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Nature thread??


craftycarper

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As a child we were all dosed with rose hip syrup and cod liver oil..the first as said was lurvely the second yucky......supposed to be good for you

 

And a great big spoonful of malt - also Luuuurvely

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Re muntjac dear, they are a scourge, ask any forrester, but it would be useful to know where you see them, I'm curious to know how fast they are spreading, ditto wild boar, coypu and other non native pests

Wild Boar may be a pest but they are a native species that was wiped out in the UK.

 

Are there actually still any Coypu in the wild? Most references I come across suggest they were eradicated in the 1980s.

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Wild Boar may be a pest but they are a native species that was wiped out in the UK.

 

Are there actually still any Coypu in the wild? Most references I come across suggest they were eradicated in the 1980s.

high jerra sorry for my absence, tinternet been down, firstly the syrup, simply chop the hips in a processor chuck a kilo of hips in a pan with a litre of water boil and simmer,strain through muslin cloth, twice to remove itchy fibres, then bring the liquid to the boil add sugar 350/500 grams bring back to the boil and it's done, there is a lot of research into arthritis and rose hips going on at the mo, it's also good for your joints,lower urinary Tract, and kidneys, I just drink it like squash, it's really refreshing in chilled water, On the coypu front agree that we eradicated them in the eighties, I was actually invited to go to Norfolk with my terriers to help with the cull, before anyone attacks I never went also as I boat near slimbridge and walk on the Somerset levels I see eagrets and herons cohabiting happily all the time and have never seen any aggression shown between the two, wild boar are in abundance near me as well, and my shooting buddy has just had his licence upgraded for a 303 as people are requesting his services culling them near the Forest of Dean, some really nice lean bacon coming soon, agree they are a native species but they breed like rabbits and have know natural predators, I think we still had Lynx and bears when the boar last roamed England, interesting piggy fact the first person to be killed by a boar in England occurred last year
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I think we still had Lynx and bears when the boar last roamed England, interesting piggy fact the first person to be killed by a boar in England occurred last year

Thanks for the recipe. With regard to predators we (at least up here) may have the Lynx back in the foreseeable future. However as far as I know we have no boar.

 

I only mentioned then as native because they were being linked with alien species and they aren't an alien.

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Thanks for the recipe. With regard to predators we (at least up here) may have the Lynx back in the foreseeable future. However as far as I know we have no boar.

 

I only mentioned then as native because they were being linked with alien species and they aren't an alien.

do you believe in britains big cat story's, I am an avid fan, there is loads of stuff online about them, I also know of a bloke I bump into each year that collects evidence at a university near Cirencester, his photo album is very hard to disagree with he also has dna evidence and many deer and sheep bones with large teeth marks in from large feline predators, I have met three people that claim to have seen them and all of them are credible to me,one being Johnny Kingdom, I would love to see one myself, but have only ever found fresh deer kills on the Cotswolds that bore all the hallmarks of big cat kills,I live in hope
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I am quite looking forward to the moderator response to the first thread discussing hunting beavers....... cool.png

 

As for the big cats I believe it is entirely possible but in spite of the wealth of evidence claimed across the internet I'm so far unconvinced.

But we now have more HD (and better) cameras out there, there's a lot of trap-cams and large scale hi-res IR filming going on so if they are out there it would be only a matter of time before we got some seriously convincing photos

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I am quite looking forward to the moderator response to the first thread discussing hunting beavers....... B)

 

As for the big cats I believe it is entirely possible but in spite of the wealth of evidence claimed across the internet I'm so far unconvinced.

But we now have more HD (and better) cameras out there, there's a lot of trap-cams and large scale hi-res IR filming going on so if they are out there it would be only a matter of time before we got some seriously convincing photos

. The university guy I refer to has loads of photos, he showed me some on the weekend at the frampton show, that a woman had sent into him and he believes they will change the minds of many sceptics, the cat had caught and killed a rabbit so was not keen on running away, which gave the woman a chance to get her camera and take quite a few photos of the cat out in the open in broad daylight,the grass was quite long and the woman had placed a life size toy cat there after the real one had left, it could barely be seen above the grass were as the real cat was clearly visible with only its legs masked by grass, he also has large plaster casts of huge paw prints, a friend of mine now deceased actually saw and followed a large cat one night when he was out lamping, the cat had a stubby bobtail like a Lynx and my friend also had a large paw print from the scene, but until he died he still refused to believe what he had seen but could,nt explain why
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do you believe in britains big cat story's, I am an avid fan, there is loads of stuff online about them, I also know of a bloke I bump into each year that collects evidence at a university near Cirencester, his photo album is very hard to disagree with he also has dna evidence and many deer and sheep bones with large teeth marks in from large feline predators, I have met three people that claim to have seen them and all of them are credible to me,one being Johnny Kingdom, I would love to see one myself, but have only ever found fresh deer kills on the Cotswolds that bore all the hallmarks of big cat kills,I live in hope

