Post Your Pics & Videos of the Great Outdoors

[foxfish]

Hi Darrel, I dont have your knowledge of latin names, I call that plant Red angels trumpet.
I was surprised to see it too but there are many large gardens that back up to the cliff paths so I suspect it has been planted. In any case it is a big spread of foliage with hundreds of flowers, I think they are toxic to wildlife and maybe even humans…. Looks like one should pick a few flowers and stuff them with feta cheese and fry them like a courgette flower!!

 

[sparkyweasel]

I think they are toxic to wildlife and maybe even humans…

Yes, very.

Looks like one should pick a few flowers and stuff them with feta cheese and fry them like a courgette flower!!

Better not then 🙂

 

[sparkyweasel]

Hi all,Datura sanguinea, bizarre. Humming-bird pollinated, so I'm not sure it will spread any further.

Cheers Darrel

Species with pendulous flowers and smooth fruits are now Brugmansia. The ones with upright flowers and spiny fruit are still Datura.
Normally pollinated by hummingbirds, but I wouldn't be surprised if bees or moths could do the job; however, natural seed dispersal is believed to have been by long-extinct megafauna so they are now only found in cultivation, - or escapes. Listed as extinct in the wild.
IUCN
Very interesting and beautiful.

 

[Hanuman]

In South America we have a drug called by locals: "burundanga". It's in fact Scopolamine produced by Hyoscyamus albus / Datura stramonium or more commonly known as the Devil's Breath. It can be turned into a powerful drug, which among other effects will remove your free will. We all know what that can lead to.
I personally know people who got druged by criminals with a simple handshake. The drug will be absorbed cutaneously. The victims then went on to empty their bank accounts willingly and also inviting the criminals to their house etc, without anyone around ever noticing that anything was wrong. Scary.

 

[mort]

They are also surprisingly hardy for an exotic looking species (we don't have that one but a couple of others that survived near zero before they came in) and very easy from cuttings.

 

[Lemonhands]

These are a few photos i took on a camping trip to Pewsey last weekend. I off to Lake District in the very enar future so sure I will have more to share soon

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The jap weed is in full growth and spreading out into the bay …..
View attachment 189083

Sargassum muticum, plenty of it in Pembrokeshire as well.

Cheers Darrel

 

[mort]

The jap weed is in full growth and spreading out into the bay …..

It appears seagrass can get quite big if it's given time

World's biggest plant discovered off Australian coast

The seagrass is roughly 4,500 years old and three times the size of Manhattan, researchers say.

www.bbc.co.uk

Edit. I see Kelvin has already posted the link in another thread.

 

[foxfish]

The Jap weed is in vertually evey bay around our island, our government waged war against it for many year but the Jap weed won!
30 years ago is was just in a few isolated bays but now it forms almost impenetrable barriers at low tide.
The good side is that the weed attracts Bass and offers sanctuary for them, we can still hunt the bass with a speargun in the weed at this time of year, but in the next few weeks it will become too dense to swim through.

 

[foxfish]

A good year for field roses, they are a nightmare if you walk off the path wearing beach shoes!
We are approaching drought conditions in Guernsey with no substantial rain for three months now!
It has beed crazy humid but for some bazar reason, any rain is skipping past us time and time again…..
Right at this minute the other channel islands are being drenched but we are dry!

 

[foxfish]

Well we are outdoors again and it did in fact rain last night!
@Tim Harrison you like this chap….he is back after three years in France.

 

[mort]

If you have seen springwatch this year then you may know what this is. I found it in my garden last year and didn't realise how cool (if you like creepy carrion burying citters) or how rare they are. For those that don't know its a buying beetle and you'd be surprised just how impressive their burying skills are.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

then you may know what this is.

Did you give it a sniff? They smell "interesting".

They aren't actually that uncommon in moth traps, that is the only place where I've seen any carrion beetle.

The most common ones are the (all black) Nicrophorus humator and Necrodes littoralis, but you get the black and orange species as well.

You can tell whether you have Nicrophorus vespilloides. N. vespillo , N. interruptus or N. investigator by the shape of the orange markings ("Rhino" or "scotty dog"), and whether they have orange antennal clubs. Yours has orange antennal clubs and the rear stripe has a "scotty dog "profile, so I think that makes it <"N. interruptus">, and a rare find.

cheers Darrel

 

[mort]

Thanks Darrel, I didn't think to sniff it tbh and I had thought it was N. vespillo because I didn't know about the Scotty dog markings. I'd forgotten all about it until the programme and hadn't registered the siting yet like they asked luckily.

It's amazing what turns up in a garden. I do try and make it as inviting for as many things as possible but I must miss all but a tiny fraction.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I had thought it was N. vespillo because I didn't know about the Scotty dog markings

The only reason I know is that I belong to a FB group <"Moth Trap Intruders UK">, which has been really useful and I've got ID's for Beetles and Caddis etc. which I just used to ignore.

Last week I was in Pembrokeshire and I went to Skomer. I've never been before, but the Puffins were amazing (and amazingly numerous). You will have to take my word for it because I must be the only person who has been to Skomer (at the right time of year) and not taken any photos of Puffins, but here is a view of the W. of the island, looking towards the mainland.



cheers Darrel

 

[sparkyweasel]

It's amazing what turns up in a garden.

My late father knew Jenny Owen, who identified (with the help of her university colleagues) 2204 species of insect in her (not huge) garden, including 60 not previously recorded in Britain and six that were new to science. And lots of other creatures too.
She wrote a book, Wildlife Of A Garden: A Thirty-Year Study, but second-hand copies are going for over £100.

 

[NatalieHurrell]

Last week I was in Pembrokeshire and I went to Skomer. I've never been before, but the Puffins were amazing (and amazingly numerous). You will have to take my word for it because I must be the only person who has been to Skomer (at the right time of year) and not taken any photos of Puffins

I agree. Skomer is amazing for puffins. Went a few years ago and some literally sat on me whilst I was photographing. It was mega windy though and they were having to land by coming in backwards half the time. We were supposed to stay two nights, but a big storm was due in that would have meant staying up to a week and we had to go back to work on the Monday. Still worth it for a day trip though. Shameless puffin spamming coming up...

 

[Hanuman]

Spectacular pictures @NatalieHurrell !!

 

[Garuf]

I’m a lardarse so the single speed got taken for a spin this evening.
Saw a fish and a deer and a sign saying don’t bother hand sized deers.

 

[Garuf]

It could also be don’t karate chop deers…
It’s not a very useful illustration.