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Out Of Place Animals

Lammergeier spotted in Norfolk

The "bearded vulture" - dubbed "Vigo" - was snapped by photographer James Lowen near Dereham, Norfolk, on Monday.



bearded vulture
Vigo was also sighted in and around Peterborough. What on Earth makes a bird accustomed to mountains make a stop over at a town on the edge of the Fens?
 
Vigo was also sighted in and around Peterborough. What on Earth makes a bird accustomed to mountains make a stop over at a town on the edge of the Fens?

When it was spotted in the Peak District in July it was speculated it may've been caught in a storm & blown away from it's home in the Alps but that seems a bit unlikely.

Some good pics from Lincolnshire on this blog & unconfirmed report it's since gone further south & been seen over the RSPB HQ in Sandy Bedfordshire & later over London.

The Vulture conservancy now have a couple of her feathers so we should at some point understand her a little better. It should also be noted that they are keeping a close eye on her movements and the threat each one makes to her. It is considered that her current location can provide food and shelter with the main threat to her being traffic and turbines.
 
An escaped cow in Australia wandered onto a trampoline and became stuck there.

CowOnTrampoline.jpg

Wandering cow gets stuck on a trampoline in rural Victoria

A bid to follow the herd turned out badly for a lone cow that got stuck on a trampoline in rural Victoria overnight.

The drama unfolded when a mob of about 40 cows went on a run in the dead of night in South Gippsland.

The herd was rounded up after a truck driver saw cattle in the middle of the road and doorknocked the nearest house.

Neighbours were woken to find cows scattered in their yards, and the mob was guided home.
But when dairy farmer Kay Laing did a second check of her yard to be extra sure, she found a black and white cow stuck on her in-ground trampoline. ...

“I would love to have seen her get on. I’m sure she must have been thinking, ‘What the hell?’ Anyway she ended up just plonking down and just sat.

“Thank God it was night time and she couldn’t see either because I’m tipping she would’ve been pretty terrified.”

Her neighbour brought his tractor around and, with some chains and a hoist, got the cow on solid ground.

“She was just fine, we lifted her off and then she walked home, maybe a kilometre and a half.

“We were back in bed by 3.30am.” ...

FULL STORY: https://www.news.com.au/technology/...a/news-story/bd5f9a2fd9f58f2495a2821c427669b9
 
The Bearded Vulture (Vigo) that spent the summer in the Peak District and was recently wandering around Eastern England shed a couple of feathers that someone collected. He sent them off, I assume to the Vulture Conservation Foundation, (they do great work re_introducing them back to their old European habitats). Turns out Vigo is a wild bred female from the French Alps doing what young vultures often do, going for very long wanders. Few days ago she turned up at Beachy Head, I was going to have a look for her as only 20 miles West of me, but someone watched her soaring and gaining great height, was so high almost out of sight, she then drifted off over the Channel on her way back home. Hope she makes it back safely.
Oddly, many years ago when on holiday in Majorca, I looked up and saw two massive birds gliding high over. When I got back to England checked my bird books and went to the library (pre interweb days), Bearded vulture best match.
 
Virginia wildlife officials were contacted about a weird snake with a prominent head. It turned out to be a large worm native to Asia.
Mysterious 'snake' spotted in Virginia turns out to be invasive worm

... Virginia Wildlife Management and Control posted photos to Facebook that were sent in by a caller to the company's Snake Identification Hotline after the creature was spotted in Midlothian. ...

"We've never seen anything like it before and we're not sure if it's a freak of nature," the post said.

The company later posted an update after experts identified the 10- to 12-inch animal as a hammerhead worm, an invasive species native to Southeast Asia.

The species is notoriously difficult to kill, as even a small fragment of its body can regenerate into a complete worm.

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/1...-turns-out-to-be-invasive-worm/9101604435139/

VIDEO (At agency's Facebook page):
 
I was looking at election results in some far away land when I noticed this story in the headlines:

wallaby.jpg


Wallabies are on the loose in Britain — and we've mapped 95 sightings
When you think of kangaroos and wallabies, you probably don't think of the temperate climate, unsettled weather and agricultural lands of England. Yet on such pastures, the red-necked wallaby has found a home.

Red-necked wallabies have been present in Britain for more than a century, originally being imported for zoos and private collections where they were popular attractions.

However they also proved to be adept escape artists that were adaptable enough to survive in the British countryside.

Many were intentionally released during the Second World War, as keepers and collectors had other priorities.


This increased the number of feral animals in Britain and, eventually, a population became established in the Peak District (though it has probably been extinct since 2009).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11...oose-britain-mapping-their-sightings/12848756
 
Monitor lizard kills feral cat in Australia (maybe this is what a fight between a megalania and a thylacoleo would have looked like, scaled down).
 
Eeeek!