Personally I have an open mind. My wife and mother in law saw a large feline at night once. We weren't to surprised as a local man kept lions. However being realistic it was probably a jungle cat which escaped in south Lakeland and was eventually shot in Dumfries and Galloway.

 

There are a number of cases of big cats being shot/captured one notable one being a Puma is Scotland which ended her days in a zoo.

 

I also read of a Red Deer carcase being found up a tree in Devon. I can't think of anything other than a big cat (leopard?) which could/would do that.

 

I have also talked to a lady who had lived most of her life in Africa and had seen black leopards who stated categorically she had seen one jump down from her garage roof.

 

Having said that I would have thought there should be more physical evidence - foot prints prey carcases and by now dead (from old age) bodies.

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Personally I have an open mind. My wife and mother in law saw a large feline at night once. We weren't to surprised as a local man kept lions. However being realistic it was probably a jungle cat which escaped in south Lakeland and was eventually shot in Dumfries and Galloway.

 

There are a number of cases of big cats being shot/captured one notable one being a Puma is Scotland which ended her days in a zoo.

 

I also read of a Red Deer carcase being found up a tree in Devon. I can't think of anything other than a big cat (leopard?) which could/would do that.

 

I have also talked to a lady who had lived most of her life in Africa and had seen black leopards who stated categorically she had seen one jump down from her garage roof.

 

Having said that I would have thought there should be more physical evidence - foot prints prey carcases and by now dead (from old age) bodies.

. The deer up the tree reminds me of another account I heard about two years ago of a man, who lives on the Cotswolds and has a small private zoo, something jumped a 6ft electric fence killed a wallaby then jumped back over with the carcass and ate it a short distance away, the sands of time are running out but I live in hope,
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Thanks for the recipe. With regard to predators we (at least up here) may have the Lynx back in the foreseeable future. However as far as I know we have no boar.

 

I only mentioned then as native because they were being linked with alien species and they aren't an alien.

just remembered one more thing you can do with the hips, replace the sugar with jam sugar,(it contains peptins) and you get a jelly you can have on toast, adding apples is another nice way of making jam as they contain peptins naturally
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A (late) mate of mine who was well into countryside lore, lived all his life on farms and knew every inch of the countryside around us, and who never told outrageous tales, said he saw a large black cat across a field while he was on one of his regular dog walks on the 'moors' (Somerset levels) near Clevedon, and said his gun-dog black lab ran back to him scared sh*tless, which was quite out of character.

 

SWMBO had told him that she had never seen a kingfisher and he promised to take her to a place where he could expect to see one. He died before he could fulfil his promise. The very next day a kingfisher flew into our (closed) kitchen window and died from a broken neck. We have never had any kind of bird fly into any windows before or since. Weird or what?

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The big issues with feral big cats are the absence of dead ones. There should be some evidence. There are also issues around population viability and longevity. I'd love to see irrefutable evidence, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Regarding egrets, they are fairly common on the Trent these days- certainly showing up around Collingham/ Besthorpe/ Langford, as well as at Attenborough nature reserve (where there were breeding bitterns this year - another heron relative)

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A (late) mate of mine who was well into countryside lore, lived all his life on farms and knew every inch of the countryside around us, and who never told outrageous tales, said he saw a large black cat across a field while he was on one of his regular dog walks on the 'moors' (Somerset levels) near Clevedon, and said his gun-dog black lab ran back to him scared sh*tless, which was quite out of character.

 

SWMBO had told him that she had never seen a kingfisher and he promised to take her to a place where he could expect to see one. He died before he could fulfil his promise. The very next day a kingfisher flew into our (closed) kitchen window and died from a broken neck. We have never had any kind of bird fly into any windows before or since. Weird or what?

they are both pretty cool tales, I met a woman some years ago that came from clevedon, she lived at foxhangers with her hubby on a boat before the big new marina was built, I fished there most Friday nights and we usually stopped for an early morning chat on her way out with her dog, on one occasion she came along and told me to keep my eyes peeled as she had seen a large black cat on the towpath three mornings on the trot, must admit I didn't get much sleep that night
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  • 2 weeks later...

