What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[Mr Lobster]

I think owls are a fascinating bird. Only ever seen one in the wild though. Last house we lived at had them in the woods behind it, you could hear them most nights but not once in eight years living there did I see one.

[Cavcraft]

Wildlife rocks. Saw a kestrel or hawk or something the other day, bloody huge think just perched on a telegraph pole.The following day a bloke was walking along with it on his arm. We supposedly have buzzards at work but I'm not convinced as they didn't look that big and I think buzzards are huge things?Plenty of foxes, mice, rabbits and hawks (or kestrels) at work though and fascinating to watch.In case anyone's interested I went to a bird or prey display a year or so back and asked the bloke running it why some birds hover round for ages and how they could know prey was nearby.Apparantly mice and other animals have some sort of UV in their urine which the birds can spot easily due to their special eyesight. They can then hover directly over where they know the prey is and wait for them.He reckoned due to people chucking rubbish out of cars this attracted small rodents which in turn attracted some birds of prey hence seeing a lot of them near busy roads and laybys.

[dollywobbler]

Kestrels are small Billy - they're the hovering ones. Beautiful birds. Buzzards are fapping huge.

 

We saw what we think was a juvenline Golden Eagle in Scotland.

 

They're big too.

 

What a bunch of twitchers we are!

[504GL]

Wildlife rocks. Saw a kestrel or hawk or something the other day, bloody huge think just perched on a telegraph pole.The following day a bloke was walking along with it on his arm. We supposedly have buzzards at work but I'm not convinced as they didn't look that big and I think buzzards are huge things?Plenty of foxes, mice, rabbits and hawks (or kestrels) at work though and fascinating to watch.In case anyone's interested I went to a bird or prey display a year or so back and asked the bloke running it why some birds hover round for ages and how they could know prey was nearby.Apparantly mice and other animals have some sort of UV in their urine which the birds can spot easily due to their special eyesight. They can then hover directly over where they know the prey is and wait for them.He reckoned due to people chucking rubbish out of cars this attracted small rodents which in turn attracted some birds of prey hence seeing a lot of them near busy roads and laybys.

Wow that's cool! There's a fox around our parts that comes out late at night, sometimes if I get up in the night I'll sit in the loungeroom in the dark and just watch out for him. We also get bats in our front yard too in the spring and summer when there are lots of insects around. We live by a hillside with a nice big wooded area and have loads of buzzards soaring on thermals in the summer. Never get to see anything getting killed though

[Mr H Sceptre]

Loads of foxes all over the place round here (Leicester). If I'm walking home late at night I'm pretty much guarenteed to see a fox going about its business. I like them. I'm struggling not to go on an anti fox hunting rant, but this isnt the thread for that.....

[504GL]

Loads of foxes all over the place round here (Leicester). If I'm walking home late at night I'm pretty much guarenteed to see a fox going about its business. I like them. I'm struggling not to go on an anti fox hunting rant, but this isnt the thread for that.....

I really do like them too Sometimes when we go for walks in the dark I shine my torch into the field and you see the glow of their eyes I live in a small village so it's not uncommon to see badgers and hedgehogs and for someone like myself who grew up in Australia all these animals are new to me We had a woodpecker who would come into our garden and eay peanuts from a peanut feeder we put out. Really nice bird and I'm not into wimpy little tweety birds usually

[Cavcraft]

Kestrels are small Billy - they're the hovering ones. Beautiful birds. Buzzards are fapping huge.

 

We saw what we think was a juvenline Golden Eagle in Scotland.

 

They're big too.

 

What a bunch of twitchers we are!

Cheers. That bird is stunning, I'd love to see something like that. Last time I saw a 'real' buzzard (as opposed to the 'supposed' ones at work) was a few years back near near Wem in Shropshire. Even from a distance they were huge and are absolutely stunning things.

 

Mr S: full agreement about the hunting thing matey.

[The Liberator]

Cheers. That bird is stunning, I'd love to see something like that. Last time I saw a 'real' buzzard (as opposed to the 'supposed' ones at work) was a few years back near near Wem in Shropshire. Even from a distance they were huge and are absolutely stunning things.

Ah Wem, the old alma mater. Plenty of old buzzards there.

[CortinaDave]

I see a lot of Big birds of prey, They are stunning, but I've no idea how to tell the difference between them. Apparently here (fife) is a hotspot for buzzards.There's a bird of prey centre near here as well and they always have the birds out tied to perches during the day. They have a HUGE eagle which unbelieveably was someone's pet for 30 years and as such cannot be released into the wild as it is tame and ridiculously friendly.

[dollywobbler]

Identify your birds. http://www.birdofpreytrail.com/our-services-c2.html

[55bloke]

Since the subject of Buzzards has been mentioned, here are a few pics of one my then Mrs and I kept back in the mid '80s. A magnificent animal, and remarkably placid. What a feeling to have such a bird flying free, and actually choosing to return to you.

[ashmicro]

Mrs. Ash and I just saw a lad in a brand new Corsa VXR being totally PWNED by two guys in a plain white (Talbot) Sunbeam at the lights. Said Sunbeam sounded like God clearing his throat.

[warren t claim]

All this talk about birds of prey reminds me of the time my brother killed my kestrel because I refused to work down the coalmines.....Oh hang on.....Maybe that didn't happen and I just read it somewhere! Sorry!

[Rusty Pelican]

All this talk about birds of prey reminds me of the time my brother killed my kestrel because I refused to work down the coalmines.....Oh hang on.....Maybe that didn't happen and I just read it somewhere! Sorry!

