but with a more carnivorous beak (serrated?). A brief google hasn't helped me much, but maybe a Merganser or something like. It was at the Arundel wildfowl place and a few of these birds and a load of assorted other ducks were swanning around on a pond. It was one of those grey, low cloud days and various small birds were zooming around low down and occasionally swooping a foot or two above the water. One them did this close to this 'duck' and SNAP. The speed that it moved its head was amazing - It didn't bat the sparrow(?) out of the air and then grab it from the water; it literally snatched it out of the air clamped in its beak. A couple of other people who happened to be looking that way at the time were also astonished, and possibly upset in one case - it was so unexpected. Nature raw in tooth and claw ... and beak :)
 
Black Hole said:
Cormorant?
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I doubt it, it wasn't black IIRC, probably grey. Also Cormorants are pretty big, and I think even the smaller Shag is larger than most ducks. I'll have to do a better trawl of the online bird identification pictures (I used to have a book of ducks but I think it got sold off in our big move).
 
Not quite the same but this shows that some ducks like a bit of variety in their diet. Haven't come across Mike's observation before but we've recorded insect eating birds snaffing fish fry. (Black headed weavers).
 
One theory the researchers have is that the Mallards were struggling with a lack of animal proteins, perhaps due to intense competition for insect larvae by fish introduced for angling. In a desperate bid for high-protein food during egg-laying season, the ducks turned to eating other birds.
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As far as I can see, those pictures show juvenile mallard - so I question the idea that it is anything to do with egg laying.
 
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