Personally I have an open mind. My wife and mother in law saw a large feline at night once. We weren't to surprised as a local man kept lions. However being realistic it was probably a jungle cat which escaped in south Lakeland and was eventually shot in Dumfries and Galloway.

 

There are a number of cases of big cats being shot/captured one notable one being a Puma is Scotland which ended her days in a zoo.

 

I also read of a Red Deer carcase being found up a tree in Devon. I can't think of anything other than a big cat (leopard?) which could/would do that.

 

I have also talked to a lady who had lived most of her life in Africa and had seen black leopards who stated categorically she had seen one jump down from her garage roof.

 

Having said that I would have thought there should be more physical evidence - foot prints prey carcases and by now dead (from old age) bodies.

. Hi jerra I thought I would share today's fantastic tale, I went out this morning with my dags around 10.30 popped in to see my son who was fishing on a local pond, then went off for a long walk I was walking along a small drainage ditch and the terriers were really getting there noses down on a strong scent, all of a sudden they flushed out an otter not a big one probably this years young then I saw another one a bit further along the rean the water was crystal clear and I could clearly see them swimming along in a couple of feet of water, when they had gone the dogs marked at the roots of a tree overhanging the water so I had a little look and I found my first ever otter holt really buzzing, nearly 40 years spent in the countryside and this is the first time I have ever found an occupied holt am going to get my sister who's a pretty good photographer to come with me and try to get some nice pics
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. Hi jerra I thought I would share today's fantastic tale, I went out this morning with my dags around 10.30 popped in to see my son who was fishing on a local pond, then went off for a long walk I was walking along a small drainage ditch and the terriers were really getting there noses down on a strong scent, all of a sudden they flushed out an otter not a big one probably this years young then I saw another one a bit further along the rean the water was crystal clear and I could clearly see them swimming along in a couple of feet of water, when they had gone the dogs marked at the roots of a tree overhanging the water so I had a little look and I found my first ever otter holt really buzzing, nearly 40 years spent in the countryside and this is the first time I have ever found an occupied holt am going to get my sister who's a pretty good photographer to come with me and try to get some nice pics

Luck sod, we think we have a local otter who patrols my mooring but I've yet to see it

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Luck sod, we think we have a local otter who patrols my mooring but I've yet to see it

if that was,nt lucky enough I also picked 3.5 kilo of sloes from one bush, so will get 4 litres of sloe gin and 4 litres of sloe vodka going tomorrow ready for Christmas, the best way to spot the otter is by the long line of air bubbles that follow them as air escapes from there fur, sadly I have seen more dead ones than live ones, but have never found an occupied holt and seen two of its residents outside absolutely buzzing, rates quite highly in my best ever nature events
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(Hi Paul)

Ref the post about Otters, we have a family on our marina and we have been blessed to see the family playing on the frozen basin. They tun and slide, dive down the clear water around boat hulls only to pop up somewhere else.

We also have Kingfishers that sit (and crap) on your tiller, diving in for breakfast. Oh and I stumbled across a baby grass snake last week, about 6 inches long

Phil

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Saw our first otter at Leighton Moss last week,also marsh harriers, both little and great egrets, a merlin hunting on the salt marsh, sundry waders etc. This was capped on Thursday, we had taken caravan up to Borrowdale, on the climb up Catbells a Golden Eagle flew by, on a level with us, 100m out from the hill. 3 minutes later another 2 came past. I know the first could have circled round behind us but still amazing.

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(Hi Paul)

Ref the post about Otters, we have a family on our marina and we have been blessed to see the family playing on the frozen basin. They tun and slide, dive down the clear water around boat hulls only to pop up somewhere else.

We also have Kingfishers that sit (and crap) on your tiller, diving in for breakfast. Oh and I stumbled across a baby grass snake last week, about 6 inches long

Phil

as an angler it's a very mixed emotion, I feel that the tree huggers, and those that try and play God with nature, actually caused a lot of problems by releasing them in artificially high numbers and in unsuitable places, hence the high numbers of dead ones I was finding for a couple of years, the balance now seems to be restoring its self and they are now sorting out a natural balance once again, so seeing them is once again a real privilege FairPlay for having them outside your window, that's a real blessing
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