A couple were left hiss-terical after finding a 4ft (1.2m) royal python curled up behind their tumble dryer.

It was a case of snakes and larders when the reptile was found in the utility room of their home in Southport, Merseyside.

"I was shocked, it's not what you expect when you want to do a bit of laundry," the woman told the RSPCA. The charity collected the snake and is hoping to find its owner soon - serpently by Christmas.

"I was quite surprised at the size of the snake," said RSPCA rescue officer David Hatton, who attended the home in Beecham Road on Sunday.

"The fact it is in such good condition makes me suspect it is a pet that has escaped. I am not sure how it managed to get into the utility room but it was probably attracted by the warmth from the drier when it was on."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-55395136
 
Monitor lizard kills feral cat in Australia (maybe this is what a fight between a megalania and a thylacoleo would have looked like, scaled down).
Difficult to watch. Maybe if it actually KILLED it.
 
Sheep on Garage Roof

Ella Aldred was surprised to see the woolly animals had managed to make the three foot jump from the garden.

She said they regularly wander down off the moors into her housing estate in Whitworth, near Rochdale.

They roam the estate after coming down from the nearby hills, eating
grass and plants from gardens and verges.

The garage roof is covered in ivy, so they may have been keen for a snack.

Ella said: ‘They’re regular visitors. You see them wandering round the
estate quite a lot.

‘I think they’re coming down from the moors looking for something green to eat because it’s covered in snow up there.
Six sheep standing on the garage roof
 
Ruh-roh ... The pigeon called Joe somehow traversed the Pacific to get from the USA to Australia, and now Australia wants to capture and kill him.
Australia to kill pigeon that crossed Pacific from Oregon

A racing pigeon has survived an extraordinary 13,000-kilometer (8,000-mile) Pacific Ocean crossing from the United States to find a new home in Australia. Now authorities consider the bird a quarantine risk and plan to kill it.

Kevin Celli-Bird said Thursday he discovered the exhausted bird that arrived in his Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 had disappeared from a race in the U.S. state of Oregon on Oct. 29.

Experts suspect the pigeon that Celli-Bird has named Joe, after the U.S. president-elect, hitched a ride on a cargo ship to cross the Pacific. ...

Joe’s feat has attracted the attention of the Australian media but also of the notoriously strict Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.

Celli-Bird said quarantine authorities called him on Thursday to ask him to catch the bird.

“They say if it is from America, then they’re concerned about bird diseases,” he said. “They wanted to know if I could help them out. I said, ’To be honest, I can’t catch it. I can get within 500 mil (millimeters or 20 inches) of it and then it moves.’”

He said quarantine authorities were now considering contracting a professional bird catcher.

The Agriculture Department, which is responsible for biosecurity, said the pigeon was “not permitted to remain in Australia” because it “could compromise Australia’s food security and our wild bird populations.”

“It poses a direct biosecurity risk to Australian bird life and our poultry industry,” a department statement said. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/pacific-...nited-states-faae5a66c336c8b2dc902b1ed4270345
 
Update ...

Joe the allegedly trans-Pacific pigeon Australian authorities seek to capture and kill may be due a reprieve ...
‘Fake’ US leg band may get pigeon a reprieve in Australia

A pigeon that Australia declared a biosecurity risk may get a reprieve after a U.S. bird organization declared its identifying leg band was fake.

The band suggested the bird found in a Melbourne backyard on Dec. 26 was a racing pigeon that had left the U.S. state of Oregon, 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) away, two months earlier.

On that basis, Australian authorities on Thursday said they considered the bird a disease risk and planned to kill it.

But Deone Roberts, sport development manager for the Oklahoma-based American Racing Pigeon Union, said on Friday the band was fake. ...

The band number belongs to a blue bar pigeon in the United States and that is not the bird pictured in Australia, she said.

“The bird band in Australia is counterfeit and not traceable,” Roberts said. “It definitely has a home in Australia and not the U.S.”

“Somebody needs to look at that band and then understand that the bird is not from the U.S. They do not need to kill him,” she added. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/australia-to-kill-pigeon-from-oregon-faae5a66c336c8b2dc902b1ed4270345
 
Wait a minute - someone is manufacturing fake leg bands for pigeons? Is this the most niche crime ever?!
 
Update ...
Australian authorities have concluded (pigeon) Joe's leg band was a fake, and they've discontinued their attempt to capture and kill him.
Australia’s Agriculture Department, which is responsible for biosecurity, agreed that the pigeon dubbed Joe, after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, was wearing a “fraudulent copy” leg band.

“Following an investigation, the department has concluded that Joe the Pigeon is highly likely to be Australian and does not present a biosecurity risk,” it said in a statement.

