Hello from Guelph, Ontario, Canada

What a discovery to find this on BBC North Yorkshire, which I explore frequently!  I love Yorkshire for all kinds of reasons, but perhaps most for its spectacular views, one of which is on my desktop.  I had the opportunity to be in the Dales National Park last summer for a day, and was blown away by the scenery.  Anyway these lambs, and the bird feeder, are delightful, and even though I am a city girl, the countryside seems to be in my genes.  There is a bird at the feeder which I cannot identify, even with my RSPB Handbook, but I'll keep looking.  We are eagerly awaiting spring here, but there are signs today that it is on its way.

Welcome Helen,

Enjoy Lambwatch, its a great website :)

Hello Helen,

So glad that you are enjoying Lambwatch.  Once you're bitten with the bug you will find it difficult to stay away.. lol.  I wonder if you saw the bird that I saw this afternoon;  I didn't recognise it.  It looked a little like a blackbird but it was too slim and seemed smaller too.  Maybe Dan could help with identifying it for us.

Hi, Margaret,
It did look like a blackbird, but it was much too small - about 18 cms (about 5 to 6 inches) and it had a forked tail like a finch's tail.  It had no markings on it that I could see, but I couldn't see its breast, only the dark beak.  Certainly not a starling.  I'll check my bird book more carefully.  I'm at a little disadvantage here as our North American birds are so different from UK birds, although the tits are very much like our chickadees, and the black birds are our American robins but with orange fronts - not a bit like the English robin.

I am well bitten with the Lambwatch bug - I'll never get anything done!

Hi, Christine,
I am unfamiliar with the photo on your post.  What is it?  It looks a lot like a raccoon but the wrong colouring.  Is it some kind of exotic bear, related to the panda perhaps?

Hi Helen

My profile picture is of a Red Panda, they originally come from the Himalayas but deforestation has reduced their numbers to only 2000 in the wild, most are in zoos around the world now. I simply adore them. They are so so cute :)

Hi Helen,

Welcome to Lambwatch addiction.. :)

I've been through my bird book twice and I can't find a bird that looked like the one I saw on the feeder.  It was slim and brown and I do wonder if it was one that had lost it's way on it's journey to somewhere else.  I'll try the RSPB website and see if it might be on there.

Oh and for more information on the Red Pandas, they are now classed as their own family of animals. Panda is chineese for bamboo eater, which they love along with fruit (apples) but they are classed as carnivore. Hope this helps. Google them and you can find out lots more :)

Hi Helen, Glad to read that you love Lambwatch. I became addicted to the webcam last summer and am on Chat every available minute - hope to chat with you sometime in the near future. The little picture by my message is a boat because I live next to the Irish Sea in Lancashire. Bye for now

Welcome Helen :) You found us on a good day when the lambing season is getting into full swing! Tonight is the first night the lambs have been in the field all night and you may be lucky to see them in the darkness as they investigate the sign. We have had a busy night tonight with the lambs - two shearlings (never had lambs before) have given birth. I found one on my nightly walk to check on the flock with a lamb already with its head sticking out. This was not correctly presented as it should be presented as if it were diving into a swimming pool (feet first) but instead it was coming head first so we had to push its head back in and rearrange it so it was coming out correctly. If we had not found it until a few hours later, it's head will have swelled too much for us to get it back in to rearrange it and there could have been problems. But this was not the case, we got the lamb out successfully and the new mum (not just this year but in her life) has taken well to her new offspring :) As has the second shearling, who is a bigger sheep, but the passage was a lot tighter so it was a joint effort to get out its lamb with string! It was correctly presented but it was just a tight squeeze. It came out in the end and is a bonny lamb with black head and black legs and again, this new mum took to its new offspring very well! We got the older sheep in too as I thought one of them was in the early stages of giving birth but it is still a long while off yet if at all.

So welcome to LambWatch! You joined us on a busy but successful day! Hope you enjoy the site! :)

Dan, it sounds as though you are running something of a nursery.  Yes, I know this is a busy time of year, so you won't get much sleep these nights.  Are the sheep that are nearly ready to lamb left out in the fields overnight, or in shelter?  I'm glad the new ewe is taking to motherhood well - it must be a challenge when they don't.

I'm hooked!

Christine, Thanks for the information on your lovely red panda.  If I can find you a photo of our raccoon, you will see why I see a resemblance, though they may not be related at all.  They are clever creatures, able to unlatch and take metal lids off metal rubbish bins, climb down chimneys and generally cause trouble.  I don't know how to attach a photo to this forum but might have to use it as my avatar till you get the idea.

