h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So Animal, are you PSM (ponte soft man)????

te he, hey, also I spy with my little eye....skanky with eyes; aren't you supposed to be had at work huh?

I see Lil is on MSN....

zdt*finger on the pulse of hootoo society*

the Prof-hard head, soft heart

Hi, Prof,

Saving you some goodies- got 33,000 mealworms today - would some of those do?

You and other Loyal Zoological bods can catch me at twirly60atyahoodotcodotuk. Last night I set up a Photo Album and actually managed to put a photo up, even when half asleep and listening for brock. When I get round to it I will let you have the link. There is a nice pic of a very newly emerged Monarch Butterfly courtesy of a friend in Canada.

If I ever get to the stage of getting photos I will upload and let you know - but please don't hold your breath - I don't have all the technical gizmos, so rely on son to help out and he is BUSY 24/7

Do Brocks have watches, anyone? Two nights running now at 10.40pm for half an hour, and three nights in the early hours, 'cus it knocks the top off the little birdtable and crashes the metal dish around. Noisy little ( or not so) beggars, they are

Gotta go get the grub ready for the menagerie + PHM It takes some effort to feed 33,000 plus all the others

I will check in later.

Websailor

BOO! OH! sorry did you lose count, mealworms, I think are a good source of protein, must checkHmmmm! nutritious

Hi, everyone.

Websailer, no wonder your heart's thumping; mine would be too with all that going on! I do hope you get some pics of the badger(s) to share!

Badgers always seem a bit supernatural to me. The seem more than wild animals in some way - not that being a wild animal isn't enough, I hasten to add. There's just something especially marvelous about badgers!

Would you take a raccoon for a badger? A skunk, maybe?

JTG

I *think* badgers are bigger than raccoons or skunks, i may be wrong. I do remember that they are the largest wild British animal (they don't seem to count deer as wild any more, nor the on the moors, which seems a bit odd)

zdt

I'd be more than happy to weigh two or more raccoons for a badger, even a little one... in fact, especially, a little one.

Here's some more info on badgers:

http://www.careforthewild.org/badgers.asp

And here's a very very very little one!!!

http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/archived_material/2005/week_13/news/assets/05-04-01BabyBadger01.jpg

All together now, after 3 "Awwwwwwwwwwwww!"

zdt

Webbie, grub up

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/whatyoucando/mealwormculture/mealworms.asp

I've been reading all this badger stuff with interest but I can't resist saying ahhhhhh at the little badger - Aaahhhh!

How could anyone? ahhhhhh

Or is that awwwwwww...

Hi, Carole, glad you could join us! I haven't looked at the links yet - will Aaaah! later.

Hi, everyone else,

Anyway, update on our stripey Having seen one for real now I agree there is "something of the night" about them, to coin a phrase, in more ways than one. This one has returned for three nights at exactly the same time, 10.40pm, and with only intermittent artificial light he "materialises"out of the darkness, at the table. The first thing you see is a ghostly black shape, and then the two white stripes like beacons.

I have decided we have put too much food out, as he ate most of it, buzzed off and came back in the early hours and finished it off, unless of course that was a different one. However we don't think he has shared knowledge of his new "greasy spoon" with his friends or they would all come Translation for overseas hootooers - a "greasy spoon" is the old name for a transport cafe serving fry- ups to lorry drivers

He ate at the small bird table, a stone one about 14 inches high, tipping the top of (his signature), had a drink of water then followed the peanut trail up the step on to the patio. The step is quite deep, and in a gap between small walls running along the edge of the patio. He shoved the roof slate off the dish with a clang and scoffed half.

Then instead of turning round and hi-tailing it down the garden as before, he shuffled down the step rear end first, nodding his hed from side to side - like - kow towing - "Thanks Mrs., that was a nice bit of grub - same tomorrow night - ok?"

I was standing on a small stool as the kitchen window is rather high, and I nearly fell of laughing. We were both creased and hanging on to each other it looked so funny. It reminded us of a toddler just learning to walk and going downstairs backwards We still think it is a young one, as it seems a bit smaller than we expected

We watched for half an hour and as we decided he had gone and we would go to bed, two sticky up ears and a head appeared in the light from a neighbours house!! The fox had come to see what was left. He skulks in the background till Brock has gone -chicken!! - or maybe that was just what he was hoping for It was just like they showed on TV in Springwatch (sorry those of you elsewhere) a recent wildlife programme that the Beeb is so good at The ginger cat crept through too. I am getting a bit worried as to what else might be out there in the dead of night <

Anyway, if he obliges at the same time for a 4th night we shall be delighted as we are both shattered after all the excitement. However, he will find less food waiting tonight. In fact it is time I went and got the food ready for the fox, badger and the birds tomorrow.

Incidentally, I have been trying to reach the recommended 10.000 steps on my pedometer, and the last two days with all the running around I reached over 10,000, and yesterday over 14,000. No wonder I am shattered today. Spent the afternoon at a local nature centre too which probably accounts for the extra steps. There was so much to see I didn't notice how far I had walked.

I still can't quite believe what I am experiencing, in fact if PHM(see previous posts!) hadn't seen it too, I would still be doubting my luck.

Some people let them in the house and feed them, and one built a "badger flap" so he could pop in at will, but I think that is going TOO far The wildness previously mentioned is what makes them so special, and they can be nasty, so I think that is silly.

It is worth feeding them at the moment because we have near drought conditions here, except for one rainy day, and I understand that Badger populations can crash dramatically in dry conditions when the ground is too hard for them to get food. However, I shall not be asking him/her to join us for BBC News 24

Off to check other posts, then badger food and our tea and links later. My husband threatened D-I-V-O-R-C-E at lunch time because the mealworms got fed before he did

, if you got this far, this was longer than expected. Any more will be shorter I promise, if you can stick with us.

Websailor

Thanks for the baby photo. Aaaaahs all round They grow quick though

Websailor

Animal,

I have my second lot of "breeders" on the go but don't have space to do many. Watching the worms, pupae, beetles and eventually minute worms is fascinating .

Get a Life, woman

Websailor

Nah, this *is* a life! you are not alone; here's a site with robins eating mealworms, nice little diary:

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/Buddy.html

You wait, meerkats are next, if that doesn't get a chorus of "AWWWW!" nothing will!

zdt

Great site!!!!

http://www.aperfectworld.org/cartoons/meerkats.png

zdt

Robins can be amazingly tame - a couple of years ago we had one who would come into the kitchen looking for the vegetarian suet we fed him/her. If the dish was empty it would fly round the house looking for me and it would feed by perching on my hand. I have a photo of it doing this. I think they get desperate when they have babies to feed which makes them throw caution to the wind. It is wonderful though to be able to get that close to a wild creature.

Terri,

On my visit to the wildlife centre on Saturday I was watching Meerkats not three feet away. The usual "lookout" was on duty, but they take it in turns. They are SO special. Opposite were short clawed otters and it was feeding time so the children had a grandstand view.

I am not happy with caged animals or birds, but I sit on the fence a bit because watching the children is as rewarding as watching the animals.

Fox has been. I am waiting for the sun to drop completely before I put food out. Just enough for them to clear because though I love wildlife there is one species I have a horror of, though they looked fine in their little glass fronted cages on Saturday

Awaiting Meerkats...........
Websailor

For some reason my IE cannot open this link and I have no idea how to remedy it.

Thanks for trying anyway