The department said it will take no further action.

https://apnews.com/article/australia-joe-the-pigeon-faae5a66c336c8b2dc902b1ed4270345
 
I was living in Surrey a few years ago and shortly after i moved i was suprised to see a flock of ringnecked parakeets flying over head every night going to roost in trees by the Thames, i read up and found out thereis quite a few colonies of them, variously reported to have come from, Jimi Hendrix and the film studio after the filming of 'The African Queen, but no concrete proof of either story, also there are reports of sightings out dating both incidents.
 
Ruh-roh ... The pigeon called Joe somehow traversed the Pacific to get from the USA to Australia, and now Australia wants to capture and kill him.
That's what they tried to do to Johnny Depp.
That's correct. Mr. Depp was wearing a fake leg band, so the Australian authorities tried to capture and kill him. :p
Good thing he got away!
 
Man fined £5,000 after neighbours spot wildcat he kept as pet in window

James Brown, 36, bought the animal from a Russian company without a licence so was convicted under the Dangerous Wild Animals (DWA) Act and ordered to pay a total of £5,000.

Neighbours in Balham, south London, alerted the authorities when they saw the cat sitting at the window and feared she may attack their own pets.

Wandsworth Council were also tipped off when Brown emailed the town hall to ask about getting a licence under the DWA Act.

When contacted by officers, Brown said he no longer owned the serval and insisted he was moving to Lambeth, the council said.

Nothing more was heard for six months until another member of the public complained about seeing a wildcat sitting at the window of a property in Roehampton, south-west London.

Animal welfare officers and police visited and questioned Brown, who at that stage insisted the cat was not a serval but another species of less dangerous wildcat.

The animal was removed and rehoused at a specialist wildlife facility.

In 2019, Brown said he was actively trying to get a licence and claimed he only agreed to look after the serval after its previous owner struggled to care for it.

These claims were undermined by Brown’s glowing Facebook endorsements of the Russian company he purchased the cat from, the council said yesterday.

Checks showed a microchip found in her neck had been issued to a company in Russia.

Brown did not turn up for taped interviews with council investigators and did not answer a summons to appear in court. He was charged with keeping a dangerous wild animal without a licence, and convicted in his absence.

He was fined £1,000, ordered to pay £4,000 in prosecution costs and a £181 victim surcharge, and banned from owning any wild animals for two years.

Neighbours spot dangerous wildcat in London window
 
Around 10 years ago, while taking a bus from Chipping Norton to Witney during the day, I was somewhat surprised to glance across a field and spot a solitary wallaby near a tree line. After a double and a triple take, I realised it was actually there and I was witnessing this!! I have heard of some wild colonies of them present in the UK, but none in the Oxfordshire area to my knowledge.

Surreal!
 
Around 10 years ago, while taking a bus from Chipping Norton to Witney during the day, I was somewhat surprised to glance across a field and spot a solitary wallaby near a tree line. After a double and a triple take, I realised it was actually there and I was witnessing this!! I have heard of some wild colonies of them present in the UK, but none in the Oxfordshire area to my knowledge.

Surreal!
From google:
"It's probably a cliché, but you expect to see wallabies in Australia, not Oxfordshire." According to John Gillespie, they have been seen since the early to mid 1970s around the Henley/Nettlebed area "with a few being run over up and down the Bix dual carriage way".31 Aug 2017

From 'The (uh huumm) Sun:
STREUTH! Villagers say Oxfordshire town is being overrun by growing population of WALLABIES

Brian Lockyer, from Didcot, was on his early morning drive into work in Tetsworth when a wallaby jumped out of the hedge ahead of him.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16519...g-overrun-by-growing-population-of-wallabies/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Around 10 years ago, while taking a bus from Chipping Norton to Witney during the day, I was somewhat surprised to glance across a field and spot a solitary wallaby near a tree line. After a double and a triple take, I realised it was actually there and I was witnessing this!! I have heard of some wild colonies of them present in the UK, but none in the Oxfordshire area to my knowledge.

Surreal!

Like chicken pigeon, apparently.

Just sayin’...

:dinner:

maximus otter
 
A giant walrus who washed up on the south coast of Ireland isn’t the first to breach our shores.

The walrus, who washed up in Valentia Island on Sunday, captured the imagination of the nation but back in 1930 a similar report appeared in this publication.

‘Walrus washed ashore’ reads the headline from the Irish Examiner archive on a story published on October 17, 1930. The walrus “measuring about six feet from tip to tip” washed up in Berehaven.nSadly, however, this walrus “had one of its tusks broken off, and was dead apparently for about a fortnight. Some people reported that the walrus had made Dursey Sound “its headquarters a couple of years ago”.

While rare, a number of walrus sightings have been reported in Ireland over the years. In 1987, one was reported on the Shannon, while in 1999, another was reported to have been spotted in Co Mayo.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40244516.html
 
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