A fish supper on the G&S

[ditchcrawler]

33 minutes ago, magnetman said:

I think with the cormorants if it is too big they leave it. 

 

I've seen them down unfeasibly large fish. The best one was an eel. It looked like the eel was going to win as it wss wrapped all around the beak and neck of the bird then the cormorant threw it up in the air, eel reacted by straightening itself cormorant opened beak and down it went. 

 

Clever stuff. 

 

 

 

 

[magnetman]

Efficient setup. 5:14 was a good moment. Out with the old one to make space for the new one. 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

A better one this evening here on the river Avon, Diana left her shoes on the roof after cleaning the mud off them, went out just now and there was a dead fish in one of them, I suspect the lads who were fishing nearby.

[rusty69]

28 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

A better one this evening here on the river Avon, Diana left her shoes on the roof after cleaning the mud off them, went out just now and there was a dead fish in one of them, I suspect the lads who were fishing nearby.

Probably a sole.

Edited August 4, 2023 by rusty69
no i didn't miss out the 'R'

[ditchcrawler]

1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

Probably a sole.

well it would have been a flat fish if she had put her foot on it

[Chris T]

A dead fish would probably have improved the smell of some of ours after recent soakings 🤢

[MtB]

On 02/08/2023 at 11:21, BWM said:

Almost certainly a mink, fish eating birds invariably swallow the whole fish. 

 

I disagree. In my experience, birds can be dead fussy about eating fish.

 

For example my last girlfriend, one fish bone and she would reject the whole meal. The previous GF was less fussy and would eat almost all of a fish but still wanted to cut it up first into bite-sized pieces.

 

She would also insist on cooking it first, so I doubt it was a bird eating the fish on the OP's slide in the night. Hope that helps.

 

 

Nice wine, this. 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

8 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

I disagree. In my experience, birds can be dead fussy about eating fish.

 

For example my last girlfriend, one fish bone and she would reject the whole meal. The previous GF was less fussy and would eat almost all of a fish but still wanted to cut it up first into bite-sized pieces.

 

She would also insist on cooking it first, so I doubt it was a bird eating the fish on the OP's slide in the night. Hope that helps.

 

 

Nice wine, this. 

 

 

 

 

[MtB]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

 

 

Yep, that's her. 

 

Lets hope she is not reading this...

 

 

[Onewheeler]

I doubt an otter or mink would have got onto the roof. A cat maybe, or a puma. Around our mooring on the Thames otters eat the heads of fish and leave the rest. Weird!

[churchward]

On 02/08/2023 at 17:22, magnetman said:

Red kites are an interesting option.

 

Too many of them in some places and they take things from barbecues, out of babies prams and fish. 

 

Not sure how they dismantle them. 

 

Interesting it was on a boat as that is a bit of a human domain one would think wildlife would steer clear of..

 

 

 

We have loads of red kites in Berks and Bucks on the Thames I can hear one right now. 

Red Kites eat carrion.

[Theo]

Do red kite eat fishy carrion, say after a flood or when a grizzly has had his fill?

 

[magnetman]

Red kites take live prey as well as carrion. 

 

From wikipedia article

 

"The red kites are generalist scavengers and predators. Their diet consists mainly of carrions of large domestic animals such as sheep and pigs, roadkills, and shored fish.^[24][25] They also take small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, stoats, young hares and rabbits.^[24][26][27] Live birds are also taken, especially young or wounded, such as crows, doves, starlings, thrushes, larks, gulls, and waterfowls.^[24] Occasionally reptiles and amphibians are taken and invertebrates such as Earthworms form an important part of the diet, especially in spring.^[28] "

 

 

2 hours ago, churchward said:

Red Kites eat carrion.

 

[MtB]

I've read that red kites and buzzards peacefully co-exist because they don't compete for food. 

 

The buzzards eat live prey and the kites eat dead meat, mainly.

 

This matches my own observations. 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

3 minutes ago, MtB said:

I've read that red kites and buzzards peacefully co-exist because they don't compete for food. 

 

The buzzards eat live prey and the kites eat dead meat, mainly.

 

This matches my own observations. 

 

 

They definitely had a feeding program for Red Kites so they were eating dead meat

[churchward]

27 minutes ago, MtB said:

I've read that red kites and buzzards peacefully co-exist because they don't compete for food. 

 

The buzzards eat live prey and the kites eat dead meat, mainly.

 

This matches my own observations. 

 

 

Quite so, we have both birds where we are.  If you want to keep rabbits controlled it is very good to have a few buzzards about.

35 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Red kites take live prey as well as carrion. 

 

From wikipedia article

 

"The red kites are generalist scavengers and predators. Their diet consists mainly of carrions of large domestic animals such as sheep and pigs, roadkills, and shored fish.^[24][25] They also take small mammals such as mice, voles, shrews, stoats, young hares and rabbits.^[24][26][27] Live birds are also taken, especially young or wounded, such as crows, doves, starlings, thrushes, larks, gulls, and waterfowls.^[24] Occasionally reptiles and amphibians are taken and invertebrates such as Earthworms form an important part of the diet, especially in spring.^[28] "

 

 

 

I agree they will take live food but not by choice they prefer carrion and by observation pretty much as much of the time as they can. So I still say they eat carrion.