It's great to be in touch with so many animal lovers..

Hi Helen, we are just going out again now to see if the 2 new mums have had / are going to have any more lambs. It all depends on the weather as to whether we leave the expectant mums out at night (and the new mums for that matter too!). When the weather is horrid we get them all in, but if the weather is quite mild like tonight they can stay out! Although having said that, if a sheep starts lambing in the night we like to bring the lot in so we can separate out the lambing sheep before letting the others back out. So tonight we got all the shearlings in so we could extract the two lambers then the others were released and then we got all the older sheep in but it was not obvious after doing so which was the lamber so we have left them all in.

It just makes life easier if they are indoors for checking them or if the weather suddenly turns :)

Hi, Cindy,
I have been to Little Crosby, and that wonderful stretch of sand dunes, the name of which I can't remember.  I have friends in Manchester and spent a little time near Rainhill a few years ago, but I cannot say I am very familiar with the Merseyside area.  I've also spent time in northwest Wales, so know what the Irish Sea looks like, and how cold it is.  I love your little boat.
Helen

To add pictures to your forum post, you need to get the address of the image you want to include. So for example, do a Google image search for "sheep" then right click the image you want to include in your post, click "Properties" and then you will see an "Address URL" or Location under the image properties.... Select all that Address and press Ctrl+C (Copy)...

Then click the little image icon in the forum input box... it is the button to the left of the smiley button in the top right corner of the forum message input box.... A window will appear with an input field... simple click into that input field in the popup window and press Ctrl+V (Paste) the address into that box, and remove the http:// from the begging of the address you have entered... (as this is already shown)...

If you have done it successfully the image you wish to include will appear below the input box and then simply click the image you wish to include and it will appear in your post... like sooo..



When the image is in the input box you can resize and move it around as if it were in Microsoft Word or something like that :)

Margaret, Do you think it could be a lark?  That's the only thing that looks anything close to that bird we saw - and I saw it twice - it hovered around the water dish on the left and kept returning to the suet balls.  But what would a lark be doing at a bird feeder?  They usually rely on insects, unless there aren't enough yet.

For Christine,
If I have followed Dan's instructions correctly, this should produce an image of a Raccoon, but you will see many more of them if you just google "raccoon".  They are so common here we say there are more coons than people in the big cities.  Now, this hasn't turned out as I intended, but go to the site below and you will see the resemblance to your red panda.

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/upl1/10/104166/17_2008/raccoon.jpg

Hi, Margaret,
Just thought you'd enjoy the photo I've used as my avatar - it is the American Robin, really a very close cousin of the English blackbird.  The song is similar, the warning sounds are identical, they have the same habit of hopping along the ground listening for worms (you should see them doing this on three-foot snowbanks in March - too funny) and they lay almost identical blue eggs.  They are, for us, the first sign of spring, as they have to move south for the winter, at least where I live.  In places in the USA they can safely stay all winter and get enough to eat.  They come back to Ontario around mid-March, but often cannot find anything to eat till April, unless there are suet feeders around, or old berries.

Hi Helen it is interesting to learn about your birds :) it does sound very similar to the blackbird here. Such a distinctive summer / spring sound is their call..
By the way, I have made a video of how to insert an image into the forum.. hope this helps...

Hello again Helen,

Yes I saw the lark in my book but dismissed it for the reason you gave - that it eats insects but maybe it fancied a change of diet.. lol.

I only saw it once while it was on the fatballs so if it was a lark I am quite excited about that as I have never seen once before.

Hello Helen, Just a quick note to tell you that I live on the Promenade at Blackpool - famous for the Blackpool Tower and haunt of lots of holidaymakers. Lived here my entire life although my heart is in the country. Not many farm animals nearby - only the donkeys that give rides to children on the beach. Do you live in the country?

Hello Helen,

I think that bird we saw on the feeder was the robin.  I have just seen him on the feeder and saw that he had a red breast and it does look just like the bird we saw the other day.

Thanks, Dan,
I'll work on this.  I'm not terribly computer-savvy.

Hi Helen

Thanks for the link to the Raccoon, they do have similar facial marking, just that the red pandas are a different colour, more red than brown and I think they are much larger. How big is a racoon? Red Pandas are usually just a bit bigger than a domestic cat. I think thats why I love them so, cos they look like cats, they are another love of mine too :)

Glad you are enjoying Lambwatch, hope to catch you on chat soon

Christine xx

 Dont think I Inserted right Sorry!

It looks ok to me! :)

Dan,

The picture didn't show up on my forum page (the picture from Grace)