Great book , havnt read it for years , wasnt there a film of it

[Cavcraft]

All this talk about birds of prey reminds me of the time my brother killed my kestrel because I refused to work down the coalmines.....Oh hang on.....Maybe that didn't happen and I just read it somewhere! Sorry!

Proper bo!

[pompei]

I've got an owl calendar

[boobydoo]

My back garden is like Piccadilly Circus first thing in the morning. Robins, tits, chaffinch, sparrers, blackbirds, thrushes, doves..even two pheasants come wandering in. A few squirrels.A black white and red woodpecker has started to show his face aswell! I put out peanuts and something called "Robin-mix" which they all seem to stuff their gobs with.Downside is that they just sh*t everywhere.

[Richard]

All this talk about birds of prey reminds me of the time my brother killed my kestrel because I refused to work down the coalmines.....Oh hang on.....Maybe that didn't happen and I just read it somewhere! Sorry!

Great book , havnt read it for years , wasnt there a film of it

The film was called Kes, and the book was A Kestrel for a Knave. A few years ago Kes was shown on the same evening as Heartbeat- two slightly differing views of Yorkshire in the '60s.

[seth]

Considering we live in a rather built up area I think we get quite a lot of wildlife in our back garden. There's a big oak tree and a horse chestnut which I think help. There are always squirrels scampering around. Quite a lot of bird varieties too. We've had robins nesting in the bay tree just outside our back window and see what I think are tits of some kind quite often too. Probably been a couple of years since we last saw a hedgehog though.

[Rusty Pelican]

Every year except one weve had a housemartins nest , great to watch them fly in and out , they are so quick and very precise , they crap all over the windowsill below but i dont mind , its a joy to watch , chicks of which there are two maybe three are very noisy though , if we copy the mothers call they stick their heads out of the nest as if they are getting fed

[AXrescuer]

Tonight, these has made me grin!

 

[Pete-M]

Is that a US Post Office Heep Cherokee?

[AXrescuer]

Is that a US Post Office Heep Cherokee?

US Post Office shit heap cherokee more likely!

[retrogeezer]

 

Thats a 'proper' conversion for a delivery driver to get out on the path instead of in the road...

[Richard]

I think most of the mail is delivered without getting out at all.

[Cavcraft]

Arsing about with shite cars makes me grin. Had a belting week off work, started off with two non-working cars and ended up with two working ones and one duffer.

This went...

 

And was replaced by this...

Pretty lame spec'd 8V 1.6 but un-messed with and completely standard.

 

On to finding a car for my son, got a TXT MSG M8 about this off a lad I know. 15 minute train ride, two minute wlak from station and £150 later it's my (or my lad's to be precise). 3/4 tank of fuel, short MOT, new tyres, recent cambelt and original except for spaccy pound shop wheeltrims. Old giffer owned, full on mingebag spec and more than one pensioner-tastic dent on the bodywork.

I think the last owner may have worked in a dusty factory and have an aversion to hoovers but that was soon sorted out...

 

 

And so the clean up started. One front seat done, one to go...

 

Getting there now...

 

RESULT!!!111OneEleven!

 

Engine bay getting there...

 

 

Quite happy with it now. Arches need doing (fibreglass and slpodge should suffice) but drives well for what it is and keep fit steering will teach my lad a thing or two.

 

And now the fail mobile. Great on fuel, six speed box and should be an ideal cheap family hauler.

Except it's plagued by FUCKING WANK sensor problems and getting right on my tits...

 

If anyone wants to buy it it's for sale cheap.

 

Yesterday my elderly neighbour asked me to clear her (long since) deceased husband's shed out. He was a plumbing engineer and one of the old school. Lost count how many old biscuit and fag tins I found all labelled with stuff like 'useful screws' and also a Cavalier Mk1 headlight and indicator and other random car/non-car stuff.

[Lankytim]

That astra interior has come up a treat, ive scrapped good cars because of horrid interiors. Did you ise that magic super wet vaccum on it?I have to say, im a big fan of "new" vectras. Only working ones however. I was going to turn my back on shite ownership and buy a nice dizzler vectra but just couldnt go through with it. I raved on about them so much my neighbour bought one just on my word! However any modern is more or less guaranteed to develop some trifiling fault that I cant fix and result in the total death of the car- after much crying and wallet emptying. Atleast with an old Volvo you can nearly always fix whatevers wrong for pennies and if they do explode you can replace them, for pennies.

[Cavcraft]

Yeah Tim, used the Karcher thing. Could have done a better job but only used cold water this time and rushed it a bit.I'd like to recommend the Vectra dizzlers but the 2.0 has fuel pump issues, the 1.9s seem prone to stupid fucking sensor problems and the 2.2 ones scare the shit out of me when they go wrong.Should have stuck with my original plan and got a 1.8 petrol instead.

[Lankytim]

I worked for a place that did alot of car movements for Burnt Tree vehicle rentals. They hated Vauxhalls in general because they were always going wrong and going back to the dealer. They much preferred Ford cars apparently.The 1.9CDTi Vectra is a bloomin lovely motor to drive. The Astra with the same engine is a flying machine. Oh yeah. I dont like new cars, do I?

[pogweasel]

HI-TORQ!!!!1!That Astra will buff up OK with some arch attention and interfacing those trims with a wheelie bin. I used to do between 500 and 1000 mile a week in the one I had, it was slow as shit but used naff all fuel and never let me down.